BROOKINGS A week after playing their most complete game of the season, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits will welcome Youngstown State to Brookings for the annual Hobo Day Game this weekend.
SDSU (4-1) came off its bye week with an impressive 41-3 road victory over Northern Iowa on Saturday. Jackrabbit head coach Jimmy Rogers said the bye week definitely helped as a reset and his team came out of it more hungry.
I think the bye week is always beneficial, depending on the mindset that you can get your players to utilize the bye week, Rogers said. Our guys were bought into trying to improve and we were able to work on some things that we thought were a necessity to work on and some of those things showed up on Saturday.
At the end of the day, our guys were hungry for the Missouri Valley, the new competition with this new team, trying to go out there and compete and showcase what this team is capable of. I was excited about that. Our energy was on point.
SDSUs defense flexed its muscles on Saturday as the Jacks forced four turnovers. The game before the bye week the Jacks beat Southeastern Louisiana 41-0. Sixth-year senior Adam Bock, who had an interception on Saturday, said he thought the defense is starting to hit its stride as they head into the back half of the schedule.
I think as were entering [the rest of] conference play, having two solid performances back-to-back is huge for the confidence. The Missouri Valley you get [different] offenses. Everybody knows everybody and youre going to see different things from the offense because they know your defense. But its nice to come into Valley play on a high note, Bock said.
Youngstown State enters Saturdays contest with a record of 2-4. The Penguins opened conference play with a 38-31 loss to Missouri State on Sept. 28, but then beat Indiana State 21-14 last weekend.
SDSU is 10th in the country total defense, giving up 283.2 yards per game, and sixth in scoring defense as the Jacks give up 14.8 points per game. On Saturday theyll go up against a unique offense that revolves around quarterback Beau Brungard.
Brungard is sixth in the MVFC in rushing, averaging 78.8 yards per game. Hes struggled a bit through the air as hes thrown for 1,013 yards with six interceptions and six touchdowns. Rogers pointed to Brungards ability to run the ball as the reason why the Penguins could make things tough on the Jacks on Saturday.
Their quarterback makes the whole thing go, Rogers said. Hes a great athlete. I think hes sixth in the league in rushing right now. Hes a great quarterback who has great speed and were going to have to try to minimize what he tries to do on us. I think [we have to] have the awareness of what he can do with his legs.
We worked on some of the stuff with [the UNI quarterback] last week, with his ability to escape and create and keep his eyes down the field and take shots. [Brungard], I feel like he can get from zero to 20 miles per hour really quick. Were going to have to be locked in to what hes doing and keep our eyes on him when he scrambles and stop some of the designed quarterback runs, which theyve had a lot of them that theyve had success with.
The Penguins rank eighth in the MVFC in total defense, giving up 400.8 yards per game. YSU has specifically struggled against the run as it gives up 194.7 yards per game, which is second to last in the conference.
However, SDSU is looking to continue to get its passing game going. After two straight games of throwing for under 100 yards, Mark Gronowski bounced back against UNI, going 16-of-22 for 221 yards and three touchdowns.
Junior wide receiver Graham Goering said he and the receiving core continue to develop a connection with Gronowski and the performance on Saturday was big for everyones confidence.
I think if you can [continue to have success] in Valley play, it gives us a big boost of confidence. If [Gronowski] throws for 300 yards and gets a bunch of receivers involved, its a big confidence boost throughout the receiver and quarterback room. Doing that against a defense like UNIs, its a big confidence boost, Goering said.
Saturday will be the 110th Hobo Day Game. Its considered the largest one-day celebration in South Dakota, but the Jackrabbit players know their only job on Saturday is to win the football game that takes place.
I would be naive to say [there isnt a different energy around the Hobo Day Game], Goering said. Because homecoming is awesome. But we talk about it all of the time, eliminating the outside noise and distractions. I think thats what the deal is with the team. Eliminate the outside noise and distractions. Enjoy it, but our Hobo Day is at 2:00 on Saturday.
Kickoff between SDSU and YSU is set for 2 p.m. Saturday. You can watch the game on Midco Sports and ESPN+ or listen to the game on AM WNAX 570 or AM 910 KJJQ.
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