Rising in the Valley
07/22/2009
ST. LOUIS - South Dakota State seems to be gaining respect within one of the most respected conferences in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Last year, their first in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, the Jackrabbits were picked sixth in the nine-team preseason poll and had just one player on the all-conference squad. At the annual league media day on Monday, they were tabbed third - exactly where they finished in 2008 - and had five players on the preseason all-league team.
Those designations won't mean anything when the season starts on Sept. 12, but it's an indication that SDSU is being perceived differently by its closest competitors.
"South Dakota State has always got the blue-collar, hard-working football players, and they earned the respect," Missouri State coach Terry Allen said. "They're going to come out and play hard whether it's 90 degrees or 20 below. I know they've got our respect."
They should - the Jacks beat the Bears 43-13 last fall, one of four league games that SDSU won by at least 30 points.
Just a year ago, the Jacks were almost an afterthought despite coming off their first conference title in four decades, overshadowed by fellow Valley newcomer North Dakota State. Coming off a 10-1 season, the Bison were picked to win the league in 2008. But they wound up tied for fourth, two games behind SDSU (6-2). And the Jacks beat NDSU for the second year in a row, this time in Fargo.
On Monday, SDSU was picked to finish ahead of the Bison for the first time since the schools moved to the NCAA Division I level in 2004.
"More attention was paid to North Dakota State," Southern Illinois linebacker Ryan Patton admitted, "but throughout the season, you'd see that South Dakota State was beating teams, and you realized they're just as good as anybody in the league."
Being chosen third is significant because the Valley has qualified at least three teams for the playoffs twice since 2003.
Still, SDSU - like everybody else - wants to finish first not third. With 14 returning starters, five preseason all-conference picks and a Buck Buchanan candidate in defensive end Danny Batten, might the Jacks - ranked as high as 20th in the early national polls - have a playoff-caliber team?
"If our offense does what they can do, and that doesn't mean be the same as last year, but do their part, yeah, I think we do," said coach John Stiegelmeier, whose team has won seven games three years in a row. "We have a good kicking game and we have a good defense. It could come down to a play."
In other words, things will play out on the field - and that's precisely how SDSU has improved its preseason standing.
"You can't put too much into that," Batten said of the predictions. "You take that the wrong way and you'll finish dead last in this league. You should take that as more motivation and a sign that you've got more potential."
more news »
|