One more to Frisco: South Dakota State football's title chase comes full circle
BROOKINGS - And then there were four.
The FCS playoffs have moved to the semifinals, and three of the top four seeds put themselves one win from a trip to Frisco, Tex., and the national championship game.
North Dakota State, the No. 3 seed and near-annual champion moved on with a 27-9 win over Samford on Friday night in Fargo, while 7th-seeded Incarnate Word upset previously undefeated and 2nd-seeded Sacramento State 66-63. Yes, you read that right. The Hornets had 49 first downs and over 700 yards of offense and they lost.
That upset means the Bison will once again be home for the semifinals, hosting the Cardinals, who are making their first appearance in the semis. It would, at first glance, appear to be another relatively smooth path to Texas for the kings of FCS football.
The other side of the bracket presents significantly more drama.
Top-seeded South Dakota State (12-1) against Montana State (12-1), the 3-seed and last year's runner-up. A rematch of last year’s semifinal, with the site reversed.
More:South Dakota State football survives Holy Cross in FCS playoffs
The game will be one year from when the Bobcats brought to a sudden end one of the most memorable, difficult, emotional and exhausting years of football in Jackrabbit history.
SDSU played 25 football games in 2021, 10 in the pandemic-delayed spring season, where they went to their first national championship, falling to Sam Houston State, then 15 more in the fall, when they almost seemed destined to get back to Frisco for unfinished business.
It didn’t happen, though, thanks to Montana State. The Bobcats dominated the second half of a game that had been tied at halftime and a playoff run that had consisted of four games in four time zones was over. The disappointment and disbelief that hung over the Jackrabbit players in the aftermath of that loss was palpable. Later that day, popular offensive coordinator Jason Eck was announced as the new head coach at Idaho. Not long after that, co-defensive coordinator Brian Bergstrom was named the head coach at Winona State.
Quarterback Chris Oladokun, running back Pierre Strong and cornerback Don Gardner all moved on to the NFL, and several other all-conference starters graduated as well.
As close as they’d come to going back to Texas, a national championship suddenly felt far away on that frigid and snow-covered day in Bozeman.
But the Jackrabbits picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and “got back into the lab” as they like to say.
What followed was the best regular season in the program’s 100-plus year history - a Missouri Valley Football Conference title, their first No. 1 national ranking, and now, after Saturday’s 42-21 win over Holy Cross in the quarterfinals, a school-record 12 wins, which have come consecutively following their 7-3 season-opening loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
And now, things have come full circle. The Jacks get another shot at Montana State, but this time, at their place, in Brookings.
On the one hand, it feels like a tough break that SDSU must beat a scorching hot Bobcat team to get to Frisco while the Bison need only defeat an Incarnate Word squad that’s in totally new territory, but really, what could be a more poetic path to glory for the Jackrabbits than claiming their first national championship first by avenging last year’s loss to the Bobcats and then facing off against the arch-rival Bison in Frisco?
The Bobcats destroyed William & Mary 55-7 in Friday’s quarterfinal. It was actually worse than that score makes it sound. SDSU’s win over the Crusaders, on the other hand, was much closer than 42-21 would indicate. The Jacks were in trouble heading to the fourth quarter as they had no answer for Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka, who rushed for 213 yards in the game.
That surely has Jackrabbit fans on edge this week, as last year’s 31-17 loss to Montana State was also due largely to SDSU’s struggles to stop a running quarterback. Tommy Mellott ran for 155 yards (and threw for 233) in that one, and was likely drooling watching Sluka gouge the Jacks defense over and over on Saturday.
Then again, maybe going against Sluka and the Crusaders, and surviving, will serve as the perfect preparation for the Mellott and the Bobcats - a test-run, if you will.
When Saturday’s win over Holy Cross ended, fans that stuck around after the game and lingered outside the gates of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium could be heard making plans for Frisco.
Flights, hotels, what day to leave? When the Jacks made it in 2021 spring we were still under stricter pandemic regulations, and SDSU fans still made an impressive showing, with literally thousands of Jackrabbits showing up at Toyota Stadium. They got their taste, and they want to go back.
And the players, of course, haven’t forgotten what that loss in Bozeman felt like, or how hard it was to watch the Bison dominate the Bobcats weeks later in Frisco. All spring and summer they grinded for another chance. Now they’ve got it.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: One more to Frisco: South Dakota State title chase comes full circle
