2019 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team

The 2019 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team represented South Dakota State University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by 23rd-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 8–5, 5–3 in MVFC play to finish in a three-way tie for third place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where, after a first round bye, they lost in the second round to Northern Iowa.

2019 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football
FCS Playoffs Second Round, L 10–13 vs. Northern Iowa
Conference	Missouri Valley Football Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 10
FCS Coaches	No. 12
2019 record	8–5 (5–3 MVFC)
Head coach	John Stiegelmeier (23rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Jason Eck (1st season)
Co-defensive coordinator	Brian Bergstrom (3rd season)
Co-defensive coordinator	Jimmy Rogers (7th overall season)
Home stadium	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium (Capacity: 19,340)

2019 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 1 North Dakota State $^		8	–	0					16	–	0
No. 5 Northern Iowa ^		6	–	2					10	–	5
No. 7 Illinois State ^		5	–	3					10	–	5
No. 10 South Dakota State ^		5	–	3					8	–	5
Southern Illinois		5	–	3					7	–	5
South Dakota		4	–	4					5	–	7
Indiana State		3	–	5					5	–	7
Youngstown State		2	–	6					6	–	6
Missouri State		1	–	7					1	–	10
Western Illinois		1	–	7					1	–	11
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

The Jackrabbits 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.

Preseason

MVFC poll

In the MVFC preseason poll released on July 29, 2019, the Jackrabbits were predicted to finish in second place.[1]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	North Dakota State	392 (32)
2	South Dakota State	348 (4)
3	Illinois State	289 (3)
4	Indiana State	279 (1)
5	Northern Iowa	266
6	South Dakota	176
7	Youngstown State	153
8	Western Illinois	128
9	Southern Illinois	89
10	Missouri State	80

Preseason All–MVFC team

The Jackrabbits had five players selected to the preseason all-MVFC team.[2]

Offense Pierre Strong, Jr. – RB Cade Johnson – WR Bradey Sorenson – LS

Defense Ryan Earith – DL Christian Rozeboom – LB

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 29	9:00 p.m.	at Minnesota*	No. 3	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis, MN	FS1	L 21–28	49,112
September 7	6:00 p.m.	LIU*	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	ESPN3	W 38–3	10,153
September 14	1:00 p.m.	Drake*	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 38–10	11,565
September 21	7:00 p.m.	Southern Utah*	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	Midco	W 43–7	14,269
October 5	2:00 p.m.	Southern Illinois	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	ESPN+	W 28–10	13,776
October 12	5:00 p.m.	at No. 19 Youngstown State	No. 3	Stambaugh Stadium Youngstown, OH	ESPN+	W 38–28	12,381
October 19	12:00 p.m.	at Indiana State	No. 3	Memorial Stadium Terre Haute, IN	ESPN3	W 42–23	4,642
October 26	2:00 p.m.	No. 1 North Dakota State	No. 3	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD (Dakota Marker / College GameDay)	ESPN+ Midco	L 16–23	19,371
November 2	2:00 p.m.	at Missouri State	No. 4	Robert W. Plaster Stadium Springfield, MO	ESPN3	W 35–14	5,108
November 9	2:00 p.m.	No. 11 Illinois State	No. 4	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	ESPN+	L 18–27	7,211
November 16	2:00 p.m.	No. 4 Northern Iowa	No. 8	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	ESPN3	W 38–7	7,317
November 23	2:00 p.m.	at South Dakota	No. 5	DakotaDome Vermillion, SD (rivalry)	ESPN+ Midco	L 21–24	5,405
December 7	1:00 p.m.	No. 6 Northern Iowa*	No. 10	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	L 10–13	4,102
*Non-conference game Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

[3][4]

Game summaries

at Minnesota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Jackrabbits	0	7	14	0	21
Golden Gophers	0	13	7	8	28

LIU

	1	2	3	4	Total
Sharks	0	3	0	0	3
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	14	14	3	38

Drake

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	0	3	0	7	10
No. 3 Jackrabbits	10	7	14	7	38

Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
Thunderbirds	0	7	0	0	7
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	14	15	7	43

Southern Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Salukis	3	7	0	0	10
No. 3 Jackrabbits	6	3	12	7	28

at Youngstown State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Jackrabbits	3	0	13	22	38
No. 19 Penguins	7	7	7	7	28

at Indiana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	28	0	7	42
Sycamores	7	3	7	6	23

North Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Bison	0	3	13	7	23
No. 3 Jackrabbits	6	0	3	7	16

at Missouri State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Jackrabbits	6	8	7	14	35
Bears	0	0	0	14	14

Illinois State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Redbirds	7	3	3	14	27
No. 4 Jackrabbits	3	8	7	0	18

Northern Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Panthers	0	0	7	0	7
No. 8 Jackrabbits	0	7	10	21	38

at South Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Jackrabbits	7	0	7	7	21
Coyotes	0	10	14	0	24

FCS Playoffs

The Jackrabbits entered the postseason tournament as the number seven seed, with a first-round bye.[5]

Northern Iowa–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Panthers	0	3	7	3	13
No. 10 Jackrabbits	10	0	0	0	10

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	13	Final
STATS FCS	3 (1)	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	8	5	10	10
Coaches	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	5	4	9	5	12	12

References

1. "North Dakota State Picked to Win Missouri Valley Football Crown". www.valleynewslive.com. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
2. "MVFC Announces Preseason All-Conference Team". valley-football.org. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
3. "2019 South Dakota State Football Schedule". FBSchedules.com. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
4. "2019 Football Schedule". South Dakota State Athletics. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
5. "FCS bracket revealed for 2019 Division I football championship". ncaa.com. November 24, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2019.