BROOKINGS After defeating two top-15 teams to start the season, No. 2 ranked South Dakota State will take on a non-scholarship program in Drake on Saturday night at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
SDSU is coming off of a thrilling 30-24 double overtime road victory over third-ranked Montana State and now will play a program it has beaten by an average of 40 points. This will be the fifth meeting between the Bulldogs and Jackrabbits and SDSU beat Drake 70-7 at Target Field in Minneapolis in 2023.
SDSU head coach Dan Jackson said his team wont overlook the Bulldogs because they are only guaranteed 12 games this season and should not take any of them for granted.
First, when you look at football in general, think of how many times they lift weights out of the 365 days out of the year, Jackson said. How many practices they have, how many walk-throughs they have and how many film sessions they have. Then think about the games. You have 11 or 12 games guaranteed to you each year and what a disservice to the game and all the work you put into it, if youre going to take one of those opportunities and treat it as lesser than [the others]. You are just cheating yourself, and we wont do that.
To me, to be able to run out in front of your home crowd and to be able to execute, the games are why you do it. For our guys and our players and our coaches, game day, you get some adrenaline going there. I dont care about who you’re playing, where youre playing or when youre playing. I cant wait for Saturday. Really, it doesnt matter who we play. We better bring a certain level of juice and energy and excitement.
South Dakota State opened the season with a 20-3 win over No. 14 Sacramento State. The Jacks then went to Bozeman for a top-three FCS showdown and the Jackrabbits prevailed with an overtime victory.
SDSU went through adversity in Bozeman as a botched punt with 6:37 to play allowed MSU to tie the game at 17-17. Neither team scored the rest of the way and the game went to overtime.
The two teams each scored a touchdown in the first overtime. SDSU then scored on the first play of the second overtime and then stopped MSU on fourth and one at the five yard line to secure the win.
Jackson said the first two games of the season told him a lot about his team and they now know what they need to correct. He also noted that the two wins should give his team a lot of confidence heading into the rest of the season.
The schedule, when people looked at it initially, people were saying that it was more challenging than your typical first couple of games. I thought it was going to be good for our team to be tested early and I wanted to find out the areas we could improve on. When you play against good opponents, weve been fortunate to come out on top and win those games, but solid opponents show you where your weaknesses are. Im really appreciative of the schedule and its pretty clear the areas that we need to get better in and its not vague. Winning those games is huge for confidence. I think its human nature to wait to see results before you believe but really dont really preach that in our program. We want to believe before there are results, Jackson said.
SDSU senior quarterback Chase Mason shined in his first career road start. In front of just over 22,000 people, Mason went 17-for-25 and had three passing touchdowns, including two in the two overtime periods. He also ran for 34 yards and a touchdown.
Jackson had been hyping up Mason all offseason and his confidence in him began right when the two met. He said the belief that the coaching staff has instilled in Mason allowed him to perform so well in the clutch in an intense environment.
We dont need to see our players do something in a game to believe in them, Jackson said. So, the moment I saw Chase and met Chase, I believed that he was the quarterback in the country. When you operate that way, you find out just how great they can be and you dont set limits on anybody.
Chase has checked every box and done everything we needed him to do. Im just so proud of how hes executed the offense and how much hes grown. It cannot be stated enough how much hes grown in the last 10 months. Hes just one of the guys. The players love him, the coaches love him, the team loves him. I thought he would be one of our more improved players from week one to week two, and you saw that.
SDSU transfer running back Julius Loughridge has had a strong start to his only season in the yellow and blue. After running for over 3,000 yards in three seasons at Fordham, Loughridge has run for 258 yards over the first two games. He hasnt found the end zone yet, but Jackson said his relationship with the offensive line is growing each day and he feels like more explosive runs are coming for the senior out Houston, Texas.
The offensive line, the 605 hogs, and Julius, theyre just really close. Julius just likes hanging out with the O line. Some running backs do that so they can maybe butter up to them and get the ball a little bit more or have them block a little bit more. Juice just likes to hang out with the O line. When he runs the ball the way he did, there were a couple of runs that I want him to build on, where he stuck his foot in the ground and you saw a change of speed where he really hit it. I think youre going to see more of that, Jackson said.
Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. Saturday. You can watch the game on Midco Sports or ESPN+ or listen to the game on AM 570 WNAX.
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