Congrats Dukes on a great season. Bummer your team had to play two crappy weather games. At times it was difficult to even see the Dukes players on the field. Hope your team has a great off season.

Weather is still south of Brookings as of now. Cold and windy, humid cold with winds in the 20s gusting to 30...less than 5 hours, looking forward to meeting some of the Dukes fans at the tailgate.

The stadium will have an empty feel today, 19,340 seats and we will probably have 3-4,000...our Men’s Basketball team plays tonight in Minneapolis at a US Bank stadium classic, and many people bought tix for a short family trip. Bummer in that regard but that’s the trouble with overlapping seasons.

If it tracks as planned the storm should skirt to the south but will more than likely still get the major airport in Sioux Falls. I could see the team getting to spend an extra night in SD. Wind looks to be significant at 20-30mph out of the NE, about the worst direction for it to blow in our stadium. Oh well, here’s to a fun and competitive game with no or limited injuries.

ElDuque wrote:

Pittsburgh weather. The boys will love it.

I figured they would love it...my favorite games are snow games. Normally snow games make offenses one dimensional, but the Jacks don’t shy away from the pass regardless of weather.

I figure it will benefit the Dukes some of the weather isn’t particularly nice.

Seeing the master plan, I hope the Dukes get a chance to do the upgrades. The Jacks just upgraded a couple years ago and the facilities are making a HUGE difference in recruiting.

Here is the link, http://danajdykhousestadium.com

yak-rbc wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Not that we have a great shot Saturday ... like I said earlier, we might as well be lining up against Ohio State, as good as SDSU is. But we have some nice players who give us a puncher's chance.

Sagarin computer system gives us a 0.4% chance of advancing. Hoooompf.

Although we have peers. Montana State has a. 8% chance of beating NDSU in their Sagarin projections.

Go Dukes, baby

Really, .4%? The smart alec in me wants to ask if they factored in the Jacks home field advantage. Lol...the Dukes have better odds at winning than that, even as a Jacks fan I can recognize it.

It’s hard to describe the Jacks offense, lots of motion, shotgun, deep passes and short...jet sweeps and powers. The offense can play ball control but for the most part they are there to score as evidenced by the plus 45 a game. I don’t think the offense has changed much since the Dukes played here in 2017.

The Defense is easy to describe, 4-3, bend but don’t break. Not a lot of blitzing, play man to man on the back end. They at times give up long 3rd Downs that turn in to long drives.

Up front they are young but very stout...RS Soph Ward and RS Fr Krolikowski(first name Krockett, great celebration too, stirring the Crockpot) are DTs. Both around 6’2, 285#...they plug the middle well and push the pocket. The rotation at DT includes a couple upper classmen in Stacker and Hildahl. The interior of the Dline finally has depth. Running up the gut may prove difficult for Hines, even as outstanding as he is.

At DE Jr Earith(6’4, 260) just earned MVFC honors and is equally adept at stuffing the run as he is at rushing the passer. Opposite of him is several guysthat rotate in Smenda, Wilson, you may even see a pass rush guy Ogunrinde. This group doesn’t rack up a lot of sacks but they pressure and make QBs uncomfortable.

At LB it all starts in the middle. Jr Christian Rozeboom(6’2, 230) just keeps doing his thing. As a freshman he was runner up for the Jerry Rice award...you guys probably know the winner that year. 😉...Rozeboom is smart, fast, and strong, a 3 year starter who is truly the leader of the D. A great kid in the community too, I fully expect him to be part of next seasons good works team. Flanking him are Sophomore Backhaus(6’4, 220) and Sr Cox(6’, 230) at SLB and WLB respectfully. Others to rotate in are Sr Kleinschmidt, RS Fr Brown, and True Soph Seven Wilson. Seven, also #7, is hoping to return from injury. He is 5’9, 210 and is one of the hardest hitters out there.

At CB there is Sr Jordan Brown(6’1, 205), senior bowl invite a

The Jacks, what to expect...

This will be in a couple installments

Offense, QB is the same as last year with SR Taryn Christion(6’2, 225) at the helm for his 4th season. He started as a true freshman a handful of games. What can you say about him, finalist for many awards and a member of the All State insurance good works team. He holds most career numbers for QBs in the MVFC and just threw his 100th career TD. But he’s far from a pocket passer and has several long runs in his career including his long of 91yds. This season in 10 games(our first game was cancelled, storms) he’s thrown for 2500+ yds, 28 TDs against 6 INTs with 60% comp.

At RB we lost Sr Wallace to a hip injury but this position is deep. Jr Daniel(6’, 225) is the short yardage guy and will push the pile. RS Fr Strong Jr(5’11, 200)started the season as 4th string. He came on strong(pun intended) at the end and won MVFC freshman of the year. In 10 games he’s over 750yds and several TDs, but really came on the last 3 with over 400 yds of rushing. True Fr Wilson(5’10, 195) started the season as 3rd string and emerged too until a deep thigh bruise sidelined him. He could make his return this Saturday. Both Strong jr and Wilson are threats to take it to the house from anywhere on the field, both having several 40 yd+ TDs and a few 70+ yd TDs. At FB JrSellers(6’1, 245) is essentially a pulling guard, not really a threat to run or catch, he just clears the path.

The O-line, affectionately call #605HOGS,(play off of SDs area code) are deep and big with a good rotation of 6-7 guys consistently. They range in size from 6’4-6’8 and 290#-315#. Maulers and good at pass blocking they work well together. They are the foundation for the 45.4 ppg, 511yards of offense and almost 31 min avg Time of possession.

We graduated a 2nd round pick at TE in Dallas Goedert who is across your state with the Eagles. In his place are Hart and Kunz. Hart(6’3, 250) is a great blocker and an able pass catc

Judge Jack McVay Jr wrote:

Jackedforlife, going to try ( jury trial ongoing through Friday) to  get back out there again as you and SDSU fans were classy and gracious hosts! I encourage Dukes fans to try and make the trip to see one of the best college football venues anywhere!

Good luck with the trial, hope to see you out here. Preliminary forecast, low 30’s and rain/snow mix. But with SD weather know it could be 5 degrees and a blizzard or 50 and sunny.
 

Congrats as I said before in another thread. When someone starts an SDSU thread I’ll try to add some notes on what the Jacks team is this year. A little different than what we were last year.

I really hope the Dukes pull off the upset...would love to welcome them back to Brookings again. Good luck and Go Dukes!

Thanks Judge! it was a great game that was eerily reminiscent of the Duquesne game...I really hope this week it is another win and this time over another Dukes program in JMU. Tall task for us but this team is locked in and I think stands a good chance. Hope all is  well in western PA and if anyone is interested in rooting for the Jackrabbits the game is on Saturday the 16th at 4:30pm EST on ESPN-U... Go Jacks!!!

Judge Jack McVay Jr wrote:

Jackedforlife...Dukes weren't only team in town to find out quality of football in Missouri Valley Conference as YSU misses field goal at end of regulation then loses in OT to Pitt! Good luck rest of the season

Thanks Judge! Yeah the Valley had a strong showing opening week with 3 of the 4 losses coming to FBS opponents. Mo St played Mizzou in what almost looked like a basketball score. UNI played ok at Iowa St and YSU almost pulled off a big win. IN St kinda blew it late and gave the game to Eastern IL. In the winning games MVFC teams scored 77, 72, 51, 45, 41. The 2 high scorers weren't really tested at all but will be this week.

Good Luck to the Dukes the rest of the season, hopefully they run the conference and make the playoffs.
 

Tough game when you guys give up so much in size. Your team has great heart and will compete well in the NEC. If you watched the game you can probably see why #19 will be playing Sunday's next year. Your DBs for the most part covered him well, he just has a nose for the ball.

Good luck the rest of the year!