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.”