BROOKINGS — The South Dakota State football team will play on Hobo Day for the 111th time on Saturday as the Jackrabbits will take on Northern Iowa at 2 p.m. at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
SDSU comes into Saturday with a 65-40-5 record on Hobo Day. The Jacks have won three-straight Hobo Day games after going 3-5 in their previous eight. SDSU’s last loss on Hobo Day came in 2021 when the Jacks lost 26-17 to Northern Iowa.
SDSU head coach Dan Jackson said that his team is looking to come out and start fast and he thinks they’ll be ready to play in front of a sellout crowd in Brookings.
“Our job on Hobo Day is to win the game. When I google “Hobo Day Jackrabbit football,” a record is going to pop up, not all the events before it. I love how the community and the university rallies around this week, but as a football program, we’ll be laser focused and ready to go on Saturday. … This is a focused group where I don’t see distraction ever seeping in or creeping in. If anything, I think our guys are going to start really fast and be really excited to play in front of another sellout [crowd] and we’re hoping that it’s the loudest crowd in South Dakota State history,” Jackson said.
This will be the 62nd meeting between the Panthers and the Jackrabbits. UNI holds a 33-26-2 lead in the series.
The Panthers come into Saturday with a 2-3 record and are coming off of a 35-7 loss to North Dakota. UNI opened the season with a 38-14 win over Butler and then lost 31-7 to Wyoming. The Panthers then beat Eastern Washington 17-14 before falling to Utah Tech 20-9.
UNI has the eighth-ranked offense in the Missouri Valley, averaging 329 yards per game. The Panthers have the fifth-best defense as they give up 352.4 yards per game. They have the worst scoring offense in the conference (15.6 points per game) and are fifth in scoring defense (22.8).
SDSU is coming off of its conference opener in which the Jacks used a second-half rally to beat Youngstown State 35-30. SDSU trailed YSU 17-7 at halftime and then outscored the Penguins 28-13 in the second half.
Julius Loughridge had season highs in yards and touchdowns in the victory as he ran for 176 yards and four scores, with most of his damage coming in the second half. Jackson said his offensive line found its groove in the second half and they played the way they have been wanting to play.
“We made some decisions to make sure we gave [Loughridge the ball more],” Jackson said. “There was a commitment to it, which we had in the first half, but there were some looks and decisions that we made that prevented him from getting the ball as much as we wanted to. … I thought Julius and the offensive line started getting on the same page and in sync with how plays were going to be blocked, where the holes were going to be and where the creases were going to be.
“… The offensive line was passionate about us trusting them and they were confident in their ability to move the line of scrimmage and pull and get to the second level of defenders. I really felt in that third quarter that we developed a mindset that we have been pushing and striving for every practice, and that’s playing a little bully ball. The guys had fun with it and were excited.”
SDSU was without its leading receiver in Lofton O’Groske against the Penguins. Graduate transfer Alex Bullock picked up the slack in O’Groske’s absence as he had 10 catches for 162 yards and was named the MVFC Newcomer of the Week.
Jackson said it was nice to see Bullock finally have a breakout game and have over 100 receiving yards.
“Alex prepares like a pro. He has a very focused mindset and is a very focused individual in general. I think he feels a level of urgency with this being his final year of college football and he's so excited to be a Jackrabbit. He loves to be a part of the program and it was fun to see a lot of his hard work pay off with some of the statistical numbers that he had on Saturday, and being named the Newcomer of the Week,” Jackson said.
Despite being 5-0 and the No. 2 ranked team in the FCS, Jackson said there are a lot of things that his team needs to improve on. He said there were a lot of mistakes in the first half of the game against YSU and he was happy to see his team correct those in the second half, but he’d like for there to be less of them this weekend.
“Defensively, we had some misfits in plays and didn’t make some tackles,” Jackson said. “We didn’t do our job in the option game, which was something that we worked on, but haven’t seen a lot. Offensively, it’s just hitting some of the bigger plays where we have guys open down the field. It’s finishing a route, it’s finishing a block, it’s making the right decision.
“… We have to execute on the conversion downs, third and fourth down. Those are all of the things where we came out in the second half and took a big jump and improved that way. It’s like any game, there’s mistakes in all of them. I’ve never been part of a perfect game, but when [the mistakes] compound like that, that’s when you get down on the scoreboard and have to battle back.”
You can watch Saturday’s game on ESPN+ or Midco Sports. You can also listen to the game on AM 570 WNAX.
