Story by
The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
Matt Zimmer: Holst a winner in debut, but Jackrabbits expect more
- Story byThe Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
- Matt Zimmer: Holst a winner in debut, but Jackrabbits expect more
Sep. 26—BROOKINGS — The 18,264 fans that showed up to watch South Dakota State take on Eastern Illinois on Saturday probably all had the same thing on their minds before the game.
How would Josh Holst perform as the Jackrabbits starting quarterback in the absence of Chase Mason ?
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Last year Mason went down in the middle of the season and SDSU promptly lost four consecutive games.
Not wanting to face that possibility this year in the event Mason got hurt again, SDSU added former Northern Illinois starter Josh Holst to join returning sophomore Jack Henry as the backup quarterbacks, and after mostly handing off last week in relief, Holst got his first start against the Panthers .
The Jacks won 42-7, leaning on their defense and ground game to outscore EIU 28-0 in the second half. SDSU rushed for 408 yards, one week after rushing for 309. The defense would likely have had a shutout were it not for a fake punt that extended the Panthers' one scoring drive.
That's generally how teams try to win with a backup quarterback — run the ball, play good defense and ask your QB2 to be a game manager.
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Head coach Dan Jackson used those two words when asked to assess Holst's play on Saturday, but it wasn't really a compliment. Holst doesn't want to be just a game manager, and with the explosiveness SDSU has at wide receiver, he shouldn't.
With that being the case, it sounds like the Jacks expect more of Holst if he is asked to start again next week when SDSU faces soon-to-no-longer-be No. 3 Illinois State in Normal (the Redbirds were upset by Northern Iowa on Saturday).
"Some of the play actions and those sort of things, I thought (Holst) threw really well," Jackson said. "I liked how he's got big vision. He sees a lot of the field, you know, and everybody is excited that he likes going to the tight ends and those things. But on the whole, he needs to play better. We need to give our receivers shots at these passes. We're getting one-on-one coverage and we're running by people and we need to just put it somewhere where we have a shot. So that's going to be something that we need to emphasize is the timing on those throws.
"It's not about being perfect on those throws," the coach added. "Put it where our guys can go get it. He believes in our receivers. We really believe in our wide outs. And so when we get those one-on-one shots, we need to hit those. And so that's an area that we really need to improve on."
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Holst finished his first start 11-of-22 for 176 yards. He threw one touchdown pass, to a wide open Ben Brooks (the first career touchdown for the tight end from Madison), and did not turn the ball over. He connected with tight end Coleman Kuntz four times for 81 yards. He also had a nice 15-yard run up the middle, showing off his athleticism.
But the timing was off on a couple throws, even completions, and there were a couple plays where the receiver he targeted might not have been the best option.
For his part, Holst seemed to agree with his coach that he can be better.
"It was all right," Holst said. "I mean, a slow start in the first half. I've got to be better for sure. I mean, 50% completion percentage, we've got to be way better on that, too.
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Still getting timing down with these receivers, but just got to be better in the first half. And then we came out in the second half, we had more juice. I've got to bring more juice to the offense in the first half for sure."
Henry came in for a few plays in the first half as a running threat and entered the game in relief of Holst after the score reached 42-7. He threw an interception on his first attempt.
It felt like getting the passing game going was a priority for offensive coordinator Eric Eidsness in the first half, and the struggle to do that resulted in the Jacks only holding a 14-7 lead.
That meant SDSU still had to, you know, win the game, so they went to the ground game coming out of the locker room and scored on one play in each of their first two possessions — a 48-yard run by James Basinger and a 61-yard run by Corey Blair.
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Certainly it's a luxury to be able to do that, but it won't be as easy to just line up and run it down people's throats in Valley play.
So Holst will continue the work this week in practice, hoping to tighten the screws so the passing game is enough of a threat that the Redbirds won't feel comfortable loading up the box to stop the running game next week.
"I definitely felt way more comfortable this week," Holst said. "Obviously getting a whole week with the ones and just getting that timing down, getting the cadence down with the O-line, getting right with the backs too, getting good handoffs. Yeah, I mean, after getting a full week, obviously it's going to be better, and then even after this week, it's going to be even better next week."
The running game was something of a question mark before the season. The Jacks graduated 1,000-yard rusher Julius Loughridge. Their trio of youngsters were promising but unproven. Now they look like a serious strength of this team. The Jacks are running all over people. That's the backbone to winning football in the Valley, but Jackson wants an explosive passing game to go with it, no matter who's behind center.
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SDSU hasn't ruled out Mason returning for Illinois State, but that feels like a longshot.
"Clearly, if you're playing us you're going to try to stop the run," Jackson said. "We need to be very good off play action. Those two things marry together. It could be very scary if we can start hitting on these downfield throws because we can run the ball and then we can connect downfield. Then defenses have to make some decisions, and that's where we just still have so much room to improve."
