BROOKINGS – After a disappointing end to last season, the South Dakota State football team started its fall camp for the 2022 season on Friday.
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BROOKINGS – After a disappointing end to last season, the South Dakota State football team started its fall camp for the 2022 season on Friday.
The Jackrabbits fell to Montana State, 31-17, in the FCS Semifinals on Dec. 18, 2021, just six months after losing to Sam Houston State in the FCS Championship after a spring season due to COVID. SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier said his team went about this offseason differently than the one last summer.
“I think the combination of playing for a National Championship and then five months, or whatever it was, later you lose [in the semifinals], I think that recipe has some unique emotions. You know, you didn’t have a lot of time to [process the spring]. They’re motivated. Our strength coach has done a great job, not only with the physical part of it, but reminding them what we can do here at South Dakota State. We’re trying to take more of a positive approach. After the spring we took kind of a negative approach. We put the score [of the championship game] on t-shirts and that was a reminder. And we got to the semifinals and didn’t get it done, and we’re just talking about getting to Frisco,” Stiegelmeier said.
Mark Gronowski, who started every game for the Jacks during the spring season, will be back at quarterback after sitting out in the fall due to a knee injury. Gronowski threw for 1,565 yards and 15 touchdowns in 10 games in the spring, while completing 57% of his passes. He also ran for 577 yards and seven touchdowns.
Gronowski didn’t take any live reps during spring practices because the coaches and trainers did not want to risk him getting injured again. Now that he’s had almost a full week of practices and taking live reps, he said he feels great.
“For the first practice I was a little bit rusty, just trying to get back in the feel of it. Because it was the first live practice [for me] in 15 months, which is crazy. It feels good to be back and playing again, and my body feels great too,” Gronowski said.