Oct. 24—BROOKINGS — Moments after his team's 21-10 loss to North Dakota last Saturday in Grand Forks, South Dakota State coach Dan Jackson was talking about response.
There was no sugarcoating it — his team had played poorly against the Fighting Hawks. There was nothing fluky about the loss. It wasn't the kind of game where you took solace in having played well and just coming up a little short.
No, the Jacks had laid an egg, and it was going to make their path to a potential national championship more difficult. Jackson wanted to see how his team would respond to that loss, both in practice leading up to their next game and in Saturday's return to Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium against last-place Murray State.
The Jackrabbits beat the Racers 42-9 in front of a Hobo Day crowd of 19,302, controlling the action from start-to-finish to improve to 6-2 on the year and get back some of their mojo as they prepare for perhaps their biggest game of the season, the nationally-televised Halloween rivalry game against South Dakota.
The Jacks had looked fairly uninspired against UND, and while it took them a minute to get going against Murray State, too, SDSU did what they needed to do to go into the clash with the Coyotes in a good headspace.
"The vibes were pretty high," said senior linebacker Cullen McShane, who had a team-high 10 tackles to help the Jacks keep the Racers out of the end zone. "I mean, we had a bad taste in our mouth, so we were really excited to just get back and get after it right away. I mean, honestly on Saturday after we were in Grand Forks, I wished we had a game on Sunday, because I just wanted to get back and flush that out of our system. We came out flying around and ready to strike."
Jackson would say later that McShane said the same thing to him the day after the UND loss. The Jacks couldn't turn back the clock to erase the loss to the Hawks, but they could make sure they didn't repeat the mistakes of that one, and for the most part, Jackson liked what he saw.
Captain Quinten Christensen had said moments after the UND loss that the players would have to take a hard look at themselves, and it sounds like they did that.
"The team came back ready to go," Jackson said. "They weren't physically beat up — they knew that they didn't execute very well. I'll keep the specifics between us, but we had a really intense team meeting on Monday. We're a really connected program and we love each other, so we're going to tell each other the truth and hold the highest level of accountability — staff and players — in front of each other directly. I thought from Monday night on we were certainly on the right path."
In a move that felt more symbolic than strategic, the Jacks took the ball after winning the coin toss, instead of their usual play of deferring to the second half.
It didn't pay off, as the Jacks went 3-and-out, but the message being sent was obvious.
"Go out there and do our thing, kind of like Cullen said, we had that taste in our mouth the entire week," said senior wideout Grahm Goering. "It was just something like, let's go out there, first drive, and do what we can, and when the offense gets rolling, it brings some juice, so that was the plan."
It didn't work right away, as the Jacks came up empty on 3rd and 1 on that opening series. Jackson admitted he was tempted to go for it even in their own territory, but thought better of it. He figured the offense would get going, and they did starting with the next drive. A 9-play, 84-yard sojourn ended with a Josiah Johnson touchdown run and a 7-0 lead, the first of five consecutive scoring drives that made it 27-6.
The Jacks punted on their first drive of the second half, too, then quickly answered with two more touchdowns.
"We were just playing complementary football," said Goering, who had five catches for 59 yards including his first touchdown of the season, an 18-yarder that made it 14-0. "I really felt when we were throwing it, we were getting rolling, and then off the running backs and the O-line, we were moving the ball. When we can do that, we're unstoppable, and that's what it felt like."
Chase Mason was sharp at quarterback for SDSU, completing 18-of-26 throws for 197 yards. The Racers kept their safeties deep all game, limiting the Jacks' ability to go deep, but they responded by throwing underneath routs that led to Jack Smith and Lofton O'Groske netting six catches apiece in addition to Goering's five. That was accompanied by 199 rushing yards — 92 from Johnson and 56 from James Basinger.
SDSU's longest play of the day was 27 yards, but they finished with 28 first downs, 434 yards of offense and were 10-of-15 on 3rd downs. What they lacked in explosiveness they made up for with consistent, sustained drives.
A cynic would point out that the Jackrabbits were doing all of this against a Murray State team that is now 5-38 since joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and they'd have a valid point. But the Racers are making visible progress, and they gave North Dakota and South Dakota more trouble than they did the Jacks on Saturday.
And, frankly, getting the Racers this week was good timing. The Jacks get their bounce-back win, they sharpen up their passing game, get back to their home fans after a month away from them and rebuild some confidence ahead of a rivalry game that figures to be exceptionally entertaining and intense. The Coyotes (7-2) took a 17-0 lead on UND on Saturday in Vermillion and held on for a 26-23 overtime win.
"The Yotes are a really good team, and I saw they beat UND, so it's gonna be a dogfight," Goering said. "And it's on our home turf. It's gonna be a really good matchup and I'm excited for it."
