South Dakota
South Dakota State football spring game: What we learned
BROOKINGS – For the primary time since 2019, South Dakota State performed a conventional spring sport Saturday. The annual intrasquad scrimmage wraps up spring follow and sends the crew into the summer time months.
For a Jackrabbit squad that performed 25 video games in 2021, then graduated a big class of seniors and noticed 4 assistant coaches depart, it was an opportunity to start transitioning into a brand new crew, albeit one with the identical championship hopes and expectations.
The offense overcame a gradual begin to largely dominate play on Saturday, scoring a flurry of late touchdowns to roll previous the protection 57-25 (offense earned factors by means of conventional means, whereas the protection scored by way of sacks, turnovers, adverse yardage performs, and many others.). The Jacks held out a number of key gamers, amongst them projected beginning quarterback Mark Gronowski, huge receiver Landon Wolf, cornerback DyShawn Gales, security Chase Norblade, defensive finish Quinton Hicks and a handful of linemen.
Extra:Mark Gronowski feeling good, Chase Mason out as South Dakota State spring soccer begins
Whereas that possible impacted the rating, coaches appeared largely happy with what the Jacks completed on Saturday and over the course of the spring season.
“I liked our angle all through,” stated coach John Stiegelmeier. “We practiced at 6:45 each morning and there wasn’t sooner or later the place I believed our guys had been dragging. That claims so much with all of the soccer we’ve performed over the past 12 months. You noticed plenty of intrinsic motivation.”
Right here’s what we realized on Saturday and all through the spring:
Quarterback ought to stay a energy
Gronowski is just about absolutely recovered from the knee damage that stored him out of the autumn season and he is able to construct on the spring season that noticed him named the Missouri Valley Soccer Convention MVP. However the Jacks seem like constructing depth behind him. Former walk-on Rudy Voss has battled his option to the No. 2 spot, incomes the beginning in Saturday’s spring sport and finishing 13 of 26 throws for 176 yards.
However Keaton Heide, who began for a lot of the 2019 season, was glorious Saturday, and stays a probably helpful veteran. Heide was 6 of seven for 125 yards with three touchdowns Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Jon Bell additionally confirmed some promise, shaking off an early interception to make some performs.
“They did plenty of good issues,” stated offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Zach Lujan. “We’ve to wash up some issues – presnap resolution making, throwing on time – however general all of them performed fairly nicely. Rudy was good and Keaton actually performed nicely, particularly working primarily with the (second unit). We’re getting higher. We’re studying from our errors and making good choices.”
New weapons are rising on offense
Pierre Sturdy is gone, more likely to be taken within the upcoming NFL Draft. Isaiah Davis returns, together with Amar Johnson, Angel Johnson and Josh Buri, every of whom had their moments Saturday.
And at receiver, Devon Cole and Nate Sullivan are beginning to present big-play potential. With the Janke twins, Landon Wolf and Canyon Bauer all returning, they might simply give the Jacks that rather more depth in the case of move catchers. That’s not even mentioning a good finish group that options star-caliber gamers in Tucker Kraft and Zach Heins.
“Lots of people neglect this was our first spring season in three years,” Lujan stated. “So this was large for the younger guys to get higher. Quite a lot of them have made leaps and bounds this spring.”
The protection has some work to do
With the commencement of veteran linebacker Logan Backhaus, star cornerback Don Gardner, security Michael Griffin and a handful of proficient defensive linemen, the protection has query marks, and that was exploited by the offense Saturday. They struggled to defend the deep ball, and coaches had been disillusioned within the tackling.
“We’ve to get higher at tackling,” Stiegelmeier stated. “And we should be higher at taking part in the deep ball as corners. These had been the 2 issues that basically caught out to me.”
Nonetheless, the cabinet shouldn’t be naked, it could simply take a while for brand spanking new gamers to earn their approach in. Tucker Giant had 5 tackles Saturday, and Ryan Swoger had the defensive spotlight of the day, studying a fast out move by Bell and leaping the throw, selecting it off and returning it for a landing. A number of linebackers had been lively in opposition to the run and impressed all through spring follow.
The kickers had an excellent day
SDSU has been lucky at kicker the previous couple of years, as Chase Vinatieri had a strong four-year profession and Cole Frahm was quietly constant and reliable in 2021.
If Saturday is any indication, they need to proceed to have the ability to depend on their kickers in 2022. Hunter Dustmann, who emerged because the crew’s high punter final 12 months, was an ideal 3-for-3 on subject aim tries, hitting from 48, 36 and 40 yards, whereas Jack Inexperienced additionally made all three tries, from 28, 23 and 28 yards out.
The transition to new leaders and coaches goes nicely, however will take a while
Offensive coordinator Jason Eck is gone, now the top coach at Idaho, and he took passing sport coordinator Luke Schleusner with him. Co-defensive coordinator Brian Bergstrom turned head coach at Winona State and took assistant line of defense coach Spencer Erickson with him.
Eck was additionally the offensive line coach, and that unit stated goodbye to veterans Wes Genant, Aron Johnson and Eagan Lickiss, who began greater than 140 video games of their careers between them.
Lujan, the quarterbacks coach, is now the O-coordinator, and Ryan Olson slid from tight finish coach to offensive line coach.
“It’s positively totally different,” stated all-conference guard Mason McCormick. “However Olson is doing a fantastic job. He’s a gamers coach. He’s making an attempt to simplify issues somewhat bit with some youthful guys working in and people veteran guys transferring on, and to this point it’s been superior.
“We’re rising as a unit and rising as an offense,” McCormick added. “I believe everyone is able to step in. There’s guys which have been ready for his or her alternative they usually’re gonna benefit from it.”
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South Dakota
Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State
![Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State](https://pistolsfiringblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/53962121679_afc402ad55_k-1000x600.jpg)
STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State football team beat South Dakota State 44-20 on Saturday to start the season 1-0. After the game, Mike Gundy, Ollie Gordon, Alan Bowman, De’Zhaun Stribling, Collin Oliver, Korie Black and Trey Rucker met with reporters to recap the game.
South Dakota
South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online
![South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online](https://www.nj.com/resizer/v2/P2NH7TDAORCA3K2CFKZ3D37LHE.jpg?auth=27a73779c5e6defa1fa563e3ee42ddc0fe62687da0c8b6ecc5664751c4c0c4a2&width=1280&quality=90)
The South Dakota State Jackrabbits face the No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Fans can watch the game with a subscription to ESPN+.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NCAA Football, Week 1
Who: South Dakota State vs. Oklahoma State
When: Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24)
Where: Boone Pickens Stadium
Time: 2 p.m. ET
TV: N/A
Channel finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV, Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
Live stream: ESPN+
***
Here’s a college football story from the Associated Press:
Y’all ain’t played nobody!
It might as well be college football’s slogan. Debates about strength of schedule are part of the fabric of the sport, like marching bands, cheerleaders and tailgating.
With the size of the College Football Playoff tripling in size from four teams to 12 this season — including seven at-large bids — expect the arguments over the relative difficulty of teams’ schedules to increase exponentially.
The posturing and politicking has already begun.
“This is the NFL of college football in my mind,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said during Big Ten media days. At Southeastern Conference media days, the NFL was also invoked when the topic steered to schedules.
“As coaches we want to play the best. People forget that when you’ve spent time in the NFL, every week was like that,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “So when Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference, every schedule was going to get harder.”
The debates aren’t just about which conferences are the best. With super-sized conferences of 16-18 teams, the differences in strength of schedule within leagues can be significant.
The CFP selection committee uses a strength-of-schedule rating provided by SportSource Analytics that includes components such as wins and losses, scoring differential and game location.
Balancing who you played with how you played will be harder than ever.
“There’s a weight on the committee that’s new. I want to see how the committee processes that,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said during spring meetings. “And my encouragement is that this, ‘Well, we have an undefeated team so they’re in’ is not the standard. It never was the standard. Obviously, that stirred up controversy last year.”
Toughest schedules in the Power Four
There are dozens of data-based rating systems to measure the relative strength of college football teams, and all have some type of schedule-rating component.
The AP took three systems — ESPN’s SP+, FEI and KFord Ratings — and averaged their strength of schedule rankings for all 134 Bowl Subdivision teams to determine where each Power Four team’s schedule ranks nationally (all games, not just conference games, are factored in).
Using those projections, SEC teams on average will be facing the toughest schedules this season.
The average strength-of-schedule ranking among the 16 SEC teams is 11.2, from Florida (a unanimous No. 1 among all three systems) to Missouri at 36.7.
Half the teams in the SEC have schedules with an average national ranking of 10 or better, including No. 1 Georgia at 3.7. No. 11 Missouri is the only SEC team with an average schedule-strength ranking below 25.3.
Rating the rest
The Big Ten, now including Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, is next with an average strength-of-schedule ranking of 26.9 among its 18 teams.
Purdue’s 7.7 average ranking is the highest followed by No. 23 USC at 9. Big Ten favorite No. 2 Ohio State’s average is 34. No. 3 Oregon’s is 26.7.
The ACC and Big 12 are about the same. The 17-team ACC has an average strength of schedule ranking of 49.9. The 16-team Big 12′s average ranking is 47.3.
Assessing strength of schedule
Straight up rankings can be deceiving. How to quantify the difference between facing the sixth-ranked schedule and 26th?
Brian Fremeau, the creator of FEI, does it three ways, asking three questions: How many games would an elite team lose facing a particular schedule? How many would a good team lose? How many would an average team lose?
AP used FEI’s strength of schedule ratings based on good teams in its composite rankings, since good teams are going to be the ones in the CFP race.
Based on FEI projections, the difference between playing Georgia’s schedule (rated 3.4 among the hardest in the nation) and Ohio State (34) is about one more loss for a good team against the Bulldogs’ slate. The difference between Alabama’s schedule and Big 12 favorite Utah’s is about two losses for a good team against the Tide’s.
If these schedule strength projections held — they will change throughout the season — it would then be reasonable to compare an 11-1 Utah to a 9-3 Alabama.
Reasonable to compare doesn’t necessarily mean the one with the tougher schedule should automatically be ranked higher.
“I don’t judge a team on its schedule. I judge a team on how it performs against a schedule, or my system does. And that is a little more of a nuanced take then, ‘Well, we played a tougher set of opponents than you did, therefore, we’re better,’” Fremeau said. “There’s a bit of a balancing act between the two.”
Intraconference debates
The SEC and Big Ten are both bigger and division-less for the first time. That necessitated new tiebreaker procedures to determine which teams qualify for conference title games featuring the top two teams in the standings.
Within the guidelines is an acknowledgment that the rigor of conference schedules will vary when teams are playing barely half the league. After head-to-head and record vs. common opponents are used to break ties, both leagues go to results that favor the team that fared better against the better conference opponents they play.
The ACC, a year ahead of the the SEC and Big Ten in abandoning divisions, has a similar nod within its tiebreakers to strength of schedule.
ACC Associate Commissioner Michael Strickland said the conference used 10 years of data that measures the success of its football teams to help create a new schedule rotation that would be competitively balanced. But the ACC also to had weigh travel now that Stanford, California and SMU are members, as well as protecting some traditional annual rivalries.
The ACC’s fourth two-team tiebreaker is combined winning percentage of conference opponents.
“Our head football coaches suggested that we insert that during our review process,” Strickland said.
The CFP choices
The CFP field announced Dec. 8 will be comprised of the five highest-ranked conference champions, regardless of league, and seven at-large selections. There is no limit to the number of at-large bids a conference can receive.
The most interesting comparisons for the CFP selection committee might end up being between the many conference rivals that do not play each other in the regular season.
What to do with a 10-2 Missouri and a 9-3 Alabama (composite strength-of-schedule ranking, 9.3)? Or Iowa (37) at 10-2 and Michigan (16) at 9-3? Over in the ACC, what would happen while assessing a 10-2 Virginia Tech (68) and a 9-3 Florida State (30.3)?
“Especially when we’re picking (seven) teams now, we’re looking at the loss column with a bit more scrutiny,” Fremeau said. “They’re going to be debating teams like that with a one or possibly two-game difference in record, but a comparable difference in expected schedule rating and they’re going to have that debate about which one they value more.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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