Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

[bisonbacker]

I thought you guys would like to read this story in the Forum about SDSU's scheduling philosiphy. I have a lot of repsect for your program and this is why.

http://www.in-forum.com/Sports/articles/222532

The Montana schools should take a lesson about honoring commitments.

[senator07]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

can someone please post the Article??? I am not logged into the Fargo paper.

thanks

[jackbusiness09]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

Here it is, I believe I registered for free on the Forum website a long time ago.

Challenging schedule sets Jackrabbits apart
Jeff Kolpack, The Forum
Published Thursday, November 20, 2008

For South Dakota State, the decision was made long ago in offices and meeting rooms. If the Jackrabbits were going to attack the NCAA Division I move, they would do so by playing the best teams they could find.
They certainly accomplished their mission in football this year. The Jackrabbits will take a 6-5 record and arguably the toughest schedule in the Football Championship Subdivision to the Fargodome on Saturday night to play North Dakota State.

There was no breather in nonconference games. The one game that in preseason looked like it may have been – a road game at Stephen F. Austin (0-11 last season) – ended up in a wild 50-48 SDSU win when the Jacks scored on the last play of the game.

Other non-Missouri Valley Football Conference games were against two ranked FCS teams and Iowa State of the Big 12 Conference.

“We felt early on in the transition and in the first years of Division I that for us to understand it and force ourselves to be competitive, we couldn’t do it unless we could find the best teams,” said SDSU athletic director Fred Oien. “It hurts you in some ways and helps you in some ways.”

It certainly hurt SDSU’s playoff chances this year. If the Jacks traded a couple of their nonconference foes for say NDSU’s Central Connecticut State and Austin Peay State University, they may have had a postseason at-large bid on the line Saturday.

Instead, they dropped a thrilling 46-44 decision to fourth-ranked McNeese State (Miss.) and were beaten 42-28 to third-ranked California Poly.

Second thoughts on the schedule?

“A lot of them,” said SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier. “You’re risking your record. You’re kicking yourself out of contention early if you don’t win. We had to battle back and we had a chance at the end of the season but fell short last weekend.”

A 38-35 loss at Southern Illinois ended their playoff hopes.

Stiegelmeier said he hopes to revisit the scheduling philosophy. But the Jacks have already filled their nonconference quota for the next few years.

And the final decision also rests with Oien.

Three of SDSU’s games this year were the result of loyalty. Oien said SDSU made a “long-standing commitment to Cal Poly to play them because of that they did for us in the Great West.”

Cal Poly and SDSU, as well as NDSU, were original members of the Great West Football Conference. Cal Poly, because of its location and good program, yearly has trouble finding any FCS school to play.

Oien also likes to schedule teams from the Southland Conference, such as McNeese State and Stephen F. Austin, because those schools inked home-and-home deals with the Jacks during the transition.

“Same kind of situation as Cal Poly,” he said. “In our business, sometimes you can out-think yourself in scheduling and forget about the most important thing and that’s the experience for the student-athletes.”

[JackJD]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

I'm impressed by one of Dr. Oien's primary reasons for the tough schedule: loyalty. And, as noted by Bisonbacker in starting the thread...the Montana schools have no idea what Dr. Oien was talking about.

[JackJD]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

I think a modified version of the article appeared in this morning's Watertown Public Opinion. Gary Ebel, the Yankton kid playing for the Buyzun, was quoted a couple times and his picture is included in the article (I'd give him the Rudy Rudiger look-alike award).

The game has gotten some attention in Watertown.

[g_mandakota]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

McFeely's Recap of Game in the Fargo Forum:

South Dakota State quarterback Ryan Berry doesn’t remember much of Saturday night’s game. North Dakota State might be a little jealous. The battle over the vaunted Dakota Marker was another game to forget in a season full of them for the once-mighty Bison.

South Dakota State ended the Bison’s season once and for all with a 25-24 victory at the Fargodome in another whale of a ballgame in a series that’s tilted toward the south.

Since the big granite chunk became part of this competition, the Jackrabbits have a 3-2 advantage over the Bison. Until Saturday they hadn’t won in Fargo since 1962, approximately the same year NDSU last hosted a playoff game.

Speaking of playoffs, the loss finally ends all chatter about NDSU sneaking into the Football Championship Subdivision postseason. The Bison finished 6-5. They are done. They can look ahead to next year and wonder if their quarterback has the right stuff.

Berry, we learned, most certainly does. Knocked silly by a helmet-to-helmet hit on the game’s first series, the senior said the first half was pretty much a blank spot on his brain.

After being removed after the first two series, he returned late in the game after receiving clearance from doctors and threw the game-winning touchdown and 2-point conversion pass.

“I don’t remember much about the game, but what I do remember is pretty good,” Berry said.

Concussions and amnesia are nothing to joke about, but Berry was in high spirits after the game. He said his mother secured about 125 tickets for relatives and friends, and there’s no doubt those folks were relieved Berry returned to the game with good health and then led the Jacks to a victory in his finale.

He was missing in action from late in the first quarter until midway through the fourth. While Berry was trying to get his bearings, backup Ryan Crawford did a creditable job of steering the ship. Crawford entered the game having completed just 4 passes in 7 attempts this season, and while his performance was acceptable it was clear the Jackrabbits had to rein in the playbook with him on the field.

The statistics looked all right – Crawford finished 10 of 13 for 50 yards and a TD – but the most important numbers went to NDSU’s side of the ledger. The Jackrabbits went from leading 9-7 at halftime to trailing 24-17 after Shawn Bibeau’s 39-yard field goal with 6:32 remaining.

Crawford’s day had ended a few minutes earlier, when he broke his right wrist after being hit by the Bison’s Joe Lardinois on an incomplete pass.

SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier’s choices were Berry or former QB-turned-safety Corey Jeske. It was no choice after the team doctor cleared Berry to play.

“I was all right when I went back in, but I’m not sure I was ready to play because I hadn’t warmed up or anything,” Berry said. “That first series we went three and out and I was trying to not turn it over. I was just trying to get going again.”

Berry went back in the game with 9:47 left and was sacked twice before the Jacks had to punt. Bibeau’s field goal came shortly thereafter.

The winning drive began at the Jacks 32 with 6:32 left. The biggest play was a 19-yard completion to JaRon Harris to the NDSU 27, which was followed by a 15-yard personal foul on Bison safety Nick Schommer. That put the ball on NDSU’s 13.

Berry hit Harris for a 1-yard score with 2:20 left and followed that by finding Mike Steffen for the 2-point conversion.

“We were a little surprised,” Bison linebacker Mike Maresh said, when asked about Berry’s return. “At first we thought it might’ve been kind of a good thing, but it turned out it wasn’t.”

In a season that never quite worked out for NDSU, Berry’s comeback was another dagger. The Bison knocked out two quarterbacks, only to see one return to beat them. It was that kind of season for a team that had national championship aspirations.

Forum sports columnist Mike McFeely can be heard on the Saturday Morning Sports Show, 10 a.m. to noon on WDAY-AM (970). He can be reached at (701) 241-5580 or mmcfeely@forumcomm.com. McFeely’s blog can be found at www.areavoices.com

[rabbits64]

Re: Good Article on SDSU in the Forum

The Fargo media is giving the Jacks a lot of credit, and giving Berry all the praise he deserves. I am glad they aren't questioning any of the penalties and flat out giving props to the better team last night.