The Brookings Register
The South Dakota State football team is 25 days away from its season opener and that means it’s time to break down some of the games on the rest of the schedule.
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The South Dakota State football team is 25 days away from its season opener and that means it’s time to break down some of the games on the rest of the schedule.
I decided to go through and pick what I thought were the five most intriguing games on the schedule.
Now, all of you know that the two rivalry games against North Dakota State and South Dakota are going to be on this list because they are usually at least two of the three most important games on SDSU’s schedule every year. But I’ll first start with the season opener.
This one has to make the list just because it is an FBS opponent. SDSU did not have an FBS opponent on its schedule in 2023 after losing to Iowa 7-3 in 2022. The year before that the Jacks earned their second win over an FBS opponent, beating Colorado State 42-23.
This will be one of the better FBS opponents the Jacks have taken on as the Cowboys have been on a lot of Preseason Top 25 lists. OSU went 10-4 last season and lost to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game before beating Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl.
The Cowboys return plenty of talent on the offensive side of the ball as 2023 Doak Walker Award winner (college football’s best running back) Ollie Gordon III is back, along with seventh-year senior quarterback Alan Bowman. Senior wide receiver Brennan Presley was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team after catching 101 passes for 991 yards and six touchdowns last season. The Cowboys also had two offensive lineman on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team in Dalton Cooper and Joe Michalski.
This game will be very interesting because it’s a chance for the Jacks to show that they’re not only the best team in the FCS, but one of the best teams in all of college football. There should be a great atmosphere at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater with it being the season opener and I’m looking forward to taking it all in on Aug. 31.
This is always the most important game on SDSU’s schedule because there is a lot at stake every year. This game over the past five seasons has decided who has won the Missouri Valley Football Conference, who is going to be the No. 1 seed in the FCS Playoffs and gives the winning team bragging rights for a whole year.
Although for the Jacks, they’ve had the bragging rights for three years as they’ve won five-straight against the Bison. All those factors make this game intriguing, but the thing that makes me most excited is the fact that the Bison have a new head coach.
Tim Polasek was named the NDSU head coach back in December after Matt Entz left to be the linebackers coach at USC. Polasek was the running backs coach for the Bison from 2006-12 and then returned as the offensive coordinator for NDSU from 2014-16. He spent the last seven seasons with both Iowa and Wyoming and will make his head coaching debut this fall.
The Bison were ranked No. 2 in Monday’s Preseason Stats Perform Top 25 Poll. They return quarterback Cam Miller and fullback Hunter Brozio, along with wide receiver Raja Nelson and tight end Joe Staffel. On the defensive side of the ball, NDSU returns four All-Conference players.
The FargoDome is always the toughest place for the Jacks and with SDSU winning its past two games in Fargo, NDSU should have all the motivation in the world come Oct. 19.
A week after traveling to Fargo the Jacks will host USD. The Coyotes have turned this into a bigger rivalry after winning in both 2019 and 2021, but the Jacks have sort of put USD back in its place over the past two seasons, winning the two games by a combined score of 65-6.
USD will enter 2024 as the No. 5 ranked team in the FCS and that ranking has a lot to do with going 10-3 last season and making the FCS Quarterfinals for the first time in program history.
The Coyotes return all of their skill players on offense and four of the five starters on the offensive line. The USD defense will have a bit more questions as they return five of their top 11 tacklers from last season.
The SDSU-USD rivalry has been largely dominated by the Jacks over the past 20 years as they’ve won 12 of the past 14 meetings. This is the top game on SDSU’s home schedule and it most definitely will be sold out. The atmosphere of the game in Brookings in 2022 was top tier and I expect nothing less this season.
This will be the second-straight season that the Jacks will welcome a Top 25 FCS opponent to Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in the non-conference portion of their schedule.
The Cardinals were ranked No. 14 in the Preseason Top 25 on Monday. They went 9-2 last season but one of the wins was a forfeit and they did not get chosen as an at-large team for the FCS Playoffs.
The Cardinals return their quarterback in Zach Calzada, their top three running backs and three offensive lineman. All of those players were named First Team All-Southland Conference last year.
Those players, along with 19 transfers, including 12 from the FBS, are what make the Cardinals dangerous in week two of the season.
With the Jacks coming off what is likely to be a physical game against Oklahoma State, I expect this to be a pretty tough game. It will be fun to see a different team in Brookings as this will be the first meeting between SDSU and UIW. The home opener is always a fun game at the Dana and as nice as it was for the Jacks to beat Western Oregon 45-7 in last year’s home opener, it will be more exciting for fans to have them play a more formidable opponent this year.
As of right now this is a top-five most most intriguing game for me, but that obviously could change as it is the second to last game on SDSU’s schedule. But as of right now, the Salukis are ranked No. 10 in the FCS and were picked fourth in the MVFC Preseason Poll.
SIU went 8-5 last season and lost a tough second round playoff game to Idaho. The Salukis lost their quarterback in Nic Baker who a lot of Jackrabbit fans remember as he led the Salukis to a 42-41 victory over SDSU in Brookings in 2021. That was the last time the Salukis came to Brookings as the Jacks beat SIU 17-10 in Carbondale last year.
Replacing Baker will likely be Murray State transfer DJ Williams who started two seasons for the Racers. SIU also lost its top two rushers from 2023, but did return their top wideout in Vinson Davis III.
Just like Incarnate Word, SIU is bringing in a lot of transfers as five players from FCS schools and eight players from FBS schools joined the Salukis. The SIU defense returns four starters and just two of their top five tacklers, so the transfers will have to step up if the Salukis want to remain a top-10 for the rest of the season.
I put this game on here not only because SIU is a top-10 team, but also because they’ve been one of the only teams over the past three seasons in the Valley that has given SDSU trouble.
It also intrigues me because over the years the crowd for this game on the schedule has been dependent on the weather. If it’s in the 30s there won’t be a massive crowd and that can lead to a sleepy Jackrabbit team, which could also lead to a close game against an SIU team that could be fighting for its playoff lives or a top-eight seed.
