Ahhhhh. It feels good to be back. For the 2025 season, I wrote all 12 regular season “Know Your Opponent” articles, plus one for Northwestern’s bowl game. Now, after a short hiatus, we’re back baby! The first game for the Wildcats in their 2026 season is FCS powerhouse South Dakota State. Although the FCS has been losing tons of players to the FBS with the transfer portal and the Jackrabbits didn’t have the same caliber of season in 2025 as they had the the three previous years, with two FCS national
championships and a semifinal finish in the FCS playoffs, they’re still among the top teams in the FCS. Northwestern will take on Griffin Wilde’s former team on the lakefill on Sept. 5 to open up its season.
The Basics
2024 Record: 9-5 (4-4 MVFC)
Head Coach: Dan Jackson (second season)
2025 Capsule
It was a tale of two halves for South Dakota State football in 2025, with injury being a big factor. The Jackrabbits started their season off with a bang, defeating eventual FCS national champion Montana State in double overtime in just their second game of the season. After a win at Murray State on Oct. 18, South Dakota State was 7-0 overall and 3-0 in conference play. In that stretch, it also beat Drake and Youngstown State, both of which made the FCS playoffs. Then, everything flipped. In the first quarter of the Murray State game, starting quarterback Chase Mason went down with an injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season. With the second- and third-string quarterbacks now taking over the reigns, South Dakota State began to struggle.
The Jackrabbits were blown out at home by rival North Dakota State, upset at home by Indiana State, lost by one possession to South Dakota on the road and then were beaten by Illinois State again at home. They did win their final game of the regular season — and overtime victory at North Dakota — but the damage had already occurred. South Dakota State’s 7-0 record quickly became an 8-4 record, including three losses at home in Brookings, South Dakota. Yes, three of those four teams that beat the Jackrabbits made the FCS playoffs (with one of those teams making it all the way to the national championship), but they were supposed to be one of the best teams in the FCS and they were looking like that to start the year. While Mason did return for the playoffs and led his No. 11-seeded Jackrabbits to a blowout victory over New Hampshire in the first round of the FCS playoffs, South Dakota State gave up 50 points to No. 3-seeded Montana as the nail in the coffin.
Offensive Overview
Mason is the key to South Dakota State’s offense. He was on a tear before an injury derailed his and his team’s season. Outside of the playoffs and the game he got hurt in, Mason threw for 1,350 yards and 11 touchdowns with just one interception, completing 106 of his 163 passes. He also had three rushing scores in those first six games he played, plus three more across the Murray State game and the FCS playoffs.
2025 leading rusher Julius Loughridge graduated, paving the way for second- and third-leading rushers Josiah Johnson and James Basinger to take over. Both backs rushed for over 300 yards, with the former scoring six rushing touchdowns and the latter scoring five. Like Loughridge, South Dakota State’s top receiving threat from 2025, Alex Bullock, graduated. Its second, third, fourth and fifth leading pass catchers do all return: wide receivers Grahm Goering, Jack Smith and Lofton O’Groske, and tight end Greyton Gannon. Goering was second in receiving yards for the Jackrabbits with 656, while the other three all had over 350 receiving yards. All four combined for 13 of South Dakota State’s 24 receiving touchdowns in 2025. Gannon was named to the All-MVFC First Team for his play at TE in 2025 as well, while O’Groske built great chemistry with Mason before he too went down with an injury that derailed his 2025 season.
On the offensive line, the Jackrabbits returned the three players with the most snaps. Quinten Christensen, who was named to the 2025 All-MVFC First Team and the 2025 Stats Perform All-American Second Team, is the best player here. Shane Willenbring is another returner on the O-line for South Dakota State after he was named to the 2025 Stats Perform Freshman All-American team. William Paepke is the other returning snaps leader for the Jackrabbits. Kenyon BigBow is another returning offensive lineman for South Dakota State after he logged over 540 snaps in 2025.
Overall, it’s hard to analyze how the Jackrabbits performed offensively when comparing them to other teams in their conference and in the FCS because Mason’s injury changed how their season went. Nonetheless, they should be firing on all cylinders to begin their season if everyone stays healthy.
Defensive Overview
Depth was an issue for South Dakota State’s defense in 2025. However, this offseason the Jackrabbits brought in multiple transfers to help out with this, adding to them returning eight of their top 15 snap leaders on defense. On the defensive line, Logan Green returns as the anchor of the interior D-line after finishing the 2025 season with 10 tackles-for-loss (TFLs) and 5.5 sacks. At edge rusher, Dawson Ripperda returns following an 8.5 TFL, five sack season in 2025.
Linebacker is probably the strongest part of this defense, largely in part to the returns of 2025 All-MVFC Second-Team selection Cullen McShane and 2025 All-MVFC Honorable Mention Joe Ollman. McShane and Ollman were the two leading tacklers for the Jackrabbits, with the former recording 88 tackles and 7.5 TFLs, while the latter had 94 tackles, 8.5 TFLs and three sacks. South Dakota State also brings back Kytan Fyfe and Bryce Johnson at LB, both of whom recorded 39 tackles in 2025. Lastly, Chase Van Tol had a strong season with 38 tackles, four sacks and an interception through eight games before injury. The depth at LB for the Jackrabbits is something to watch for.
South Dakota State’s secondary struggled down the stretch of 2025, including giving up 361 passing yards to Montana when it lost 50-29 in the second round of the FCS playoffs. In that unit, the Jackrabbits lose their top two safeties and top three cornerbacks in snaps from a season ago. Both CB Noah St-Juste and S Dontay Jackson do return to help provide some stability after logging over 450 snaps each, but South Dakota State brought in many transfers to help in the secondary. The Jackrabbits landed five non-Division I transfers on defense, something they have succeeded with doing in the recent past.
This defense has its strengths, but also has its uncertainties. The linebackers should be a staple and the D-line should be solid, but the secondary is where the questions arise.
