Man alive, what a fun day in Brookings!  It was a great tailgate and a great football game with the Jackrabbits prevailing 31-21 in front of a large and noisy crowd.  Sure, do I wish the 4th quarter would have gone smoother?  Absolutely, but there were enough good things through the first 3 quarters and some in the 4th quarter to make me really excited about this time.

 

 

Rants & Raves

Rave: I have a to start with the tailgate.  Jackrabbit nation showed out.  The Trick or Treat Tailgate seemed to bring more families than usual for an October game.  From what I observed and heard, most kids made out with more candy while wandering around the backyard than they would have on a normal Halloween bouncing around neighborhoods.  Shoutout to Ariel Luedtke for getting the ball rolling on that and encouraging others to participate.

Rave:  Big shoutout to the Sioux Falls Live crew for their pregame show.  Honestly, it would be great to have a national Saturday morning FCS show.  It probably won’t ever happen but Sioux Falls Live created something cool for this matchup.  If you haven’t gone back and watched it yet, I’d encourage you to do so.  If you don’t have a Sioux Falls Live digital subscription, I would encourage you to do that too.  They are cranking out so much good content.  I also appreciate them stopping by our tailgate and allowing me to tell the Jackrabbit Illustrated story and interviewing Ariel for her work with the Trick or Treat Tailgate.

Rave: To our friends in the national media, Kevin Marshall (FCS Nation Radio) and Joe DeLeone and Sean Anderson (Hack City) for making the treck to Brookings to cover this game.  If you are not listening or watching their shows, start.  They are good people that bring differing perspectives to their coverage of the FCS.

Rave: The SDSU social media team has been killing it this year but I LOVED the Halloween stuff that was released Friday and Saturday with Cullen spookily wandering around campus and finally on Saturday night with him extinguishing the USD pumpkin in front of the campanile.  Really really creative stuff.

 

 

Let’s get to the game…

Rant/Rave: I’m not even mad the Jacks got “cute” on their opening drive when the fumble accorded.  A jet sweep is not cute in today’s football. It is a pretty standard play that even my 4th graders ran this year.  It is a play designed to get the ball in one of your best playmakers hands early in the game.  It’s a wonderful call after a few successful interior runs and it got Lofton a touch.  However, the execution and timing was off.  However, the defense responded and the Jacks would soon find themselves on the right foot again.

Rave: SDSU dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  The #605Hogs were consistently moving people in the run game and for much of the game, Chase Mason had plenty of time to pass.  USD does not have great depth along their defensive line and with the  first half injury to one of their top 3 interior lineman, it was clearly going to be tough for them.  SDSU ran for 227 yards on the ground (4.6 ypc) and only surrendered 1 sack.

Rave: On the flipside, I thought the #ChainGang was outstanding for 3 quarters of the game.  They recorded 5 sacks, 2 QBH (likely will be adjusted up) and USD only ran for 19 total rushing yards.

Rant: However, the pass rush struggled to finish in the 4th quarter.  A few times the Jacks just couldn’t complete the sack after having the USD quarterback wrapped up and a few times there was just no rush.

 

 

Rave: I’m proud of how Jack Smith played yesterday.  I was tough on him a week ago.  He responded with a terrific game, maybe his best of the season, as he finished with 5 receptions for 84 yards and a TD.

Rave: Chase Mason played really really well yesterday.  He was 16/26 for 232 yards and 2 TDs.  I loved that he trusted himself to run the ball and pulled it and ran a few RPOs.  His running ability adds an element to this offense.

Rave: The involvement of the tight ends was great.  Coleman Kuntz and Braydon Delahoyde stepped up with each having a pair of receptions for 55 combined yards with Delahoyde notching a TD.

Rave: I thought Myles Green did a nice job as punt returner.  His 39 yard return was awesome.

Rant: We have got to clean up the penalties.  Dan sounds exasperated by it.  The fans are tired of it.  Other than benching, what is the solution?  And do you really want to bench Josiah because he reacted when a USD player grabbed his nuts?  Probably not.  The players just have to figure it out.

Rave: One more non-football thing.  The concessions process and the self-checkout kiosks are so cool and help so much with moving fans through the food lines.  Awesome job by Sodexo!

Rave: Big time RAVE for the cornerback duo of Noah St-Juste and Paul Kim for shutting down an explosive perimeter passing attack.  Brayden White was held in check with just 4 receptions for 45 yards and a TD, Tennel Bryant had 2 for 25 yards, and Tyson Bose had just 2 for 13 yards.  That is a hell of an effort by the secondary.

Rave: I think the evolution of Cullen McShane has just been phenomenal.  I think last year he played with a lot of anger over his experience prior to last season.  This year he’s channeled that passion more.  He’s drawing less personal fouls.  He seems to be the one that’s pulling guys back at times.  He’s still competing. He’s still celebrating, heck, he’s probably still pissed off but it just feels more channeled.  He finished the day with 6 tackles, 2 TFL, and a sack.

Rant: The ESPN timeout lengths were egregious.  I know they have to pay for Pat McAfee’s contract but come on.  Let’s keep the game moving!  Also, I received multiple complaints about whoever was doing the color commentating for the game.  Sounds like ESPN did not send their best.

 

 

Rave: Reis Kirschenman has been so close to breaking out this year and returning to last season’s form (prior to the injury).  On Saturday it felt like he was all the way back with 3 tackles, 2 sacks, and a forced fumble.  He’s a player specifically that I expect to be credited with a few more hurries.

Rave: Again, I thought the crowd noise was exceptional.  Credit to USD for not having more false starts (they finished with 2) because the crowd really brought it and a lesser team would certainly have had a few more.

Rave: How about that punt?  Max Pelham unleashed an 83 yarder that just kept going and going to completely flip the field.  Even with the touchback it was still a net of 63 yards. haha

Rant: The MVFC needs to look at their media deal with ESPN.  Unlike the Big Sky, which benefits from being able to play later games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, SDSU on ESPNU does very little to elevate the program.  I don’t have a good answer for this but it makes it tough for fans to watch when it is on a somewhat obscure offshoot.  It’s almost better just to have it on ESPN+.

Rave: James Basinger and Josiah Johnson are becoming quite the two headed monster.  Josiah finished with 126 yards (5.5 ypc) and 1 TD while James finished with 84 yards (4.9 ypc) and 1 TD.  Their styles are divergent enough that they really compliment one another so well.  Josiah should crack the 1,000 yard mark next Saturday (952) with Basinger having a shot to still get there as well this season (642).

Rave: That was a terrific halftime show by the Pride.  Maybe one of my favorites!

Rave: Much was made this week about the number of kids on each roster from South Dakota.  SDSU has a bunch and USD has five.  While it may not matter to the few kids who are on USDs roster, it clearly matters to the SDSU kids.  It clearly matters to the fans.  It was implied by the parent of one of USDs players that it meant we don’t care about our players from other parts of the country.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We can both love our South Dakota kids/friends/neighbors and love our players that come from Illinois, Missouri, Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, North Carolina, North Dakota, etc.  It matters because it puts aunts, uncles, cousins, high school friends, and teachers in the seats.  It matters because it creates the next generation of kids that want to be Jackrabbits and be just like Blake Leiferman who played 9-man football at Kimble White Lake.  If USD wants to continue to ignore recruiting in South Dakota, that is fine by me.  However, I’m going to keep cheering for the Jacks, their homegrown talent, and the players that choose to join the program wherever they come from.

Rant: Dontay Johnson getting hurt is a really bummer.  From how Dan made it sound in the postgame, it doesn’t sound good.  He’s played so so well this season and I’m really hoping this isn’t the last we see of him in his Jackrabbit uniform.

Some personal Rants and Raves here…

Rave: My friend Nate Bylander grabbed me a Hobo Day button a week ago, I forgot to shout him out last week.  I never made it to Jackrabbit Central to buy one before tailgating but he gave me one of his.  I love collecting them so I appreciate the gift.

Rave: My friend Ashley McConnel was one of the honorary coaches this week.  Apparently she gave a great speech at some point this week that fired everyone up.  Whatever you said, keep it up!

Rave: I had a great time interacting with the USD fans out in the tailgate lot.  It was good banter, good food, and some respectful dialogue about how good both teams were looking this season.  I hope they were treating with respect and only received some good hearted ribbing throughout the day.

 

Game Balls

Offense: Chase Mason

Defense: Reis Kirschenman

Special Teams: Myles Green

 

Go Jacks!

Matt