STILLWATER – Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy has visited all 50 states, but he only remembers passing through South Dakota. Once to hunt pheasants and another time to go fishing in Canada.
Unlike the state they live in, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits are anything but a fleeting thought for the Oklahoma State coach.
Gundy has been warning his guys since the end of last season about this team, which opens the season on August 31 in Stillwater.
“I started telling them in January, and then again in the spring, and then again before we started practice,” Gundy said. “They know exactly who this team is, and they’re very aware of their success, and they’ve watched videos of them.”
South Dakota State has won two consecutive FCS national championships over the past two seasons and has a 29-1 record, with its only loss being a 7-3 loss at Iowa in 2022.
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The Jackrabbits haven’t played an FBS opponent since then, but that doesn’t matter to Gundy.
“They’re perfectly capable of running a Power Four conference schedule, if I may say so,” Gundy said. “And as I said, teams that haven’t lost a game in a long time are tough to beat because they don’t know how to lose. They’ve only ever won. So you have to take the game away from them. They’re not going to give it to you.”
During their 29-game winning streak, the Jackrabbits have outscored their opponents by an average of 24.1 points. In 2023, they were even more dominant, beating six opponents by at least 34 points and allowing only three teams to finish within 10 points.
Mike Gundy’s 20th season begins on August 31 against South Dakota State.
Daniel Shular, Tulsa World
It’s not like South Dakota State only beats regular-season opponents. The Jackrabbits have beaten their last eight playoff opponents by an average of 28.9 points and won both championship games by at least 20 points.
“The good news for us and me as a coach is that when they watch the videos, they can see that Coach Gundy is not messing with us,” Gundy said. “This feels real. They have enough players, they’re physical enough in the box to play at this level, OK. They have a very experienced quarterback as a playmaker. So that’s a dangerous challenge for us.”
SDST senior quarterback Mark Gronowski is 37-3 as a starter. Last season, he completed 68.1% of his 307 attempts for 3,058 yards, 29 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
He also averaged 4.3 yards per carry and finished the game with 402 rushing yards and eight rushing scores.
Oklahoma State receiver De’Zhaun Stribling said the players talk about the opening game every day because they are excited to start the season but also prepare a concrete game plan for the Jackrabbits.
“We talk about how some routes hit this, some routes hit that,” Stribling said. “What if we applied this formation to them. Things like that just within our team.”
Oklahoma State center Joe Michalski was also impressed by South Dakota State.
“They just don’t make a lot of mistakes… They’re really good at what they do,” Michalski said. “They know their job. They put in the effort, there are no lazy guys on this team and they just know their job really well. That’s what they’re good at. And that’s how they beat people. They don’t make mistakes. They wait for other people to make mistakes.”
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