South Dakota - Homecoming

Total Red

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First, South Dakota needs to shoot whoever put their schedule together. South Dakota is 1-4. Three of their losses have come to FCS opponents - North Dakota St., Montana and South Dakota St. Those 3 teams are ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd nationally in the FCS. Their opener was played at Kansas St. Most of the FCS would be 1-4 against this schedule including us. Some would be 0-5. It reminds of the times Missouri State would shoot themselves in the foot by playing two FBS games in addition to the grueling MVFC schedule. It came during the years the Mo. St program was down, and it was followed by North Dakota St. not playing FBS games when their team was extremely talented. I guess I don't understand Valley scheduling.

Anyway, USD travels here to continue the "Carson Camp faces the hometown team" saga. Normal West grad Camp is the triple threat type of QB we don't like. He can throw, he can run, and he can throw on the run. He shocked the Redbirds in Normal as a true freshman in 2020. Last year we shut Camp down for over a quarter before he left the game with an injury. The Redbirds stole out of Vermillion S.D. with a 20-14 win. Round 3 comes 2 p.m. Saturday. Coach Spack may need to call upon the defense to win another one.
 

Virginia Redbird

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This is an opponent where the record probably does not truly reflect the capability. As Red stated above their schedule has been brutal with top-ranked team after top-ranked team. They also started with an FBS opponent. In addition, three of the five games were on the road. There are not many teams that would have had a better record with this kind of start to the season. They played the Bison tough taking a 17-10 lead at the half but were scoreless in the second half. The passing yards were even but the Bison gained over double the rushing yardage. SDSU pretty well beat them up on the field and in the stats. Montana got off to a quick start taking a 13-0 halftime lead and won 24-7 with SD not scoring until the 4th quarter. A telling stat was SD was only 3 of 15 on third downs against Montana.
So what does that mean for Saturday? The SD offense has not been terribly productive even giving they have faced some very solid defenses. ISU has a pretty tough defense as well. SD is averaging 288 yards total offense a game and giving up 426. SD is averaging 60 yards in penalties a game. They are averaging giving up 233 rushing yards a game and 193 passing yards a game. NDSU ran for 356 rushing yards so maybe that skews the overall a bit. Maybe a critical stat is that SD has given up 22 sacks for 141 lost yards. (all stats from the SD website)
I think the defense gets a few sacks Saturday, the offense is hitting its stride and the Birds win on Homecoming. Go Redbirds!
 

Total Red

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South Dakota has a young team. We need to get them now because they could be tougher the next couple of years.

They do have a senior -
Linebacker 0 Michael Scott, 6-2, 240, Sr.

I googled him to see what information I could find and he does look rather old.

1665606483698.png
 

MadBird

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Dangerous game against a team desperate for a win. I'd like to see us come out with tempo and we should be able to run on them as well. Let the D hunt and take care of biz at home. Looking forward to a return to town as well, weather looks good, should be a fun day. Let's go!
Have to be encouraged by the fact we took them down in Vermillion last year. In a season where we lost to InSU and WIU and 5-6 North Dakota, we went on the road and beat the Coyotes. So let's get it done for Homecoming.
 

fourthandshort

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This could be good or bad news ... their offense could come out a hot mess, or maybe inspired by the interim replacement. The one uncertainty for sure is, their offensive approach will probably change somewhat.
 

normalbird

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Poor job by ESPN3. Poor broadcast team, terrible technical direction. Lousy camera work. Etc.

‘Birds win!
 

Brick

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GREAT CALL on third and one at the end!!! I will take the win happily!
 

Virginia Redbird

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A win on Homecoming! No matter how you get a win it is a win.

Nice to see the Bison get knocked off by SDSU. Maybe bad timing for the Birds though. Next week is the Bison's bye week. They have two weeks to prepare and stew about this loss before the Birds travel to Fargo. Like it was not going to be tough enough to play there. On the other hand, if you want to win championships you have to be able to beat the top teams. They have the opportunity to do that but first, they have a little business with ISUBlue. It was a shootout between ISUB and YSU today. The Penguins eventually won 48-42 but lots of points were scored. The Sycamores are now 1-5 but four of those losses were to Purdue, Montana, UNI, and NDSU. They got blown out in the first two but look to have been competitive in the last two. Should be fun!
 

ISUBU

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Can’t believe Nielsen punted late. Glad he did! Doing enough to win, which sure as hell beats the alternative.
Agreed. I think the odds at 4th and 15 are still better than the odds of holding us to a 3 and out, receiving the punt with at best a minute to go with no time outs, and moving into scoring position.

He's an experienced coach, but I also didn't understand why he didn't call time after we ran it...must have lost nearly 40 seconds there alone.
 
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