No. 2 South Dakota State rallies to beat rival No. 1 NDSU Bison
FARGO – South Dakota State was up against it.
The No. 2 team in the country in the first-ever meeting between North Dakota State and South Dakota State in which the teams were ranked 1-2, the Jackrabbits found themselves trailing the No. 1 Bison 21-7 midway through the second quarter. Their league-best defense was putting up almost no resistance against the Bison offense.
Quarterback Cam Miller completed each of his first 10 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns – this, a week after SDSU had held their other rival, South Dakota, to 44 passing yards.
NDSU was in the red zone looking for another score. If they could push their advantage to three touchdowns at the half, the Jacks’ prospects of a comeback would not be promising.
“There’s no doubt North Dakota State had it rolling,” said Jacks coach John Stiegelmeier.
But, said NDSU coach Matt Entz: “I don’t think anyone ever feels like they’re in control of (the Dakota Marker) game. I mean, we’ve seen some pretty unique ups and downs throughout this series, so I don’t think anyone felt like we were comfortable at that time.”
Perhaps it was with that in mind that the Bison called for a package with backup quarterback Cole Payton out of the shotgun. It looked like a trick play, though Entz said later it wasn’t. The Jacks got pressure, Payton tossed one up off his back foot, and SDSU safety Colby Huerter picked it off in the end zone. Instead of being down by 21 points, the Jacks got to the half within two scores at 21-7, and would get the ball first to start the second half.
“We were lucky to only be down by that much,” said Jacks quarterback Mark Gronowski.
When the teams reconvened for the second half, a new game began, and the Jackrabbits dominated it, outscoring the hosts 16-0 to escape with a 23-21 win in front of 18,603 Fargodome fans. It’s the Jacks’ third straight win in the series; their second straight win in Fargo. NDSU is 45-2 in their last 47 home games, and both of the losses have come to SDSU within the last calendar year.
Hunter Dustman provided the game-winning points with an 18-yard field goal, as SDSU (6-1) chose not to go for it on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line with over four minutes left, at the end of a drive that was set up by a 39-yard shovel pass to Jadon Janke. The kick was a safe bet – they had to get the lead, after all – but leaving the Bison (5-2) that much time and needing only a field goal, at home, felt like a tenuous advantage, at best.
But the same SDSU defense that looked helpless in the first half clamped down on the Bison in the second half like a spider that caught something in its web. After NDSU got two first downs to move into Jacks territory, the potential game-winning drive was stopped cold. Four straight plays that netted zero yards, a turnover on downs, and the Jackrabbit players turned toward the Bison faithful and made a ‘horns down’ gesture. NDSU hasn’t beaten the Jacks since 2019.
“It’s a big win,” said Gronowski, whose team will be ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time in program history when the next poll comes out. “A lot of people have said this would determine home field advantage in the playoffs, and you saw what happened (in the spring season, when SDSU got the No. 1 seed in the playoffs). When people have to come through Brookings it’s a challenge, and we ended up going to Frisco that year.”
And as nice as it is to be No. 1 in October, it’s getting back to Frisco that matters.
If SDSU plays like they did in Saturday’s first half for too long at any point in any of their remaining games, getting back to Frisco for the national championship will be difficult. If they play like they did in the second half, who would stop them?
“I’m unbelievably proud of our football team,” Stiegelmeier said. “Obviously we didn’t start the game the way we thought we could, but I learned something about our team in the second half and I really love what I learned. It was our second half. It’s a big win and a fun win.”
The start, for SDSU, was indeed a rough one.
NDSU got the ball first and went 75 yards in just seven plays, barely breaking a sweat in taking a 7-0 lead on a 22-yard strike from Miller to DJ Hart. The Jacks answered back with a 75-yard drive of their own, with Isaiah Davis dragging tacklers 24 yards for a score to make it 7-7.
But we did not get the back-and-forth slugfest those first two drives portended. The Bison offense kept rolling – SDSU’s didn’t. The Bison needed just three plays on their second drive, with Miller taking in a 6-yard run to make it 14-7, then he found fullback Hunter Luepke on a 30-yard pass on their third drive to make it 21-7. This looked nothing like the SDSU defense that came in allowing only 12 points per game, nor the NDSU offense that was averaging just 132 passing yards per game.
The Bison had 280 yards of offense in the first half – 181 through the air. The Jacks gave a cushion to NDSU receivers, and they got no pressure on Miller.
“We knew we weren’t playing to our potential,” said linebacker Adam Bock. “We made a couple adjustments. We knew going into halftime we could play better as a defense and I think we showed that in the second half.”
The Jacks outgained the Bison 248-74 in the second half. The Bison rushed for just 28 yards in the second, which would’ve seemed unthinkable at halftime given that NDSU had a 14-point lead. SDSU held a 19:33 to 10:27 advantage of time of possession.
They got a field goal on their first possession of the half to make it 21-10, then got within a score at 21-17 on Amar Johnson’s 16-yard touchdown run. Davis injured his shoulder in the game and though he admirably played through it, Johnson stepped up to shoulder part of the load, carrying 12 times for 89 yards.
“That’s a big confidence play for him,” Davis said of Johnson’s touchdown. “Belief. We believe in whoever steps in that role. It was good to see and good to see him showcasing what he can do.”
The defense kept getting stops, allowing Dustman to add two more field goals to provide the winning margin.
Davis finished with 114 yards on 14 carries, while Gronowski was an efficient 16-of-21 for 152 yards, overcoming three sacks and several other hits.
Miller finished 17-of-22 for 227 yards, while Luepke was the Bison’s leading rusher with 58 yards on 15 attempts.
The last time SDSU trailed by two scores and won was in the spring season playoffs, when they trailed Southern Illinois 20-7 in the second quarter, eventually fighting back to win 31-26.
That one was big. This one, even coming in the regular season, was arguably bigger.
“Belief, man, just belief,” said senior guard Mason McCormick. “Nobody was panicked at halftime. Honestly we were moving the ball pretty good. There was just a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot (the Jacks had five first-half false starts). We got a few things cleaned up and, well, you saw the second half.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State Jacks scrape by No. 1 North Dakota State Bison
