BROOKINGS Its hard to believe, but the college football season is a little over a month away.
That means South Dakota State will open up camp next week and its time to break down what the roster is going to look like when the Jackrabbits play Sacramento State at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings on Aug. 30.
SDSU will have a new leader on the sidelines as Dan Jackson will be a head coach for the first time in his career. He was a graduate assistant under John Stiegelmeier at SDSU in 2012 and was elevated to cornerbacks coach in 2014. He left Brookings in 2019 and is now back as the leader of the program after Jimmy Rogers left for the head coach position at Washington State.
Jackson had to deal with a shakeup of the roster after some players followed Rogers to Washington State and others graduated or transferred to FBS programs. Then, one month ago sophomore running back Nate White died unexpectedly.
I talked to Jackson at the Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day on Monday and he spoke about the impact that White had on the program in the six months that he was in Brookings.
Nate meant a lot to us as a person and was a very talented player. His ability to connect with our team was special. So that has been a challenge, Jackson said.
Despite the mourning of White, Jackson said he and his team are excited for fall camp to start and hes ready to watch the guys get after each other.
We couldnt be more excited [for fall camp], Jackson said. Every portion of the year presents its own challenges and opportunities to excel, so weve kind of looked at this deal as, were going in phases. From relationships in spring ball to summer training, I cant wait to get out on the field and run around and coach the guys and scheme some people up. Im looking forward to the football.
South Dakota States offense will look different as only four starters return. Two of those starters are on the offensive line as both tackles will return with junior Quinten Christensen on the left side and senior Sam Hagen on the right. They return redshirt freshman center Shane Willenbring and sophomores William Paepke and Kenyon BigBow at guard, who were all backups last season.
Jackson said he thinks the offensive line is one of the most talented position groups on the team.
The cool thing for us is that its always going to start up front. Our offensive line is talented and deep. They still have room to grow, but I think we have some next level players on our offensive line and coach [Mike] Bangston has done a good job building the depth in that room, Jackson said.
Behind that offensive line will be quarterback Chase Mason, who will be the starter for the first time in his career. The senior spent the last two seasons as Mark Gronowskis backup and saw action in 19 games. He ran for 648 yards and eight touchdowns over the past two seasons as he carried the ball 62 times. Mason has thrown just 33 passes in his career and completed 19 of them for 400 yards and three touchdowns.
Jackson said he has been impressed with Masons improvement since he got to the head coaching job and believes in him fully.
I believe we have the best quarterback in the country, Jackson said. Chase is a humble, authentic, genuine person from the start. So, for him, job number one for a quarterback is to lead and I think hes doing a really good job of that in his own way and the guys are excited to follow him. From there, as a defensive guy, Chase is the last type of quarterback that you want to see.
Chase can beat you in a lot of ways and hes going to be able to do it with his arm. Ive been really impressed with his accuracy and how thats improved. But youre also going to have to account for him running and any time he does that it could be a big play. Im really excited with where hes at but the fun thing is hes just scratching the surface.
White was expected to be the starting running back this fall and now it will be Fordham transfer Julius Loughridge. Loughridge ran for over 3,000 yards in his three seasons with the Rams and has 27 touchdowns in his career. Behind him are guys that have only seen action when games were out of hand last season.
The other two returning starters on the offense are at wide receiver. Despite losing top pass catcher Griffin Wilde, the Jacks will have Lofton OGroske and Graham Goering who were their second and third options at wide out in 2024. They also added two Nebraska transfers in Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda and Alex Bullock.
Jackson said hes excited about his skill players and noted that some of the redshirt freshmen at each position have impressed him along with the transfers and returners.
Im an optimistic person, but I would tell you that our skill players are going to be [great]. Theres only one ball and I wish there were two. Because between Lofton OGroske, Alex Bullock, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, Graham Goering, Jack Smith and Landon Dulaney, we have seven receivers that can go out there and make an impact.
At running back, Julius Loughridge, who we brought in from Fordham, and Quinton Renfro have really stood out to be as well and we also have a few talented freshmen as well.
The Jackrabbits have won two of the last three national championships and Jackson made sure to note that the standard remains the same even though there are new faces in the building.
We talk about belief in our program a ton and its not something that we have to prove to anybody else because we believe in each other. Weve always believed that were a national championship level program. I got here in 2012 and the goal was to win a national title. Whether anybody else believed that or not was up to them. Im really taking the same approach. I havent looked at a preseason poll. Somebody told me we were picked to finish second in the [Missouri] Valley, that stuff means nothing to me.
Theres always going to be expectations and standards and thats put on by ourselves, and thats to win a national title. I want, as a coach, to let these guys play free. We used to tense up when we would play North Dakota State and change who we were and how we practiced, and as soon as we changed the mindset to, every game is the same and we should practice and prepare like a champion, that was when we finally got over the hump. I hope the guys dont feel pressure because its just football and were ready and we have a great football team, so just go play.
Leave a Reply