BROOKINGS – There are plenty of new things about the 2019 South Dakota State football team and one of them is non-traditional. The Jackrabbits will have co-defensive coordinators in the 2019 season. 

Safeties coach Brian Bergstrom and linebackers coach Jimmy Rogers were promoted to co-defensive coordinators after Clint Brown left the program to become the defensive coordinator at Abilene Christian.

Head coach John Stiegelmeier said the biggest difference between last year’s defense and this year’s will be aggressiveness.

“We’re going to be more aggressive and more multiple in our fronts. We’ve got a unique situation. We’ve got two co-coordinators that I say are equal. (Rogers) is aggressive and more emotional and (Bergstrom) is more calm and conservative and more of a brainiac,” Stiegelmeier said.

Bergstrom said the Jackrabbits will try to pressure the quarterback and blitz more this season.

“I think we’ll pressure a little bit more … The more even the matchup, the more we’ll probably move, pressure and be unpredictable. It’s not a cookie cutter recipe though. It’s going to be by gameplan. The biggest thing we work on is disguise so they don’t know when we’re blitzing. Then when we do blitz, we surprise them,” Bergstrom said.

The Jacks return most of their starters on the defensive line and at linebacker. One of those returners is three-time All-American Christian Rozeboom, and he said the changes on the defense are not too different from last year.

“There hasn’t been anything too drastic, other than being more aggressive. It’s the same SDSU defense and hopefully we can make more plays out there and fly around,” Rozeboom said.

Rozeboom, a senior from Sioux City, Iowa, has led the team in tackles in each of his first three seasons and is known as the “heartbeat” of the defense.

“He’s going to be a four-time All-American and that’s the expectation,” Rogers said. “Everything is all through him and he needs to continue to grow mentally. Not that he’s not sharp, but there’s always room for improvement. There’s always ways that he can study people and know prior to the snap what they’re running.”

The defensive line is led by senior Ryan Earith. He led the team with 5 1/2 sacks last season and is hoping to have more in 2019.

“I obviously want to win a national championship, but a personal goal of mine is to get double-digit sacks this season,” Earith said.

A national championship is the goal for the entire SDSU team. The Jacks have made it to the semifinals of the FCS Playoffs in both of the past two season, but fell to James Madison and North Dakota State in blowout losses.

If the Jacks want to win a national championship, they’re going to have to do it with a young secondary. SDSU lost arguably the best cornerback in program history, Jordan Brown, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. 

They also suffered a blow earlier in fall camp when senior Marshon Harris, who started 12 games last season, went down with a foot injury and is expected to be out for the next 3-5 weeks. Bergstrom said it’s up to the young guys to step up and make plays this season.

“Donald Gardner has really established himself as a leader in the room and has been super steady with his play,” Bergstrom said. “Guys look to him as somebody, even though he’s not overly experienced, they look to him as somebody who has been in the system longer.”

One of the guys who has stepped up is freshman Diamond Evans. Stiegelmeier, Bergstrom, Rogers and Rozeboom all praised the Chicago native as being the most impressive guy in camp so far.

“Diamond Evans is a true freshman … When he gets the hang of it, he is going to be an All-American for years to come. He’s a gifted player,” Rogers said.

Bergstrom backed Rogers up on the bold statement.

“I agree with Coach Rogers,” he said. “He certainly has to continue to grow within the playbook and the system. With his sheer physicality and how developed he is, he doesn’t look like a freshman and he’s got the right mindset. He’s very confident in his ability and he needs to become more confident in our system. If he combines those two, the sky is the limit for him.”

Stiegelmeier was not as quick to give Evans such high expectations.

“I think he’s a really good player and I think he’s really athletic and very long as a corner. I don’t like to put that type of pressure on kids that age. We believe in Diamond, I’ll put it that way. He’s got a lot of God-given ability, but playing against our offense in practice is totally different than playing against Minnesota and that will be the true test for him,” Stiegelmeier said.

One of the things Rozeboom said the Jacks need to do to win a national championship is avoid games where they “overlook or drop the ball” – referring to the 24-9 loss at Northern Iowa last season and the 38-18 loss against Northern Iowa on Hobo Day in 2017.

Stiegelmeier said to avoid those types of performances it comes down to blocking out everything and focusing on the team in front of them.

“To be honest, I think the captains and the seniors have talked about it so much. I think ideally, it’s about going 1-0 each week. We don’t even know what’s on the schedule next week or what the stakes are. I think the other thing is coaches need to put in a gameplan that guys can handle,” he said.  

In the past, SDSU has relied on its offense to win games. Bergstrom said that has to change and it starts with the defense’s mentality.

“We’ve had talent. We’ve had ability and we’ve shown flashes. We’ve played awesome defense at times the past two years,” Bergstrom said. “So the mentality is ‘we have to win this game on defense.’ We know the offense is going to score, but our mentality has to be ‘we have to do it, it’s up to us, the defense owes it to the offense and we have to win this game on defense.’”

Bergstrom added that the defense’s mantra this season is TUFF – Team Understanding Focus and Finish.

“That’s something where we’re trying to build a culture. Something to hang their hat on and that we are a tough defense and we’re going to win the game on defense,” he said.

SDSU opens the season at Minnesota on Aug. 29 in Minneapolis.