2018 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team

The 2018 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team represented South Dakota State University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by 22nd-year head coach John Stiegelmeier and played their home games at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, South Dakota as members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They finished the season 10–3, 6–2 in MVFC play to finish in second place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they defeated Duquesne in the second round and Kennesaw State in the quarterfinals, before losing in the semifinals to North Dakota State.

2018 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football
FCS Playoffs Semifinals, L 21–44 vs. North Dakota State
Conference	Missouri Valley Football Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 3
FCS Coaches	No. 3
2018 record	10–3 (6–2 MVFC)
Head coach	John Stiegelmeier (22nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Eric Eidsness (13th season)
Defensive coordinator	Clint Brown
Home stadium	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium (Capacity: 19,340)[1]

2018 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 1 North Dakota State $^		8	–	0					15	–	0
No. 3 South Dakota State ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 23 Northern Iowa ^		5	–	3					7	–	6
Indiana State		5	–	3					7	–	4
Western Illinois		4	–	4					5	–	6
Illinois State		3	–	5					6	–	5
Youngstown State		3	–	5					4	–	7
South Dakota		3	–	5					4	–	7
Missouri State		2	–	6					4	–	7
Southern Illinois		1	–	7					2	–	9
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

The Jackrabbits finished the 2017 season 11–3, 6–2 in MVFC play to finish in a tie for second place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs[2] where they defeated Northern Iowa in the second round[3][4] and New Hampshire in the quarterfinals[5] before losing in the semifinals to James Madison.[6]

Preseason

Award watch lists

Award	Player	Position	Year
Walter Payton Award[7]	Taryn Christion	QB	SR
Buck Buchanan Award[8]	Christian Rozeboom	LB	JR

Preseason MVFC poll

The MVFC released their preseason poll on July 29, 2018, with the Jackrabbits predicted to finish in second place.[9]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	North Dakota State	390 (39)
2	South Dakota State	270
3	Northern Iowa	258
4	Youngstown State	248
5	Illinois State	248
6	South Dakota	206
7	Western Illinois	163
8	Southern Illinois	139
9	Missouri State	90
10	Indiana State	41

Preseason All-MVFC Teams

The Jackrabbits placed seven players at eight positions on the preseason all-MVFC teams.[10]

Offense 1st team Taryn Christion – QB Chase Vinatieri – K 2nd team Luke Sellers – FB Cade Johnson – WR Bradey Sorenson – LS

Defense 1st team Christian Rozeboom – LB Jordan Brown – DB 2nd team Cade Johnson – RS

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	7:00 p.m.	at Iowa State*	No. 3	Jack Trice Stadium Ames, IA		Cancelled[lower-alpha 1]	–
September 8	6:00 p.m.	Montana State*	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 45–14	14,614
September 15	6:00 p.m.	Arkansas–Pine Bluff*	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 90–6	14,526
September 29	2:30 p.m.	at No. 1 North Dakota State	No. 3	Fargodome Fargo, ND (Dakota Marker)	ESPN+/Midco	L 17–21	18,846
October 6	6:00 p.m.	Indiana State	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 54–51 ^OT	10,318
October 13	2:00 p.m.	Youngstown State	No. 2	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 36–7	14,357
October 20	4:00 p.m.	at No. 25 Northern Iowa	No. 2	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	ESPN3	L 9–24	12,013
October 27	12:00 p.m.	at No. 11 Illinois State	No. 7	Hancock Stadium Normal, IL	ESPN3	W 38–28	12,144
November 3	2:00 p.m.	Missouri State	No. 7	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 59–7	5,869
November 10	1:00 p.m.	at Southern Illinois	No. 6	Saluki Stadium Carbondale, IL	ESPN+	W 57–38	4,433
November 17	2:00 p.m.	South Dakota	No. 5	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD (South Dakota Showdown Series)	Midco	W 49–27	8,517
December 1	2:00 p.m.	Duquesne*	No. 5	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 51–6	3,042
December 8	1:00 p.m.	at No. 2 Kennesaw State*	No. 5	Fifth Third Bank Stadium Kennesaw, GA (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN3	W 27–17	3,262
December 14	7:00 p.m.	at No. 1 North Dakota State*	No. 5	Fargodome Fargo, ND (FCS Playoffs Semifinals)	ESPN2	L 21–44	18,286
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

• Source: Schedule

1. Game was cancelled due to inclement weather.[11]

Roster

2018 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 1 Jacob Brown Jr QB 2 J'Bore Gibbs Fr QB 3 Taryn Christion Sr RB 5 Blair Mulholland So RB 8 C. J. Wilson Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 2 Christian Rozeboom Jr S 3 Joshua Manchigiah So S 6 Makiah Slade Sr LB 7 Seven Wilson So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class PK 4 Chase Vinatieri Jr	Head coach John Stiegelmeier Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Game summaries

Montana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bobcats	0	0	8	6	14
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	17	14	7	45

See also: 2018 Montana State Bobcats football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–10	2017	SDSU, 31–27

Arkansas–Pine Bluff

	1	2	3	4	Total
Golden Lions	6	0	0	0	6
No. 3 Jackrabbits	28	21	21	20	90

See also: 2018 Arkansas–Pine Bluff Golden Lions football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

at North Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	0	10	0	17
No. 1 Bison	0	14	0	7	21

See also: 2018 North Dakota State Bison football team and Dakota Marker

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
40–58–5	2017	SDSU, 33–21

Indiana State

	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
Sycamores	10	7	7	24	3	51
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	14	21	6	6	54

See also: 2018 Indiana State Sycamores football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6–2	2015	SDSU, 24–7

Youngstown State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Penguins	7	0	0	0	7
No. 2 Jackrabbits	9	7	7	13	36

See also: 2018 Youngstown State Penguins football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–7	2017	YSU, 19–7

at Northern Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 2 Jackrabbits	3	0	0	6	9
No. 25 Panthers	0	7	7	10	24

See also: 2018 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
21–30–2	2017 FCS Playoffs	SDSU, 37–22

at Illinois State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 7 Jackrabbits	7	21	7	3	38
No. 11 Redbirds	7	0	0	21	28

See also: 2018 Illinois State Redbirds football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–4	2017	SDSU, 27–24

Missouri State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	7	0	0	7
No. 7 Jackrabbits	7	31	7	14	59

See also: 2018 Missouri State Bears football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
9–1	2017	SDSU, 62–30

at Southern Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Jackrabbits	10	20	20	7	57
Salukis	3	14	21	0	38

See also: 2018 Southern Illinois Salukis football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–3	2017	SDSU, 49–14

South Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
Coyotes	7	0	7	13	27
No. 5 Jackrabbits	28	7	7	7	49

See also: 2018 South Dakota Coyotes football team and South Dakota–South Dakota State football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
51–51–7	2017	SDSU, 31–28

FCS Playoffs

Duquesne–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
Dukes	0	0	6	0	6
No. 5 Jackrabbits	7	17	20	7	51

See also: 2018 Duquesne Dukes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–1	2017	SDSU, 51–13

at Kennesaw State–Quarterfinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Jackrabbits	3	14	3	7	27
No. 2 Owls	3	0	0	14	17

See also: 2018 Kennesaw State Owls football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

at North Dakota State–Semifinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Jackrabbits	7	0	14	0	21
No. 1 Bison	7	7	21	9	44

See also: 2018 North Dakota State Bison football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
40–59–5	10/29/18	NDSU, 21–17

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2	7	7	6	5	5	3
Coaches	3	3	3	3	3	4–T	5	2	8	7	6	5	5	3

Players drafted into the NFL

See also: 2019 NFL Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	NFL Club
7	223	Jordan Brown	CB	Cincinnati Bengals

References

1. "Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Gameday". September 7, 2016.
2. "South Dakota State nabs No. 5 seed in FCS playoffs". Argus Leader. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
3. "Northern Iowa vs. South Dakota State - Game Recap - December 2, 2017 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
4. Nelson, Jim. "College football: UNI falls to SDSU in second-round of FCS playoffs, 37–22". Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
5. "New Hampshire vs. South Dakota State - Game Recap - December 9, 2017 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
6. "James Madison Dukes force 10 turnovers, end South Dakota State's season". Argus Leader. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
7. "FCS football: 2018 Walter Payton Award watch list". August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
8. "FCS football: 2018 Buck Buchanan Award watch list announced". August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
9. http://www.valley-football.org/news/2018/7/19/football-north-dakota-state-tabbed-as-favorite-to-win-2018-mvfc-title.aspx
10. http://valley-football.org/documents/2018/7/31//2018_MVFC_Preseason_Team_and_Poll.pdf?id=41
11. "Jackrabbits, Cyclones Cancelled". South Dakota State Athletics. September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2018.