Zimmer: With rivalry clashes behind them, South Dakota State begins stretch run by routing Murray State

BROOKINGS — After consecutive weeks of hard-fought, down-to-the-wire, heart-pumping, nationally-televised thrillers against rivals North Dakota State and South Dakota, the third-ranked Jackrabbits had something of a reprieve on Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium when they faced Murray State.

The Racers came in winless in Missouri Valley Conference play this year and with a 5-25 record over the last three seasons. The Jacks were 42.5-point favorites.

So nothing about SDSU’s 52-6 victory in front of 16,376 fans (the Jacks’ first non-sellout of the season) was surprising or especially outstanding. They did what they were supposed to do against an inferior team.

A defense that has been dominant continued to be so. An offense that had scored just 23 points in regulation in their last two games got on track and racked up nearly 600 total yards. They did not turn the ball over and had just 35 yards in penalties.

So while this win was expected to come easily and did, there’s still value in it, and not just in that coaches were able to empty the bench and give meaningful reps to players who hadn’t seen many.

With the Jackrabbits’ most challenging games behind them, this win should set the tone for the rest of the regular season.

SDSU (7-2, 4-1 MVFC) finishes up at North Dakota, at home against Southern Illinois and at Missouri State. None of these games should be easy, especially the finale against a 7-2 Bears squad. But the Jacks will be favored in all three of them, and none will have the hype or rivalry attachments that the last two games did.

If the Jacks can replicate the formula from Saturday’s comfortable victory over the season’s final month, they’re probably going to end up right where they want to.

“It started on Monday in practice,” said center Gus Miller. “You can never (disrespect) an opponent because the game will disrespect you. Our coaches are always talking to us, making sure in these kind of games we focus on ourselves, focus on basic techniques and make sure we’re not overlooking anything.”

In that regard, the Jacks certainly took care of business.

They accumulated 595 yards of total offense — 343 of them on the ground. Angel Johnson, Amar Johnson, Chase Mason, Maxwell Woods and Kirby Vorhees all had rushing touchdowns. Mason and Mark Gronowski each threw touchdown passes. The defense kept Murray State out of the end zone and limited them to a mere 236 total yards.

There wasn’t much evidence of the Jackrabbits taking it easy or coming out flat, but coach Jimmy Rogers said even though his team largely executed well, they didn’t have the same pregame fire and excitement to play that he’s used to.

“I’ll watch the film when it comes to the execution, because it felt like there was a lack of energy, just in the entire stadium,” Rogers said. “Just looking at (the players), I see them so much in practice that I kind of know what to expect when I watch them and their energy level. I was happy with how we played but there’s plenty to clean up. We need to be crisper and better next Saturday.”

That will be against a UND squad that looked strong early in the season but has lost consecutive games, against Youngstown State and, on Saturday, lowly Indiana State. Those two were both on the road, however, and the Hawks are a different team in the Alerus Center, where they’ll host SDSU next week. UND beat No. 8 Montana at home earlier this year.

It’ll be SDSU’s third game against one of their Dakota rivals in the last four weeks, but getting Saturday’s low-stress tussle with the Racers in between should help them.

“It was a physical couple of weeks and very close games,” safety Tucker Large said of the games against NDSU (a 13-9 loss) and USD (a 20-17 overtime win). “So this is definitely a confidence booster for our team. It was good for our offense to get those yards and good to see our defense get some young guys in there and flying around, having fun and being themselves.

“Coach Rogers does a great job of making it the Jacks vs. the Jacks, every game, no matter who our opponent is,” Large added. “We want to be our best selves. We know our standard and if we execute that good things will happen.”

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.