The red hot Bears of Missouri State come to town on Saturday with an impressive offense and a real belief that how they are ending this season will carry-over to 2024. It felt like this was a team that would be done with the season by this point. But their dominant win over UNI last week clearly showed a team that is locked-in and dangerous. Here is the what the JI team is keeping an eye on this week.
Focus on the Task
The Jackrabbits have not had an issue taking it one step at a time this season. However, they are coming off of a BRUTAL 7 game MVFC stretch unscathed. The natural human reaction is to take a breather, look ahead to Thanksgiving, look ahead to a bye week to rest the body, and to start thinking about the playoffs. The team and the fans in the stands can not let that happen. This Bear team is talented and is just a few years removed from trips to the playoffs. The Jacks need to focus on the Bears until this game is over. After that, think about everything else that we just mentioned. Now is not the time for a letdown.
Crowd
As mentioned above, the crowd can give this team energy in this one. We are encouraging you to stop tailgating early and get into the stadium to honor this senior class. Their impact on the program is significant and its important that we show them our appreciation for all they have done to elevate SDSU football. We will have an article next Monday focused on the seniors who are walking on Saturday. The crowd has been terrific this season in terms of volume and engagement. Let’s end the regular season on a high note and have a good showing Saturday!
Penalties
Everyone and their dog knows that the 12 penalties this team had against YSU (unearned and/or warranted) cannot happen again. This team is talented enough to overcome that type of sloppy play but it can’t become the norm. Prior to last week, the team had been tending in the right direction in terms of penalties. We’d like to see them get back on track tomorrow and eliminate the false starts and unsportsman-type penalties.
Contain Sharpe
The Jackrabbit defense has answered every challenge this season but one they maybe haven’t had to answer yet is the the test of a true slot with great speed. That man for Missouri State is #6 Raylen Sharpe. In 2022, he had a 67 yard touchdown reception against the Jacks and he has really been dominant in 2023 as the go-to guy. Again, he functions mostly out of the slot which will put him on our safeties at times. How do the Jacks adjust to his speed? We’ll have to wait and find out. However, this will be a good test because it is certainly something different than what we have seen this year.
Stay Healthy
Knock on wood… but the Jacks have stayed reasonably healthy this season. Yes, guys have missed games and yes, guys are dinged up in ways that we know nothing about. However, the Jacks have stayed mostly healthy. This being the last regular season game and senior day, we want to see no injuries. We realize this is 99% out of anyone’s control but we want this team at full force for a deep playoff run.
Go Jacks!
Alex, Ben, Brendan, Chad, Dallas, and Matt
