BROOKINGS - South Dakota State talks about going 1-0 every week - a way of narrowing its focus. But now, for the first time in a while, the Jackrabbits actually are 1-0.

And how.

In one of the latest season openers in program history, No. 21-ranked SDSU trounced Georgia Southern 44-6 on Saturday night before a Cereal Bowl record crowd of 12,354 at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

It was just the second Week 1 win for the Jacks in six years at the NCAA Division I level. It was also the first win in four tries against Georgia Southern, owner of a record six Football Championship Subdivision titles.

What's more, the Eagles (1-1) had won seven FCS road games in a row and they hadn't been held to such a low offensive output since a 1995 playoff game at Montana.

GSU coach Chris Hatcher classified it as a "backside whoopin'."

Said SDSU junior running back Kyle Minett, who ran for 128 yards on 22 carries: "We came out and met our ultimate goal of the week - getting to 1-0. It feels great that we started the season 1-0 compared to being in a hole right away like the last couple seasons."

Actually, the Jacks hadn't won their opener since 2005 - and they started 0-3 in both 2006 and 2007. Then again, SDSU gave up 53 points per game in the previous contests against the Eagles, and that didn't mean anything this time.

The Jacks were every bit as dominant defensively as they figured to be considering they return their top eight tacklers from last year. SDSU came up with four takeaways and nine sacks for minus-72 yards.

The score was knotted at 3-3 into the second quarter and the spread was just 10 at the break, but the Eagles never really threatened.

They were held to three first downs in a span of 24 minutes in the middle of the game and finished with 11 yards rushing on 21 attempts.The thing is that SDSU quarterback Ryan Crawford did not play like it was his first career start. The fifth-year senior from Arizona finished 15 of 21 for 180 yards with two touchdowns - both to classmate Mike Steffen - and no turnovers. He threw where he was supposed to, ran at the right times and got rid of the ball when nothing was available.

Under his charge, the No. 1 offense had just one three-and-out - and it resulted in a field goal - and one punt. After leaving points on the field early in the contest with a missed field goal and red-zone fumble, the Jacks scored on five consecutive possessions to turn a 10-3 contest into a 37-6 drubbing.

Sophomore kicker Kyle Harris helped the cause by going 3 of 4 on field goals - the first of his career - and 5 of 5 on PATs in taking over for all-conference junior Peter Reifenrath, who is sidelined due to an academic eligibility issue.

"I think tonight he showed that a lot of time it's much more efficient than trying to whip the ball down the field 40 or 50 times," Minett said.

GSU threw the ball 54 times and wound up with just 232 yards of offense. The Eagles hadn't been beaten so badly since that same December day in Montana 14 years ago.

Yes, the Jacks are off and running.

"It's a simple concept, but it is a focused concept," Stiegelmeier said. "Our guys have responded to it for years around here - it's easy to give a pregame speech because the message I always the same. There's really only one goal and that's to win the football game, and we were able to do that tonight. I'm grateful for that."