BROOKINGS, S.D. (KELO) – This past weekend the South Dakota State Jackrabbits found out they will be the number one seed heading into the FCS postseason.
“I was not surprised. I didn’t assume it was going to happen but I know the type of team we got and I know the type of wins we have, especially on the road, and so I thought we had a chance to be number one,” SDSU Head Coach John Stiegelmeier said.
The Jacks will play the winner of St. Francis (PA) and Delaware, but by the time that ball game is kicked off, it will have been nearly 3 full weeks without live football action for SDSU. However, the team is taking it in stride.
“It’s definitely nice to kind of take a step back and kind of catch your breath a little bit, I’m excited to go home for Thanksgiving, I did a little hunting this past weekend. But looking forward to getting home for a little bit, kind of relaxing, seeing all my family. I think it will be good for a lot of guys to kind of take a deep breath and then come back refreshed and ready to go,” SDSU Senior Tackle Garret Greenfield stated.
“Just for us who have had to endure the grind of a long season playing ten games in a row, you know, that can get pretty tiring for sure and mentally draining too, not just physically. That’s why me and I know my teammates are looking at this as a blessing just to have some time off to relax a little bit and to get guys healthy,” SDSU senior wide receiver Jaxon Janke remarked.
As bizarre as the three week rest period seems, it’s actually something the program recent went through back in 2020.
“We had a couple games cancelled so we ended up having three weeks of before the end of the year. So, as weird as it is, it isn’t like completely new for us. I feel like we kind of know how to handle those long periods of time in between playing,” Greenfield said.
The ultimate goal is to bring home the program’s first national championship and they plan to get there one day at a time.
“The goal is to be 1-0 and that’s all we’ve talked about. I’ve been known to write down 10 goals during the season and playoffs. We’ve had one goal all year and that’s to be 1-0 daily and 1-0 on Saturday’s,” Stiegelmeier said.