Despite the loss of a legendary backfield, South Dakota State has not skipped a beat.
In the of-season leading up to the 2015 campaign, the Jackrabbits bid adieu to Austin Sumner, a four-year starter at quarterback who threw for 9,458 yards and 65 touchdowns in his career. Just that departure would be enough to cause a perennial playoff team to take a step backward.
SDSU also saw the end of the Zach Zenner era, an even more devastating blow. Zenner rushed for more than 2,000 yards three years in a row, finishing his career with 6,548. He finished just 11 yards shy of former Georgia Southern running back Adrian Peterson’s FCS record for yards in a career and scored 69 total touchdowns. Before breaking his ribs, he was a main ball carrier for the Detroit Lions.
SDSU quarterback Zach Lujan throws a pass against Southern Utah/by Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen
Sumner and Zenner helped lead the Jackrabbits to playoff wins in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the first three postseason victories by SDSU since joining Division I in 2004. SDSU eliminated a Big Sky Conference team each of the last two seasons, defeating Northern Arizona 26-7 in 2013 and Montana State 47-40 last fall.
With Zenner and Sumner graduated, SDSU was picked to finish in the middle of the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference in the preseason poll. But South Dakota State wasted no time making a splash on the FCS national scene.
SDSU built a 31-7 first-half lead behind quarterback Zach Lujan’s three touchdown passes before holding on for a season-opening 41-38 win at FBS Kansas. The following week, running back Brady Mengarelli rushed for 143 yards and three touchdowns in a 55-10 demolition of eventual Big Sky champion Southern Utah.
South Dakota State would climb as high as No. 5 in the FCS polls and would linger in the top eight until Halloween. The final two weeks of the regular season, SDSU was back up to No. 5 thanks to a 25-20 win over 2014 national runner up Illinois State, at the time the No. 2 team in the country.
On Saturday, South Dakota State will make its fourth straight playoff appearance as the No. 10 Jackrabbits face off with No. 17 Montana at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula at 1 p.m.
“To be honest with you, so few people appreciate and understand what this football team has done,” SDSU 20th-year head coach John Stiegelmeier said. “How have we done it? With unbelievable leadership. I don’t know how many stars we have on the football team but I know how many star leaders we have and they are phenomenal.
A horde of SDSU defenders take down a NDSU ball carrier/by Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen
“We did it because of the expectations in the program, because of the guys who have gone before and the expectations those guys left of the guys that came after them that this is what you do at the end of the season. You have Thanksgiving together and you literally go somewhere and play a football game.”
T.J. Lally is a two-time All-Missouri Valley selection at linebacker and the Jackrabbits’ defensive leader the last two seasons. He said the departure of SDSU’s headlining stars has helped raise the play of the ‘Jacks that remain.
“There’s a different feel on this team in a lot of ways,” Lally said. “I think part of that is losing guys like Zach Zenner and Austin Somner put extra pressure on the team but it also brought us closer together. It let us know that if we had to do what we had to do, we would have to rely on all of us equally. The onus was really left on everyone.”
Despite the resurgence of the players and the emergence of new leadership, South Dakota State finds itself playing a first-round game on the road for a third straight season.
The 8-3 Lumberjacks had their first two losses come to ranked Missouri Valley teams. In Brookings, South Dakota against four-time defending national champion North Dakota State, the Bison pitched a shutout for the first 59 minutes of the game and smothered SDSU for -4 yards rushing in a 28-7 loss.
Lujan, a junior who filled in for an injured Sumner for a good portion of 2015, suffered an ankle injury against NDSU. With true freshman Taryn Christion starting at quarterback, SDSU rallied for a 24-7 win over No. 19 Indiana State and a 38-8 win over No. 11 Youngstown State to enter a home matchup with No. 22 Northern Iowa at No. 6 in the country.
SDSU defensive back Je Ryan Bulter returns a kicker vs. SUU/by Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen
With 8:22 to play in the third quarter, Christion hit Connor Landberg for a touchdown to give SDSU a 7-3 lead. On the ensuing UNI drive, quarterback Aaron Bailey found a gap and ripped off a 35-yard touchdown run to put the Panthers up 10-7. With 1:31 to play, the Jackrabbits faced a fourth down and one yards from the UNI 10. Tim Kilfoy stuffed Kyle Paris for a one-yard loss to seal the win.
“The Northern Iowa game is a one-play game,” Stiegelmeier said. “We have a fourth and one from the 10-yard line and we go for it and we don’t block a guy. They stop us. If we get the first down…I think we are surely going to hit the field goal but if we get it, I’m not talking with you today. We have a bye. They played great defense and we made one error on defense and the quarterback went the distance. It was a one-play game for both team.”
Lujan returned and split time with Christion in a 39-0 win over Missouri State. The following week, Christion threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns and rushed nine times for 65 yards and a touchdown in a 25-20 win over Illinois State. Christion’s 74-yard touchdown pass to star receiver Jake Wieneke proved to be the sealing score.
SDSU looked to be zeroing in on a top five seed and a first-round bye after a 30-23 win at rival South Dakota on November 14, the ‘Jacks’ third straight win.
The Jackrabbits spent almost two hours sitting on the highway due to a traffic accident outside Macomb, Illinois as the ‘Jacks tried to get from Peoria to Hanson Field to play Western Illinois. The bus delay came on the heels of a 10-hour flight delay at the Sioux Falls airport.
SDSU running back Brady Mengarelli gets free against UNI/by Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen
Kyle Paris scored a touchdown with 1:35 in regulation to send the game to overtime tied 17-17. Wieneke answered a Western Illinois touchdown to send the game into a second overtime tied 24-24. In the second overtime, Lujan took a third-down sack to set up a 35-yard field goal. Jay Carlson’s kick missed.
A pass interference call gave WIU the ball inside the 10. Two plays later, Sean McGuire scored from seven yards out to punch the Leathernecks’ playoff ticket and cost SDSU a seed.
“We kind of came up flat,” Lally said. “I don’t know if we were looking ahead, trying to get a Top 8 seed or what. Those guys were playing to get into the playoffs so maybe we underestimated them. I really don’t know, that stuff is hard to tell but it was definitely a sense that we came out a little flatter than we usually do and we didn’t capitalize when we needed to.
“Last week was not great and we didn’t play our best football. Besides that, we’ve been very, very happy with the way we’ve played this year. We feel when we are playing our best, we are the best team in the country. We can’t wait to remedy that which we didn’t do last week.”
Photos attribution noted. All Rights Reserved.
