South Dakota State football: Jackrabbits clean up mistakes on special teams, defense in Target Field win

MINNEAPOLIS — While South Dakota State escaped their Week 2 showdown with No. 3 Montana State with one of the biggest non-conference wins in their history, there were a couple of areas of their game that were notably not up-to-snuff in the winning effort.

The defense struggled mightily to stop the run, giving up 211 yards to the Bobcats, while the special teams units had a rough day, with a missed PAT, an explosive kickoff return allowed and a blocked punt deep in their own territory that nearly cost them the game.

Saturday at Target Field the Jacks were playing a much lesser opponent, obviously, in the non-scholarship Drake Bulldogs. So while it would be a stretch to say they solved those issues in their 70-7 romp, the Jacks undeniably took advantage of the opportunity to clean some things up and get things pointed in a better direction as Missouri Valley Football Conference play looms following their bye week.

The defense held Drake to 47 rushing yards on 27 attempts, and their longest run of the game was a 13-yard scramble by their quarterback.

Meanwhile special teams had a clean game, with Hunter Dustman going 10-for-10 on extra points, the Bulldogs getting next to nothing on their returns, while the Jacks return squads had a huge game.

Tucker Large totaled 149 yards on four punt returns, threatening to break away on each with a long of 61 yards, while Devon Cole had a 24-yard punt return and Amar Johnson a 51-yard kickoff return.

“Our guys take pride in being on those units,” said coach Jimmy Rogers. “They’re not always starters at every position, but they’re starters on the special teams and they need to know that their role matters. You see in the punt return average what Tucker Large is capable of and the pride our guys have in blocking for him.”

To be sure, putting up numbers against a winless non-scholarship team that lost to an NAIA program should be viewed objectively. But whereas SDSU seemed to sort of go through the motions at times in their 45-7 win over Division II Western Oregon in their season opener, they were much sharper and perhaps more motivated this time. They didn’t want to necessarily run up the score or record lopsided statistics against the Bulldogs, but with conference play looming and the memory of a flat first half the prior week against Montana State still lingering, it was important for the Jacks to be dominant in this one, to send them into their bye week with palpable momentum.

“As a defense we never want to give up any yards,” said linebacker Saiveon Williamson. “We knew last week we didn’t do good enough. We knew we needed to better, so we made it an emphasis to just do our job. When you have 11 guys flying to the ball, doing their job, good things happen.”

* Receiver Jadon Janke and linebacker Adam Bock were again inactive for SDSU. Bock has not yet played this season. Janke played sparingly against Montana State. Rogers indicated both could return in two weeks when they host North Dakota.

* SDSU’s defense does not have a sack through three games.

* Backup quarterback Chase Mason has rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns on four carries and completed 8-of-13 passes for 100 yards.

* Mark Gronowski threw an interception on the final play of the first half, which was the only turnover of Saturday’s game. It was the first interception of the season for Gronowski, who has completed 68 percent of his passes with eight touchdown passes.

* Freshman receiver Griffin Wilde has seven catches for 146 yards and three touchdowns – one in each game.

* Williamson has 23 tackles to lead the SDSU defense.

Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.