BROOKINGS – There will be new faces and familiar faces on the South Dakota State football team this season. However, the most important position on the field will have a new face.

Redshirt freshman J’Bore Gibbs will get the start at quarterback to begin the season. Gibbs, who is from Chicago, has been taking all of the first-team reps during fall camp.

Head coach John Stiegelmeier said Gibbs isn’t where he needs to be before they open the season at Minnesota on Aug. 29, but is working hard to get there.

“I think he needs to slow down the game,” Stiegelmeier said. “You know, he’s very talented, but your talent doesn’t come out when you’re thinking too much. It has to be like flash card math. You have to know the answer right away and a large part of that is on us as coaches.”

The Jacks will also have a new person in charge of the offense. After former offensive coordinator Eric Eidness left to be the offensive coordinator at Northern Illinois, Stiegelmeier promoted Jason Eck to the position.

Eck, who was promoted to run game coordinator and offensive line coach after the 2016 season, said the biggest difference for him is focusing on the passing game, as he was always more focused on the running game.

“I have great help from the rest of the staff … In the past I’d focus on protection, but I didn’t have to be involved with route concepts and things like that,” he said.

Eck will be calling the offensive plays for the Jacks and Stiegelmeier said the offense is going to look different.

“The offense will be different in the sense that we’re going to use a lot more shifts and motion. It looks like there is more going on, but it’s a lot simpler because motion is easy and you don’t have to read coverage as much,” Stiegelmeier said.

SDSU returns a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball. Junior wide receiver Cade Johnson, who was named a second-team STATS Preseason All-American and a first-team Preseason Missouri Valley Football Conference player, is back. Johnson had 67 receptions for 1,116 yards and a school-record 17 touchdowns last season.

The Jacks also return three running backs from last season in Pierre Strong Jr., Mikey Daniel and C.J. Wilson. The three combined for 2,067 yards last season with Strong leading the way with 1,116 yards. Eck said he also plans on giving fullback Luke Sellers the ball.

“All four of those guys have different attributes that kind of complement each other. We can have different roles for each of them, but we want to give all of them touches. I think they’re unselfish guys, so I think they’re willing to do what it takes,” Eck said. 

He added that having a lot of experience in the backfield will be beneficial to Gibbs and will help him succeed.

“I think J’Bore isn’t going to be in a position where he feels like he needs to win the game for us,” Eck said. “He has a lot of guys he can lean on with how we ran the ball last year. We need to continue to do that and take pressure off of him.” 

SDSU also has some experience on defense, especially at the linebacker position. They return senior Christian Rozeboom, who had a team-high 105 tackles last season and was named to the MVFC Preseason first-team. Junior linebacker Logan Backhus also returns and Stiegelmeier thinks the linebacker position is the toughest battle right now.

“At linebacker, we’ve had some guys who have continued to elevate their game. Christian and Logan are established. Levi Brown and Seven Wilson have some experience. Those guys are battling because you only get to start three of them,” he said.”

Stiegelmeier added that the cornerback position has opened up due to Marshon Harris injuring his leg. Harris is out for four to six weeks.

“Diamond Evans at corner, Quinton Hicks at defensive end and Billy Darnell at safety are all freshmen who have been impressive so far,” Stiegelmeier said.

The Jacks’ first game against the Gophers will be tough one, as Minnesota won four of their last six games last season and return a lot of guys as well. 

“We need to slow the game down for everybody these next couple weeks. We’re not going to know what Minnesota is doing because we’re not going to get a bunch of tapes on them. So we’re going to have to apply our rules and practice a lot of general things. We need to be healthy and keep working hard,” Stiegelmeier said.