Jacks, veteran coach reach Frisco at last
BROOKINGS, S.D. – When John Stiegelmeier took over as the football coach at his alma mater, in 1997, he was 40, South Dakota State was a slightly-above average NCAA Division II program, and the Jackrabbits played in rickety old Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.
A quarter of a century later, “Stig” and his crew are Texas-bound, as the Jackrabbits punched their ticket to the Division I Football Championship Subdivision national championship game with a 33-3 rout of Delaware last weekend at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
They’ll face Sam Houston State on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, ABC) in Frisco.
Steigelmeier coached seven seasons in D-II and never made the playoffs. Only twice did his North Central Conference teams win more than six games.
But there he was, on a Saturday in the middle of May, getting doused with Powerade live on ESPN while Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas” blared over the loudspeakers, having finally directed his team to a destination that feels at once like it’s been forever in coming and like it happened faster than anyone might have expected.
“I don’t think I thought back in 1977 that the student coach that had a desk in my office when I was defensive coordinator would lead the Jacks 44 years later to the national championship game,” said Mike Daly, who was the head coach at State prior to Stiegelmeier and groomed him to serve as his defensive coordinator and later his replacement. “A moment like this makes me feel like a proud grandpa. I couldn’t be more proud of the coach and man he has become. One of the great coaches and men in college football.”
The FCS – known as Division I-AA when the Jacks first made the move – has been far kinder to them than a century of Division II football ever was. SDSU is appearing in the playoffs for the ninth straight season, they’ve won three conference titles, sent a handful of players on to the NFL, played admirably against major conference foes (including beating Kansas) and advanced deep into the playoffs on multiple occasions.
But the semifinals have been where the best Jackrabbits teams have seen their seasons die.
That hasn’t been for a lack of talent, coaching or effort.
Starting around the middle of the previous decade, SDSU began to move into the upper echelon of the country. Zach Zenner gave the Jacks their first D-I superstar, and when Austin Sumner, Jake Wieneke and others joined him, playing for Frisco seemed realistic.
The next wave of stars accompanied the arrival of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, the $65 million, 19,340-seat facility that debuted in 2015 and established the Jacks as fully-engaged high-rollers in the FCS.
Wieneke, Dallas Goedert, Taryn Christion, Christian Rozeboom, Jordan Brown, Cade Johnson – it almost seems unfair that those men came through Brookings without getting this opportunity, not to mention D-II stars like Doug Miller, Josh Ranek, Adam Timmerman and Adam Vinatieri, among others.
“When we went (Division I) in 2004, I knew it and our players knew it, that it was a chance to change the face of South Dakota State football,” said Stiegelmeier, who improved to 174-106 with Saturday’s win. “I would credit those first four classes that went through the reclassification. This is a really special moment for me. Having been here as long as I have, for every person who’s wore a Jackrabbit uniform. … I love our players. Thank God for our players. It means a lot.”
When you share not just a classification but a conference with North Dakota State, arguably the most dominant dynasty in college football history with eight national titles in the last nine years, having a great team is quite often not enough. Yes, the Jacks have beaten NDSU before, like they did this year. But never did they win enough of the other games, too. Never did they get homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Never did they earn the top seed.
This year, after dropping a game they should’ve won in Week 2 at North Dakota, the Jacks recognized their margin for error had dissolved. They’re 7-0 since. After Southern Illinois gave them a scare two weeks ago, the Jacks looked absolutely determined to make sure they didn’t squander this opportunity.
Stiegelmeier, a 64-year-old, Selby, South Dakota, native who did not play college football, has something of a patriarchal role over the program. He lets his assistant coaches do much of the recruiting, game-planning and playcalling, but he remains the face of Jackrabbit football, if not its heartbeat. He’s stayed on the job for this long specifically because one goal remained unchecked on his career resume – a national championship.
It’s not a coincidence that the year the formula finally came together was in a pandemic-delayed spring season, as Stiegelmeier’s Jacks went the entire spring without a single positive test for COVID-19, a commendable team effort that started largely with his leadership. When they lost to UND, he told his team that the script for the rest of their season had been written. It was up to them to execute it.
“SDSU has been lucky to have John as coach all these years,” said Daly, who emphasized what Stiegelmeier has added to those in the program as a friend and confidant. “He has an uncanny ability of evaluating and recruiting great players who are also great people and great students. He also has had the ability to attract great assistant coaches who treat people the same way.”
There’s one more left. Make no mistake, getting to Frisco is a big deal. It’s a step the Jacks had not previously taken, a glaring omission from their otherwise strong resume as an FCS heavyweight.
But there’s room in the Dykhouse Center trophy case for a national championship trophy, and while Stiegelmeier’s legacy as the father of Division I football at SDSU is secure, that trophy is all that’s missing from it.
“When you say you want to win a national championship you need to get to Frisco,” he said. “So to me (this is) a step. What I hope, what I expect, and what I’m going to demand, is that we’re not giddy about getting there, but excited about the opportunity to win a national championship.”