BROOKINGS — When South Dakota State takes the field on Aug. 31 against Oklahoma State the Jackrabbit offense will have someone new calling the plays.

Ryan Olson has worked his way up the totem pole over the past four years and entering his fifth season on the Jackrabbit staff he’ll be the co-offensive coordinator and offensive play caller. Olson will coach the offensive line for the third straight season but takes over play calling duties after Zach Lujan took the offensive coordinator position at Northwestern.

SDSU wrapped up its spring practices on Saturday with its spring game and that allowed Olson his first experience of calling plays for the SDSU offense.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Olson said. “It’s fun to call plays when you have really good players. [The spring game] was a blast. To have the opportunity to get the ball to some different guys and showcase some guys that have had a really nice spring. … As far as my job, they made it easy on me this spring. They made it fun and easy, and I can’t wait to get back with these guys on the field in August.”

Olson began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Missouri Western State after playing right tackle at Wisconsin-White Water from 2009-2012. After two years at Missouri Western State he spent one season each at Iowa State and Buffalo while getting his graduate degree. In 2017 he joined the Bemidji State coaching staff and worked there for three seasons as the offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator.

Olson joined the SDSU staff in 2020 and was the tight ends coach for the first two seasons. He then made the seamless switch to offensive line coach and the Jackrabbits have had one of the best offensive lines in the FCS over the past two seasons.

Part of the reason SDSU has seen so much success on the offensive side of the ball over the past two years is because of quarterback Mark Gronowski. As of right now it looks like that back-to-back national champion signal caller will be wearing the yellow and blue next season and Olson said him and Gronowski’s relationship developed a lot during spring practices.

“Mark is such an experienced player,” Olson said. “He’s such an effective leader. He’s very confident and knows our offense really well. As well as probably any other coach in the building because he’s done it for as long as he has. Mark and I have always had a good relationship, but it’s obviously grown and we’ve added to it just in terms of talking about football and what he likes.

“Like in [the spring game], I asked him what he wanted to start with and what he felt comfortable with. Those types of conversations have been very beneficial and very fruitful. He’s unquestionably our best leader and it’s been a lot of fun this spring, just getting to grow that relationship a little more.”

Olson has big shoes to fill as the play caller of the offense. Lujan led the Jackrabbits to the sixth-ranked total offense and the fifth-ranked rush offense in the country last season. Olson deserves a lot of credit for that as well as it was his unit that was opening holes for Isaiah Davis, who led the FCS in rushing last season.

The Jackrabbit offense won’t look too different in 2024. Olson said the basic concepts of their offense should look the same, but he will throw a bit of his own wrinkle into the play calling and some other things.

“We know what we’re good at and what Mark is good at. We’re still going to be creative. That’s something that we always do. We’re going to gameplan. Our core stuff is our core stuff, but there’s always room for things to blossom off of that and that will continue to be part of who we are and hopefully what makes us hard to defend. In essence is it the same offense? Yeah, it’s the same offense,” Olson said.