Vikings and Coyotes miss the Jackrabbits

[89rabbit]

Here is a link to a story that almost breaks your heart. :'( ;D

http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Sa...article3.shtml

Augustana, USD expect exciting game
By Matt Zimmer
For the Argus Leader

published: 10/2/2004

Teams hope to grow rivalry between schools over upcoming years

South Dakota, welcome to your growing college football rivalry.

Augustana visits South Dakota today at the DakotaDome in a 2 p.m. game that might be just a little bigger than it has been in recent years. South Dakota State's migration to Division I leaves the Vikings and Coyotes searching for an archnemisis. It is logical that they will turn to each other.

The No. 25 Coyotes (4-1, 0-1 North Central Conference) are coming off a tough loss at Nebraska-Omaha, while the Vikings, fresh off a hard-fought loss to No. 2 North Dakota last weekend, are gradually convincing observers that they can be a factor in the NCC.

USD leads the all-time series 40-19.

While both teams realize the long history of their respective rivalries with the Jackrabbits will be difficult to replace, they also expect their familiarity with each other to create an exciting game.

"To be honest, and I think the USD players would tell you the same thing, SDSU has always been the one on the calendar that you circle," said Vikings coach Jim Heinitz. "But now, with SDSU gone, this game will certainly take on an added significance. I just think it will take some time for the rivalry to develop."

USD coach Ed Meierkort agreed the Jacks will be a difficult enemy to replace.

"Honestly I don't think the SDSU rivalry can be replaced," Meierkort said. "The State/U rivalry is 110 years old. That kind of deep rooted disdain is hard to replace."

SDSU plays Augustana this season on Nov. 6, but that series is expected to end soon. . . .


I know the State game was big for USD and Augie, but really we had kind of left them behind. We had beaten both 8 out of the last 10 times we played them. I am glad they are looking to each other.

Go State, South Dakota's only D-I University! ;D

[89rabbit]

Re: Vikings and Coyotes miss the Jackrabbits

Yet another story:

http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Sundayarticle1.shtml

Searching for a rivalry
Peter Harriman
Argus Leader

published: 10/3/2004

USD-Augustana clash missing some SDSU heat

A college rivalry ought to be of infinite importance without making the least bit of sense.

It ought to involve investing immense amounts of time and emotion without real consequence - like playing with house money. A perceived slight, an exaggerated difference and entangled relationships are ideal foundations for decades of cheerful enmity.

Vying for a trophy that wouldn't get sold off the "anything-here-for 50-cents" table at a yard sale is good, too.

Most would agree that Augustana and the University of South Dakota football teams have that final requirement taken care of with the Silver Bedpan Trophy.

The rest of that rivalry stuff - the focused energy, the sense of anticipation. Well, from looking at and around USD's 23-0 win over Augustana Saturday in the DakotaDome, the schools, fans and players are still working on it.

When South Dakota State tipped its hat and departed to Division I at the end of last season, Augustana College athletic director Bill Gross and his University of South Dakota counterpart, Joel Nielsen, looked at their respective situations as South Dakota's remaining representatives in the North Central Conference and figured, why not?

"We've got a rivalry with USD. Now is an opportunity to make it better," Gross says.

"We already have established a base. We're looking at ancillary things we can do to provide more excitement within our fan and media base to bring along that spirited enthusiasm that we had with some of our other rivals," says Nielsen.

If they are successful, the Silver Bedpan Trophy, presented for the fourth time to the winner of the game by Sioux Valley Hospital in honor of former Augustana team doctor Jeffrey Behrens, a USD medical school graduate, will become the most coveted sports icon in all South Dakota.

The test drive for this new relationship began Saturday with the Vikings-Coyote dust-up that was the centerpiece of USD's Dakota Days. After the bands and floats and equestrian units concluded the parade and surrendered Main Street to the red-clad Coyote Nation wandering from watering hole to watering hole, the first generation of post USD-SDSU fans began contemplating a brave new world.

"I'm already hating the Augies," Erica Schroeder remarked helpfully. The junior from Miller was doing the pre-game with a pair of teammates from the USD women's basketball team, Vanessa Yanez, of Wagner, and Meghan Woster, of Sioux Falls.

Schroeder figures a Vikings' rivalry has a chance but acknowledged "we like Augie a lot better than we like State." . . .

Jan and Brad Pedersen came to watch their son Ian Stark, Augustana's starting left guard.

She noted the Vikings' schedule and suggested any real rivalry with USD will have to wait a year. "This year they're still playing SDSU," she said. "That's who he wants to get." . . .

For all the efforts of Gross and Nielsen to increase advertising, get their football game televised, to play each other on Dakota Days and Viking Days, and to move a basketball game this winter to the Sioux Falls Arena, the real engine rooms of rivalries are places like Carey's. After the parade and before the game, it all but required a running start to get into that Main Street landmark that celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. It was standing-room-only.

The only color in the place was USD's red.

That is in marked contrast with how things used to be with the USD-SDSU rivalry, says Jon Louden, of Mitchell, and Todd Rodig, of Yankton, who were students at USD from 1986-91. They reminisced from the more sedate surroundings at The Pressbox. . . .

In the meantime, Cory Novak, a USD senior from Vermillion, delivers an epitaph that also points to the challenge USD and Augustana face in their effort to become archrivals.

"It wasn't Ohio State and Michigan," Novak fondly recalls of USD's former great rivalry. "But it WAS State."



Silver Bedpan, he he he ;D Very fitting.

Go State! ;D

[Rabbit_FB_Alum]

Re: Vikings and Coyotes miss the Jackrabbits

Silver Bedpan, he he he Very fitting.

Yes, very fitting for the USD vs. Augie Turd Bowl. I don't want to look ahead and get cocky, but if USD beat Augie this bad, we will destroy them. I can't wait!!!! As a former player I always hated Augie more than USD. Augie is so arrogent. They have always been a second rate NCC team that always acted like they were just as good as the next team. They have the rich private school attitude and they hate us just cause we don't.