After spring title chase, South Dakota State football faces quick turn to fall
May 17—FRISCO, Texas — It was the less ideal of the two options that faced the South Dakota State University football team after Sunday's FCS national championship game.
After their 10th game of a one-off spring season, either way, the Jackrabbits were scheduled to be back on the practice fields in early August and at Colorado State on Saturday, Sept. 4 to open the traditional fall 2021 season. As of Monday, that was 109 days away.
With a win on Sunday, all that hard work would be worth the ultimate prize and the school's first national championship. But after a 23-21 loss to Sam Houston on Sunday, the Jacks will soon turn their focus to the fall as national runners-up and leaving the spring 2021 season with an 8-2 record but unfulfilled, and without holding the hardware they desired.
"The job isn't done. We failed, so it's time to get back to work," SDSU senior cornerback Don Gardner said.
In the postgame press conference, Gardner was asked about being a senior leader. He minced no words about SDSU seeing a real chance for a national title slip away when the Bearkats' Eric Schmid found Ife Adeyi in the front of the end zone between three Jackrabbit defenders for the game-winning score with 16 seconds left.
"Like being here next year isn't guaranteed," Gardner said. "We've got to put in the work day in and day out. We went through 170-something practices to get here and lose. ... To have somebody else hold up a trophy and you're No. 2 and they're No. 1, that really hurts, so use this as motivation."
Outside the final score, it was a cruel finish for the Jackrabbits and their coach John Stiegelmeier, who had noted prior to Sunday's game that the team had been relatively healthy. Now they potentially look ahead to a fall 2021 season without their star quarterback Mark Gronowski, who was the conference player of the year and hurt his left knee on the opening drive of Sunday's game. Stiegelmeier said it was a serious injury that would need to be evaluated further.
Even in the aftermath of a difficult loss, Stiegelmeier held no grudges about how the spring turned out and was grateful for the chance to make a playoff run like no other before in Jackrabbit history.
"We didn't have to play in the spring, we got to play in the spring. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but we embraced it. It wasn't something that we questioned at all," Stiegelmeier said.
Some of SDSU's defeated opponents in this playoff run said they didn't have an exact plan for how they would approach this shortened offseason because they were putting all of their energy into a spring playoff run.
Coach Stig said he had his plan ready, and giving the team two-and-a-half weeks off and then the program will start organized lifting on June 7. He also said he will allow players to take personal time off during this offseason if they need it, in a way that he hasn't done before, being cognizant of the COVID-19 pandemic's mental and physical tolls.
"So if a guy needs to get away because it's been a grind, we'll let him get away," he said. "I just need to know why so I know what's going on in their world."
Because of the pandemic, the NCAA has allowed athletes to treat the 2020-21 season as essentially a free year of eligibility. Stiegelmeier said 12 seniors will return for the fall.
"I think they'll be back real quick, real soon. We've got 12 seniors coming back that are hungry and disappointed. We've got a bunch of young guys that had a taste of this. Football is hard work," Stiegelmier said. "It doesn't matter if you're back to back seasons from spring to fall or just the normal season. It's hard work. It's an unbelievable person that goes into that weight room and runs early in the morning and works a summer job and does his schoolwork for the chance to be one of the 11 guys on the field. Those are the kind of guys we have. They'll be back real soon, I know that."
