BROOKINGS — Dan Jackson is back at South Dakota State and this time he’s the head football coach.

The former Jackrabbit player and assistant coach was officially introduced as the 22nd head coach at SDSU on Friday. He met with members of the media and said it was a full circle moment as he first came to Brookings in 2003.

“I always thought I was ready [to be a head coach],” Jackson said. “... The cool thing about this journey is that South Dakota State is a tough place to leave, especially when it’s family. … I always knew I was ready and knew I could get the job done, but I believe that things don't just happen by chance. Everything happens for a reason and being able to work with such strong leadership and see guys evolve and grow, the neat thing is I felt like everywhere I went the head coach relied upon me as his right hand man to bounce things off of. I always thought I was ready, but now I know I am ready.”

Jackson began his collegiate coaching career in 2012 as a graduate assistant at SDSU. He became the cornerbacks coach in 2014 and served roles as the recruiting coordinator, special teams coordinator and assistant coach under John Stiegelmeier until 2019. That was when he moved on to Northern Illinois.

Jackson had a message for Stiegelmeier in his news conference on Friday and acknowledged how much he learned from his former coach.

“Coach, you taught me what it was to be a head coach since the day I got [to SDSU],” Jackson said. “Your wisdom, your guidance, your consistency, how you treated the players, how you coached the coaches. Coach Stig always said [his assistant coaches] were his position group. When you’re head coach, you don’t have a position group. 

“You’re not coaching the linebackers, the defensive backs or whatever it may be. You coach the coaches. Job well done coach. Things I want to promise to you coach Stig. I will leave nothing to chance every day. I will leave nothing to chance with this program. I’m going to make a difference. I will make a difference in every kid's life in this program and will do every task as if it’s my last play.”

Jackson spent two seasons at Northern Illinois in 2020 and 2021. He was then hired as the defensive backs coach by Vanderbilt and spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons in Nashville. In 2024, Jackson became the defensive coordinator at Idaho under former Jackrabbit colleague Jason Eck. He was going to follow Eck to New Mexico and remain his defensive coordinator but took the SDSU head coaching job instead.

Jackson said he learned a lot in the five years he was away from Brookings.

“It’s been my dream to be a head coach,” Jackson said. “This is not something that is new to me. The day that I got into the coaching profession, I knew that I wanted to lead young men and I knew that I wanted to push them and take them to heights and places that they might not have seen themselves. As an assistant you can do that, certainly, and it has been fun to go from an assistant coach and coach a position and be able to impact a side of the ball as a defensive coordinator, and now, to impact every single young man that comes through our program. I believe that the journey that god has put me on throughout my coaching career has built me for this. I’m ready and I’m prepared. I’ve seen and experienced so many things throughout my career, that I have no doubt that we’re going to be able to take this program to new heights.”

Jackson has announced four members of his staff so far. He hired Eric Eidsness as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. This will be Eidsness' third stint as the offensive coordinator for the Jacks. He previously held that position from 1999-2003 and 2010-18. Eidsness spent the past six seasons at Northern Illinois in similar coaching roles.

Brian Bergstrom will be the defensive coordinator and safeties coach under Jackson. This will be Bergstrom’s second stint at SDSU. He joined John Stiegelmeier’s staff in 2017 and was promoted as co-defensive coordinator in 2019. He left the program in 2021 to become the head coach at Winona State. In his three seasons as the Warriors head coach they went 18-16 and they made the Division II Playoffs in his first season.

Jackson said that it was important to hire coordinators that were familiar with the school, but he truly believes that Eidsness and Bergstrom were the top candidates for the job.

“I think they’re the best candidates. It’s not just that they had been here in the past. There were a lot of people that wanted to come here, but with [Eidsness and Bergstrom], those guys are the most qualified guys to lead us. You’ll find with me, I have zero ego. I want to continue to grow as a head coach. Those are two guys that have been head coaches before, they’ve coordinated here before and have had success at a high level. It was important for me to build a staff with guys that I can bounce things off of and that will challenge each other in different ways so that we can continue to grow,” Jackson said.

Jackson takes over an SDSU program that has made the FCS Playoffs 13-straight times. He will replace Jimmy Rogers who left for the head coaching position at Washington State. Rogers took many players with him to Washington State and star quarterback Mark Gronowksi, standout wide receiver Griffin Wilde and top returning offensive lineman Evan Beernsten all transferred to Big Ten schools as well.

However, Jackson was able to retain a lot of players. He spent his first week on the job calling every player on the roster to see whether or not they would be staying or leaving. He said it was a tasking process but he enjoyed talking to the players that wanted to stay.

“There were a lot of phone calls,” Jackson said. “I’m a relationship person, so when I get on the phone with a young man, some coaches it might be ‘hey, I’m coach Jackson, let's get to work.’ I had to stop with the 25-30 minute conversations because I wanted to get to know about everyone’s life in one phone call. … [The players] had messages for me. These guys are excited. These guys are ready to go. They’re saying, coach we got your back. 

“The amount of guys that I would start talking about the vision and then they’d say, stop right there, we know. We know that this is special and we know what we’re going to do. It was energizing and my message to them was no different than my message today. We are going to do this together. We are going to be a brotherhood and we’re going to be stronger than before.”

SDSU won back-to-back national championships before coming up short this past season, falling to North Dakota State in the semifinals.

Jackson said he wasn’t into making predictions about the upcoming season, but he wanted to make one thing clear. His team will always be ready for battle on the field.

“We’re going to build a team that has relentless effort. A defense that flies to the ball and an offense that plays whistle to whistle. We’re going to have unmatched physicality. … There’s two types of people to me. There’s people that run from the fight and people that run to the fight. I’ve always been someone that runs to the fight. I don’t want it to be easy. I want there to be a challenge. Those things motivate me. We will have a football team that’s ready to run to the fight and run to any challenge that comes our way,” Jackson said.