Zimmer: No, South Dakota State football doesn't consider this season a success
BOZEMAN, Mont. – When the South Dakota State football team came up literally one play short of a national championship in the pandemic-delayed spring season, it was obvious what the mantra would be for the Jackrabbits when they returned for the proper 2021 season just three months later.
Get back to Frisco. Finish the job.
Because the NCAA granted all players another year of eligibility, the Jacks were able to return essentially the same team that had gone 8-2, earned the No. 1 seed and battled its way to the first national championship appearance in school history in May, where they lost 23-21 to Sam Houston on a last-second touchdown. The only real difference in their lineup was replacing quarterback Mark Gronowski – the spring season’s Missouri Valley Football Conference freshman of the year and player of the year – with grad transfer senior Chris Oladokun, and that may have ended up being an upgrade.
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It started off with a bang – a 42-23 win over Colorado State in the season opener. And by the time it ended with Saturday’s 31-17 loss to Montana State in the semifinals, it had included a program record-tying 11 victories, a rivalry win over North Dakota State and three straight playoff wins, two of which came on the road against seeded teams.
Which begged the question: Was this, overall, a successful season for the Jackrabbits?
Senior linebacker Logan Backhaus got the first crack at answering. He did not hesitate.
“No. To be blunt with you, it (isn’t),” said Backhaus, whose second career game as a Jackrabbit came at Bobcat Stadium in 2017. “Our expectation was to get back to where we were. We had basically the same team as the spring. Our expectation was to get back to the national championship and win the thing. We fell short. If that’s your goal and you fell short, I wouldn’t call it a success.”
“I would echo that,” added senior center Wes Genant. “Going into the spring season, all the bonding we did over COVID, I think it really transformed the team into something where if we don’t go to Frisco, it’s a failure, man. If we don’t go there and win it the season is not a success. That’s the culture shift that needs to be embodied by everybody. That’s what SDSU football has become. Maybe in 10 years when I’m old and have other problems I can hang my hat on that we went to the semifinals a bunch but right now, no, not a success at all. Got to be better.”
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After a 2021 calendar year that saw the Jacks play 25 games and win 19 of them, including six in the playoffs, that feels a tad harsh. If it wasn’t a successful season it was surely a memorable one. An FBS win, a Dakota Marker win, Oladokun’s one-year impact, Pierre Strong’s brilliance, the emergence of Tucker Kraft, and the fact that the Jacks played half the season without two of their best players, running back Isaiah Davis and cornerback Don Gardner.
Then again, those are the kinds of buts and what-ifs the Jacks’ rivals up north ignore and overcome. The Bison, in case you haven’t heard, are going back to Frisco in three weeks in search of their 847th national championship when they face the Bobcats. This marked the second time in five years SDSU had a chance to force an SDSU/NDSU championship but lost their semifinal game after NDSU won theirs.
There were other memories from this season the Jacks would like to forget, such as blowing a 20-0 lead at home to lose to Southern Illinois, laying an egg on Hobo Day to lose to Northern Iowa, and, of course, the Hail Mary against USD that will haunt them to some degree for the rest of their lives. The Jacks have been rising as a program for the last decade or so, with now 10 straight playoff appearances and five semifinal berths. The only one of those they won was in the spring season, when they were at home.
“I’ve played a lot of football and been around a long time,” said Backhaus, who played 61 games in his Jackrabbit career. “Obviously something has to change in our program. We’ve been in the semis four times and lost three of them.”
SDSU gave longtime coach John Stiegelmeier another contract extension this week that will keep him at the helm of the Jacks through 2025, assumedly because they believe he will eventually deliver that national championship. It’ll be harder next year, with several all-time players moving on and offensive coordinator Jason Eck leaving to become the head coach at Idaho (which was announced immediately after the game). For his part, Stiegelmeier sided with his players on the state of the program.
“I do,” Stiegelmeier said when asked if he agreed with Genant and Backhaus. “I do. Our program has grown to the level of really high expectations, and I don’t think anybody in our locker room would agree that it was a successful season.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Zimmer: No, South Dakota State football doesn't consider this season a success
