S3:E1 - South Dakota State vs Oklahoma State Preview with Jackrabbit Illustrated's Dallas Clarksean

[Music] welcome to season three of the believe in okay State podcast along with Nathan gills slider I'm Justin southwell today we are joined by Jack Rabbit Illustrated podcaster Dallas Clark scene Dallas is also a second generation Jack Rabbit football player the son of South Dakota State's career and single season interception leader Charlie Clarken who will be inducted into the jack rabbit Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 2024 class here in about two weeks Dallas thanks for coming on the show to represent the opposing Squad this week we need to know a little bit more about your time playing at SDSU it looks like like you played under Stig yep legendary coach John stigger who is the head coach for 26 years another nine years at SDSU if you count his time as an assistant coach before handing it over to current head coach Jimmy Rogers so tell us a little bit more about that what position you played and your love for Jack rabbit's football sure so one thank you for for having me on this is really cool and I appreciate you joining our show a couple of days ago so uh also thank you for doing your homework that's amazing that you knew all that stuff about uh Jack Rabbit history and my dad and yeah it's it's a pretty special thing and also kind of hoping to be hoping it's third generation my son's a sophomore and and hidden into Varsity this year so there we go yeah it's a cool time so yeah I I played uh football at South Dakota State you know was born born at Jack Rabbit I'm I'm Minnesotan but but was born at Jack Rabbit grew up ha in North Dakota state in the University of South Dakota uh I was a defensive end so my dad interception leader was was a safety uh I played DN a little bit bigger than he is and uh yeah played through 2004 which would be up into the division one transition when I was there so very very different time and it's been really fun watching both the school the athletic department and the fan base evolve and that's what Jack Rabbit Illustrated that's what what I think I'm enjoying most is most is kind of helping our fan base evolve learn more around you know about other squads around the country and and yeah and honestly getting to see play FBS games like this is really Co cuz I didn't get to do this we didn't have these big games like this so it's really fun to get out and tailgate and experience the you know the bigger atmosphere in the big stadiums and everything I'm be honest though with as good as you guys have been I don't know how many more opportunities you're going to get because this game was scheduled pretty far in advance so so I I did it was on uh McAfee show you know Gundy did make that comment that if it was scheduled last year recently they wouldn't have had it and and we've had honestly like if if you want to get into some of the past history of FBS games no I I like I don't know that South Dakota State's going to get any more G5 games because the most recent um win that we had was we went it just pounded color there was a bad Colorado State team but we just walked in and destroyed them um in their new stadium and I that was something where by the middle of the third quarter we had our second string and like it was just that was over that's awesome yeah so that that was good you know and the history of this is really it's been fun watching the again the squad evolve you know we started out played Iowa State way back that was a little bit overwhelming got dismantled by uh an Illinois team way back but then as you've watched this team progress It's got closer and closer and we had you know we've had two really close games against the University of Minnesota second one was actually their really good year in 2019 I think that we were I mean we we absolutely should have there's you know funny here listen to the small school guys say like oh we should have done this should have done that but we should have won that game our quarterback got hurt right at the end we had a really bad turnover but that one was was ours to lose um we had uh we've had a game against uh Nebraska where we had lost by a touchdown and had two touchdowns called back we had the Iowa game uh is you know two years ago that that one we this is going to sound arrogant and I'm not and I don't think we're an arrogant fan base we we didn't lose to Iowa we lost to Tory Taylor because you've heard people uh dubb it the the Iowa touchdown because they they beat a 7 to3 but it was two safeties in a field goal because I've never SE that punter he's worth wherever he was drafted he's unbelievable well I mean yeah are are you up to have you seen um hard knocks this year they're I've not they are equally as impressed with him they fourth round draft fourth round for the Bears k k worth every penny that he gets paid can confirm he won that football game absolute weapon no doubt about it amazing it's it's uh he they are fawning over that guy in Chicago because they just have never seen anything like it I I hadn't either I I I understand you guys got a real solid uh solid punter too I hope not that good because that was just awful to watch He's we he's good but he's not that good that's another level yeah y so yeah that I mean that's kind of been the history of it we had a couple so we've uh we beat Kansas we had another game where we threw it away right at the end against Kansas so yeah it's gotten close and now I don't know we've got a couple of games scheduled against Nebraska in the future we got one against Northwestern but our last couple honestly I think we had Nebraska bow out of one or two games and we had Minnesota buy out a game so yeah we're not we're getting not getting many FBS calls and you know Dallas I'm actually a big uniform guy Oklahoma state has the best uniforms in the country as you probably know but I also I have to know about jersey numbers so what what number did you wear so I wore I wore 15 well I ended wearing 15 cuz that's actually what my dad wore nice yep so that's what I ended up I had I got first getting there as a freshman defensive lineman I got whatever Jersey was at the bottom of the pile so I think as a true freshman they G assigned me like 60 something to wear in the sidelines and then I was 96 for a year and then then 15 the guy graduated the as a legacy they didn't hook you up right from the jump that's crazy they didn't I I didn't have the respect then uh I guess maybe that I would now but finished with a good one 15 is a solid number yeah I thought so too well before we dive into the matchup preview we talked about it a little bit but I I do want to talk about how South Dakota State got to where they are today uh so they have won back-to-back FCS national championships and are on a 29 game winning streak I do want to point out for listeners who may not know FCS stands for football championship subdivision FBS which is what the Oklahoma State Cowboys are in stands for football bowl subdivision both FBS and FCS are division one so please don't confuse South Dakota State as a division 2 program not only are they a division one program they are an elite FCS program with sustained success coming off a playoff in which they outscored opponents 146 to 15 pitching two shutouts ESPN's Bill Connelly ranks the college football top 760 and at the end of the 2023 three season he had SDSU ranked 19th overall hypothetically South Dakota state would have been a 7-point favorite over big 10 West Champion Iowa hypothetically they have been on my radar for a while seeing as how you've won a couple of FCS championships and they're on our schedule and as we all know we can't Overlook anyone so in paying attention to how great the jack rabbits have been for me it's a little bit hard to imagine that they're going to be able to play at the same level of Excellence with the amount of talent that has moved on either through graduation or to the NFL there were 34 seniors on that 2023 roster and you had several guys that went to the NFL last year I'm gonna run through them real quick I I say real quick it's a longer list so offensive lineman Mason McCormick two-time AP FCS All-American first team among many other honors fourth round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers running back Isaiah Davis fifth round of the New York Jets last year he had 1,578 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns he finished with 4,548 career rushing yards and 50 touchdowns another 487 yards receiving and one touchdown offensive lineman Garrick Greenfield three-time FCS All-American undrafted free agent to the Seattle Seahawks cornerback daon gales drafted free agent to the Cleveland Browns he had 43 tackles two interceptions three passes broken up linebacker Isaiah stalberg undrafted free agent to the New Orleans Saints 80 tackles one interception wide receiver Jaden yonkee undrafted free agent waved by the Texans but picked up by the Dolphins 57 catches for 946 yards and 10 touchdowns last season he finished with 2800 career receiving yards 30 touchdowns and averaged 16 half yards per catch his twin brother wide receiver Jackson yonkee waved by the Texans off injured reserve had 51 catches for 818 yards and five touchdowns last season but he finished with 3,677 career receiving yards 29 touchdowns and average 15 yards per catch over his career last but not least 6'7 inch tight end Zack Hines undrafted free agent to the LA Chargers 1,252 receiving yards 18 touchdowns throughout his career seven of those came last season dude has an elite catch radius and the ability to separate from linebackers so I was able to find eight guys who we either drafted or picked up by NFL teams as undrafted free agents and then you have to consider uh all the guys who were productive at a high enough level to win an FCS champion Championship so not quite NFL level but still great College athletes we had linebacker Jason Freeman who had 105 tackles and two interceptions linebacker Savon Williamson had 59 tackles defensive tackle Brian Williams had 14 tackles defensive tackle Ryan Van Marl had 24 tackles defensive end Kade turer had 22 tackles and tied end Mike Morgan with 95 receiving yards and perhaps lost a little on the depth with the offensive line and Jared Bloom Raider and John O'Brien so we will get to South Dakota State's returning production here in a moment but Dallas after all of that uh you know how how are the jack rabbits going to be able to compare to last year whenever they're seemingly losing so much production on both sides of the ball yeah they they are losing a lot of production on both sides of the ball that was a that's a very comprehensive list that's absolutely who I would have who I would would have brought out there uh I you know going through the your list of eight eight guys that were either drafted or udfas tremendous football players you know McCormick and Davis both drafted I I always have to McCormick I've said since he was a freshman he's my I call him my fake cousin because he's actually he shares an aunt and uncle with my wife okay so yeah so I always so I I get to text his dad and stuff and it's it's so fun watching somebody that you kind of know go through that Journey and getting to see the dad Pride um of your kid getting drafted and then getting just rave reviews uh you know from the from the Pittsburgh media so yeah Davis you know the biggest losses there um the o line you lose two all-americans and you mentioned John O'Brien was the last name you brought up uh three starters you you know solid multi-year starters John O'Brien was actually a transfer from uh Bowling Green which we don't get we don't use the portal at all like ever so that was a a very pleasant surprise uh when he wandered over to us but those those two uh you know Isaiah Davis multi-year All-American our last two starting running backs have both been drafted both still in the league uh the other guy is with with the Browns he's the number two running back for the Browns um that hurts but we'll we'll get to the returning guys I think we're good there the Yankees it's weird at wide receiver we don't know what we have other than other than um you know the one the one main guy that we've got Griffin Wy returning because nobody else has really had a chance those two yones are this just ridiculous just blend of athleticism and size where I think they're going to be tremendous uh special teams players Zack Hines again another we don't know what we have at tight end because he's gone and then you listed off a few defensive linemen there again get to it later but that's my biggest question mark in terms of who comes back because we've got people that had reps coming back but most of our production all graduated this last year when you look at this South Dakota State team and obviously this is the second year for this coach right and you we mentioned earlier in the show that the amazing coach that you had that's been there for so long and had such great success do you see anything changing you know when you your first year coach taking over for him really taken the success that he was able to have with many of his players and right hasn't lost a yet as a coach pretty good but but how do you see maybe some more changes coming for this coach as he's getting a second year and maybe I know you guys have a little bit some new staff members as well what do what some changes do you expect to see um going into this game so that that's a great question the local media talks about that quite a bit we joke that when Stig left who Stig was my coach he said you know 26 years or whatever and it uh quick sidebar it was the coolest thing you know being an old dad like I am and getting to go back and like I could take my son to football camp and my coach walks up and hugs me at the door when I get there like that that's no one gets to do that it was just this absurd experience like I could still walk on into campus and he still still works there as it's some sort of a cons you know basically finishing out his contract I forget what what his title is but you know it's walk up and your coach is there and he'll say I love you and it's it's just amazing um so you know having that and then Jimmy who also you just absolutely bleeds yellow and blue and he was a player I I missed Jimmy I think by a year so he would have started in like 05 maybe or something like that um again no you'll never meet a more intense individual you compare the two Stig is basically well one he was a CEO head coach he would like at you could go to a practice like if if one of you guys would have walked into a practice on the most important game of the year he would have stood and talked to one of you guys for an hour during practice cuz that's not like his his time's done he's just in charge everybody else is doing their thing um you know he's basically Mr Rogers and Jimmy on the flip side is like basically you've got deed Flanders or Mr Rogers and then you've got this Ultra intense like just he will stare a hole through you with his eyes laser beams come out and it he jokes that he can't help but he just looks that way but like he's got that intensity and also probably just more youthful energy being in his late 30s or whatever he is um so there's a big change there in demeanor the way he runs things to my understanding is roughly the same schematically things haven't changed much at least on defense we'll get to offense later we might see some changes this year and the other thing they bring up is Stig would never allow anyone to swear like that was just his thing and you knew that from the minute you stepped on campus like he was just so straight laced and he had these funny like fake swear words and you just weren't allowed to swear and that immediately went out the window uh when Jimmy got in charge but it it's more there's a bit of a personality and an intensity I think that that are the biggest changes I've seen yeah and one one kind of question I reason to ask as because coach gundi has talked several times now about this game and and as a compliment to you all he has referenced yall style quite a bit to Kansas State and the physicality and the demeanor that you all try to play with because he sees a lot of that and a little bit that I know and I've watched I see a lot of the same things and so you know you wonder and it sounds like this new coach that sounds like his demeanor as well so it seems like it's carrying over seamlessly but you know every now and then you see coaches as they make transitions that first year seems a lot the same and so forth and so I'm curious to see schematically some things like that you know as as this new coach kind of gets his feet under him you know what maybe he'll do difference like you said maybe some offensive things that may be coming as well yeah it it'll start to vary a little bit Stig was Ultra conservative on AB everything that's just he's old school and that's how he's brought up it's funny you bring up K State because kimman is a is a Missouri Valley guy he's a North North Dakota State guy and I wanted to get into it at some point that so South Dakota state is where they are and as much as I hate to give them credit because I was raised to hate them we are where we are because stupid North Dakota state had the run that they did we had to be built to beat this team that won eight of 10 national championships that beat seven power four schools or whatever it was during that run that put two or three offensive linemen in the NFL every year for a decade and you can fact check me I'm sure I'm off a little bit but not by much um and anyway that's who was at the helm during that and that's who he had to be built to beat so yeah I'm sure I could see a lot of similarities there yeah wow well uh you know we talked about all the guys you've you know had move on but let's get over to the guys who are coming back so some returning production there are several guys that stand out to me of course I've had kind of the whole offseason to look into these guys and it's not just the last week but I dove deep so here we go again I'll be talking for a while so buckle up senior quarterback number 11 Mark ornowski the 2023 Walter Payton Award winner which is the FCS equivalent to the Heisman we have a two-time national title most outstanding player 37 and3 record one FCS loss as a full game starter he's thrown for 7,590 yards and 70 touchdowns in his career just 13 interceptions in 2023 358 yards for 29 touchdowns and five interceptions but we can't forget he can run too 402 rushing yards last season with eight touchdowns 1,387 career rear rushing yards and 27 touchdowns now this might not mean a whole lot to South Dakota State fans who are listening but I found a pretty solid comparison to former Oklahoma State quarterback that we played with Nathan and I and Zach Robinson who also wore number 11 so I wanted to compare Mark and Zach's Junior Seasons first off uh yeah they're both 63 and run a 4740 again Junior season so Mark is listed here at 225 it looks like he's put on another five pounds in the off season up to 230 for the 2024 campaign but here we go Mark 402 rushing yards Zack 562 both with eight touchdowns Mark 358 passing yards on 307 attempts 29 touchdowns five interceptions Zack 3,064 passing yards on 314 attempts 2 five touchdowns 10 interceptions so pretty similar I mean this is about as close as I can get what do you think about this Dallas just statistically they line up pretty well yeah I'm impressed that's extremely close uh Mark at 225 is is definitely I I heard he actually crossed 240 at one point this summer he is thick right now um and allegedly put a little speed on too but no those those match up just out of curiosity what what style of play describe Zach a little bit like what yeah so at this time we were extremely balanced and we actually had um some option game in there and so we had a lot of option game a lot of screen game we we had a first round tight end at that time and Brandon pedigree and so we had a lot of of intermediate um with option and then we also had death Bryant so it was a lot of run option pass deep I mean and Coach Gundy at the time was the offensive coordinator as well and so he prided himself on being balanced and it was crazy you'd go through the middle of the year and it'd be 250 pass plays 249 run plays and the yard it was and he really prided himself on that and Zach was very good at that so he was very very good at doing that you know what's funny you bring up balance and and maybe you guys have this in your notes I forget I think last year South Dakota state had 20 19 rushing yards a game and 221 passing yards a game or something like that like it's it's within a yard yeah that was and that was that was how we played whenever uh we were there we we were run first team but it was a we had weapons on the outside so we were G to go get it so and Mike Gundy he did have a very heavy influence in that offense left was Fedora the offensive coordinator during that point at the beginning of Zach's tenure yes and then Coach Gundy took over his OC when he left um okay yeah I kind of remember that yeah yeah and so that's back that's back when people used to get upset because the team was playing and Coach gundy's writing the plays on the board he the headset what's he doing what's he doing sitting over there on the chest he's gotta coach the game he's drawing up plays what's going on exactly times what is what are some things that um stand out to you about about your quarterbacks play that you think some of the reasons why he has some great success o i i could honestly so might have to cut me off here I could talk for an hour just on Mark he is just he's he's just an absolutely amazing human being great family um he his I hate the word swagger that isn't going to describe it right just his calm and his confidence like he was he was somebody he stepped on he played as a true freshman instantly not going to say had control of the team but instantly had the respect of the team as a true freshman that was the co year so he he led led the team to South Dakota State's first national championship game in the stupid spring covid season he blew out his knee in first in the first drive and we actually uh coaches ran the piss out of him that year that's something they quit doing after he came back so that's something he is a tremendous Runner they just quit doing it because it's not worth it because he doesn't have to necessarily but they ran him I don't know what what the yardage was but all year he got hurt ended up losing basically on the last play of the game with a backup quarterback so then he took a year off uh or got took a year to heal and then one two nates and then this last off season the world's worst kept secret was that everybody was trying to poach him and there was multiple Big 10 and ACC teams and and I'm I'm I'm conveying rumor but it's rumors that have actually been in um have been repeated by actual media so I don't feel bad saying it but one was was clearly North Western wanted him um and he had multiple sixf figure nil offers and he thought about it and thought about it thought about it talked to his family talked to you know and in the end just decided hey I'm going to stay apparently there was multiple uh Scouts that told him listen we look at South Dakota State as being a mid-tier power four team or a top tier G5 team there's nothing really that you have to gain by doing it somewhere else just go do this again so he stated that he's obviously back this year and this even though he has another year of Eligibility uh he is done after this year he intends to enter the draft um amazing leader apparently over the summer he's you know really worked on mechanics and I'm I'm the I joke that I give the world's worst quarterback analysis I was a lineman my whole life but uh you know worked on mechanics but he just he makes tremendous decisions very few turnovers and if there is a turnover it's probably because someone isn't wasn't where they're supposed to be levelheaded um again just an absolute great dude couldn't say enough about him that's awesome and you know the Northwestern one that makes sense right because your offensive coordinator went to Northwestern y try try to bring your quarterback it makes sense but that is really cool that South Dakota State seems like not relying on the portal and they're able to keep their guys I mean it's it's maybe a little bit easier to keep your guys when you're winning FCS championships but yeah it's got to be I don't know there's we can touch on it later more but we really haven't had guys transfer like nobody's left and and it's we had when you went from The Stig National Championship to Jimmy's national championship last year again he left the keys to the Ferrari on the table we we call it a Victory lap like it was the same team that came back and almost no one left we had we've had two receivers and one running back leave that that would have seen time but other than that like everybody's still here nobody left so it's there's there's there's going to be two narratives with this team and I don't know if we'll find them out on on find out on Saturday or not but it's either hey we had this amazing team with with you know eight NFL guys on it and and a bunch of other you know fantastic players and now they're gone or it's we had them we had backed filled we didn't lose anybody and now it's everybody else's time to shine and I only time we'll tell which which is the actual story yeah that's a great position to be in uh we do have uh a couple more to get through I mean got a great tangent on Mark hopefully we don't do that with another offensive lineman here probably not a ton to say about him but actually for a lineman maybe so we got senior offensive lineman number 50 Gus Miller yep the 2023 Remington Award winner as the best FCS Center and he was named an FCS preseason All-American he I jokingly well not jokingly so we had we have four guys on the the Senior Bowl watch list I think you guys had six if I remember right so we had four and then G it's like a little gray area because it says Senior Bowl and I'm like how can you have all Gordon on there if he's not a senior oh they don't have to be seniors anymore that was last year I think was the first year it's it's so weird to see everything in college football is changing we can't keep up with it all no you gotta get off my lawn gotta get used to it I guess uh but no Gus Gus and another guy were on the I'm blank and what's what's the second tier one Shrine bow right no Shrine B Shrine anyway they're on the shrine b list uh yeah Gus local guy from Brookings uh great leader great football player you know ringt Award winner so he was the best center in FCS last year and he's he's back we talked about him already a little bit but sophomore wide receiver number 18 Griffin Wy he had 399 receiving yards six touchdowns averaged 20 yards per catch he had a 71 yard touchdown in a semi-final game against U Albany from your backup quarterback and from what I can tell it looks like he's the only one with any recorded receiving touchdowns who is returning yep I would and I wouldn't mind later on touching on the back up quarterback too uh but yeah Griffin I I I made a big stand last year publicly uh telling like like anyone's going to listen to me but uh telling the coaching staff that they should red shirt him because we didn't need him last year but they just said hey this kid's way too good we got to put him on the field somewhere so he played last year as a true freshman out of sou Fall South Dakota uh I dubbed him gfw for uh Griffin effing Wy because he just he just absolutely jumps off the screen when you watch him he's so good so smooth and he's put on you going from being a you know 18 19 year old to now having a year under his belt put on I think 15 pounds of muscle and is faster this year so he he should be a problem for defenses I think let me say this real quick about uh backup quarterbacks okay I hope that we don't see him because one that probably means Mark rowski went down I don't want to see that happen yeah no don't wish injury on anybody but two Oklahoma State historically against backup quarterbacks has not been good so please stay healthy Mark and don't worry about any I don't want to see your backup quarterback no we want everybody healthy but uh I will say though let's let's talk about Chase Mason for a minute so Chase Mason was a I think a three- Star Quarterback out of high school he turned down so I know uh dbor offered him and so there's a few teams that offered him that he turned down to play baseball so he he he he didn't play he he played two years of baseball out of high school instead of football he went to Nebraska was a center fielder in Nebraska decided hey I want to go back closer to home I want to play football so he came back and is behind Mark and knowing that he would be stuck for a while because Mark was already the guy when he got here and uh he he ended up he got hurt took a red shirt and now one of the reasons Mark said he publicly is going to leave after this year so Chase gets his shot and and another interesting comment on him too is that the the coaching staff apparently I fig it was coaching staff or players or combination must go through and vote for top offensive um I don't know basically most talented players or top offensive players or something on the team every single person had Chase Mason in their top five so they said okay we got to figure out how to put him on the field so I'm guessing you'll see him in some form or another I have good no idea what it'll be dude is like I think he you know he probably runs a a 46 or below and he's like like 63 240 he's just he's a beast he like you you looked at him you think he's a middle linebacker um but I I would guess we'll see him at some point okay good to know this is good stuff y I also have Junior runningback number 21 Angel Johnson five touchdowns last season and he will be the backup of senior running back number three Amar Johnson who had 801 rushing yards four touchdowns I'm showing 1,644 career rushing yards and 10 touchdowns and you know you mentioned it before for the last two seasons Johnson was behind All-American Isaiah Davis who's now a New York Jet and as a freshman in 2021 he was number three on the depth chart behind Davis and Pierre strong who's now a Cleveland Brown but it seems like it's amar's time to shine I'm guessing he's probably learned a lot from two NFL guys who were in front of him and they've taught him how to prepare at a high Lev LEL to be able to compete at a high level but what can you tell us about Omar what can we be expecting from Omar Johnson on Saturday you pretty much hit the nail on the head he he's given surprising output for his limited reps I I think that at least I don't know if I gave him the credit for for how well he's done the last couple of years uh the word out of camp that that I've heard I think both from coaches and from from him was that he well honestly like you said he he took took a page out of those guys book he understood now how to take care of his body how to train you know he's bigger he's faster he's in the training room every day doing stuff basically whether he needs it or not um and he's just he's just ready and prepared and it's somebody who when you look at who he was behind he absolutely could have bailed and would have been you know went and been the guy at 75 different FCS schools or in reality this might sound like blasphemy but you know outside of a running back room like you guys have he probably be instead of being the three for us he could have went and been the three back at Minnesota or Nebraska or whatever right I mean I'm guessing he's probably got that kind of talent and did then so excited to see what he can do uh same thing with Angel Johnson he's been patient we haven't seen a ton of him he was hurt a little bit um he does he's a they have the same build they're they're a little bit smaller quicker guys I think about five 510 um Angel Johnson very much dude built like an action figure he's a get off the bus first kind of guy for sure um and then while we're talking running backs I think the third one that you're going to see is a kid named Kirby Vorhees who is uh they just got done talking about him the radio show yesterday just to run behind your pads uh voted toughest guy on the team already as a freshman um you know the the Thunder to the other two's lightning I think man uh there's so many comparisons that I keep hearing from South Dakota state to Oklahoma State we've also got a freshman that sounds like toughest guy toughest toughest Nails you know and our tight end but um man this is this is crazy we can talk all day about the comparisons the coaches and almond Mo and the culture and all that good stuff but yeah it feels like they're a lot I I wish that we weren't playing each other this year because it it's so cool as you know it's a big deal as a as a smaller school to go out and get that get that Pelt um you know against against an FBS team and honestly last year if you would have given us anybody outside of the and we'll see hopefully we're that good this year but last year if you would have given us anybody outside of the top 20 you know I don't think it would have been been much of a problem last year um but you know again Oklahoma State certainly looks like they are beyond for real right now and poised to do some great things well and to your point you guys are not sneaking up on anybody anymore right and yeah that's true and and we've we've heard from several players and the coaches for sure have been drilling that home you know I'm sure you're well aware of how our first couple games went last season and and what happened to us against South Alabama which is very uncharacteristic for us as as a program that this team with so many of the same players coming back the respect for you all as a program is there for this team and the way that they're preparing and the way that Coos Gundy has turned the heat up this summer he's talked about that several times even today just on his radio show talked about how with this team and where we're at and who we're playing in our first three games with you all and then Arkansas and then Tulsa down the road and then Utah right after that there's no time to waste you know you can't come out flat you can't and that that's a tribute to yall in the in the the game that you guys propose to be having you know it's it's going to be he one of the comments he made today which I I think you will probably it seems to match up with a lot of things that you said but he said listen if we're going to win this game we have to go win this game this game will not be given to us to your point right your quarterback doesn't turn it over very often you guys you know play very physical and and that's very deserve a lot of respect on our end I know when Justin and I looked at it that was one of the things that we we saw and talked about is hey this is a game obviously we hope to win and if this a squad that Oklahoma state is supposed to have we think that we have that great opportunity to do that but it's not going to be a hey let's get our third string guys in in the third quarter and have some fun right this is a very very talented football team with a lot of history and our fans know that too we got we got some nervous Nellies over here in still water after what happened last season they oh okay that yeah that would make sense I was gonna say from what I've seen there hasn't been a I don't know it's easy for people run there's a broad spectrum across Oklahoma State fans yes and there are people that very afraid there are people that are way overconfident and you know Nathan and I colge football brings out the best of everybody you know that's it that's it I like I said I mean we've all played college football and it's not like you can just walk out there and impose your will against you know you're fighting a battle against somebody else and like we've already mentioned several NFL guys really on both squads it's not any kind of give me so uh but yeah here we another thing that stood out to me you guys have 10 tight ends on your roster yep none of them have seen the field yet basically we only got one that's actually played uh yeah tight ends so I mean everybody our fans and and coaches love to say we're tight end you we we've had pretty good success here lately our last three are in the NFL we've had a bunch of pass guys uh in the NFL um and and good good players all the way back to when I played there was there's a guy named Steve Iden that was there right before I was there that uh had like a 13-year career or something and he's a coach uh with the with the Cardinals now and and there's been you know multiple guys in between there that have had time so um you know it's interesting I know you're going to ask me I bet you're going to ask me who is going to be the one that jumps out and it's funny we've got a project it three deep um and when when Jack RAB Illustrated went through and picked breakout players for the year three of us play picked three different tight ends because we don't know like one of these dudes is going to go for 800 yards and 10 touchdowns this year but I don't know who it's gonna be you know the name's escaping who's number 44 uh got the long blonde hair yeah he's he's more of a he's going to take more of an h-back role BR brener brener is going to be the guy that's going to be the HB back um so there's three there's staffle Gormley and Ganon I don't know that they haven't played yet so I don't know their numbers those three guys um we've got five tight ends that are either 66 or 67 um yeah and we actually signed it big for us we signed our first four star this year kid out of Kentucky um a tight end so so yeah it sounds like South Dakota state has figured it out on the tight end so my question was initially who do we look out for maybe it should be how do we do that you know we need to I don't we need to get back to that what what happened to you know State we've got all these receivers all these weapons and for whatever reason the tight end just kind of seems like non-existent in our offense over the past I mean what do you think nth like five six years it seems like it's been a while yeah yeah at least I mean honestly from being a true threat it's been Blake jarwin was our last who you know had a five six year career with the Dallas Cowboys that's been our last true weapon we didn't utilize gani woods so I don't I mean not fair plus that's was the cowboy back situation so um we're just now getting back to having true tight ends um for the last several years we transitioned to what coach called the cowboy back which was basically like a hybrid fullback um that could line up on the line and also in the backfield and last year was the real first year of us having true tight ends on the in line and and we had some good success and I think that's I think that better suits Oklahoma State and what we want to do as an offense especially with running the ball we had with the cowboy back we really had some issues running the football um especially on in close yardage and I feel like some of that was helped a little bit last year by having a true tight end and obviously a better offensive line but definitely agree with that yeah well shifting over to defense uh the guys that at least I think we need to be aware of we got senior linebacker number 32 Adam Bach he ranked third on the team with 65 five tackles he battled injury early in the season before returning to the lineup on a full-time basis in mid October and he has racked up 344 career tackles I also have Junior safety number one Tucker large and I've been hearing more of his name over the last couple of days he has earned First Team all Missouri Valley Football Conference honors as a safety and second team recognition as a return specialist he has racked up 49 tackles four interceptions and nine passes broken up last season senior safety number 25 kale reer ranked fifth on the team with 58 tackles and Senior cornerback number seven Dallas beam looking to overtake your dad's career interception record he enters this season with 11 uh he's he's trying to pass up 14 so last season he snagged five interceptions and he had an additional seven passes broken up so first things first how do you feel about a guy named Dallas trying to break your dad's career interception record well first he spells it with a Y so I had to officially admit him to the Dallas Club because there's been several Dallas's at South Dakota State um most I I was the least notable of all of them uh most notable being Dallas SC who place for the Eagles now but he want talk about least notable Justin and then we've got like Justin Blackman Justin Gilbert insane sorry to interrupt go ahead that is fair I will I will get off my soap box that's uh no it's dude it's super cool uh my dad has always said I mean records are meant to be broken it's ridiculous that he's held it this long I will always uh begrudgingly and jokingly put an asterisk by it because I guarantee in the early 70s one my dad played half as many games as Dallas did and saw a third as any passes probably uh so take it for what it's worth but no Dallas is an amazing player you know one of a few preseason all-americans um working back up uh you know Tucker large uh at safety preseason All-American on on a couple lists I think who is might be our twitchi player he's really exciting like he's he's got some lightning for sure uh no actually I take that back there is a freshman uh wide receiver that is probably twitchi but Tucker's going to be second then also really exciting and will give fans a bit of a heart attack returning punts uh if he's doing that this year on what he decides to take and not take uh and then back up the list Adam Bach I don't want to brush over him I mean he is almost the mark granowski of the defense uh B Bach is that good guys and I I know you've got three potential All-American type linebackers I don't know I watched a little film like I'm I'm going to put Adam Bach up there with with with anybody I mean he's really really good uh has battled some some different injury issues uh off and on supposedly as healthy as he's ever been right now is I've never seen a human being built like him before uh I watched out at that Iowa game that we mentioned I'm forgetting who their running back was at the time but I watched probably the best individual effort play I've ever seen where he met somebody at the one in line and not only stopped stopped the running back turned them around one-on-one but managed to take the ball in the process he was one of the coolest football players I've ever seen wow uh So Bach is is is a phenomenal phenomenal player uh coming back for us rival rivaling that javian Clowney pop that he had against Michigan where he just nailed the guy and okay that one got it so I didn't see that one live so I won't count that no that that Clowny one was no that'll Stand Out forever well um you know I I listed those guys what else can you tell us about the defense am I missing anybody are there guys to W to watch out for that maybe aren't on our radar um so let's just talk defense in general I will say we are shockingly deep at uh safety and linebacker and and that does a lot of things so we we had you wouldn't know it but the last two years we had some really awful and inopportune injuries at uh at safety net linebacker and guys that came in did not skip a beat uh you talked about the number of tight ends that we have on the roster we have I don't we clone linebackers Jimmy was a linebacker he loves defense he loves guys that play a certain way and we are disgustingly deep uh at at the linebacker position I think that's going to show through on special teams which uh we can sidebar on that for a minute here too which that is typically a differentiator that I've seen in these FBS FCS games because that's where you so so let me back up another step typically when you have a a you know a decent FBS team and and a really good FCS team your starters are going to be 99 90 to 95% is good right there's not that much difference but then where it comes in is the depth and it starts to wear down at the end and that's where you see these halftime scores tick across you're like oh my God this team is only you know is down by three points at half time to this this tiny school what's happening and then by the end they win by three touchdowns and it's it's one depth but it's two it's because those other guys are playing on special teams whereas the small school doesn't however I I do believe we are very very deep in those guys play special teams so I'm not concerned about that uh in this team you know again great linebackers we lost a couple but again the guys that are replacing on the outsides both played very meaningful and significant snap so we're good there uh Corners are very good really not worried about matchups there I think we're three maybe three and a half deep at corner so we're in good shape and again safeties we got a solid four guys that could rotate if need be where it's going to get interesting is on the defensive line like I mentioned we've got some guys coming back that have taken snaps but there's not a lot of production uh we it's the size is okay by all accounts they're playing well but that's that's I think going to be those will be the matchups to watch here in this game early on gotcha well I mean gosh we hear it all the time the games you know won on the line of scrimmage and you know we've talked about with all the at least the five starters for Oklahoma State all red shirt seniors returning really that goes even more in depth with the eight offensive linemen that are gonna see significant playing time this year do Walker Award winner Heisman running back level caliber Ole Gordon so you know how do you think the the matchup goes with South Dakota state do you think the defense is maybe built or capable of keeping oi in check for an FCS program or do you feel like you know I mean I don't think anybody in the country can keep Oli in check you know for an entire game that that's not going to happen uh I again I do believe what you guys will see uh is a very very fundamentally sound team a team that flies around and a team that hits uh Jimmy has a very specific style of Defense he is very demanding and he will have everybody ready and and I mean if you know you listen to his radio show or his interview that came out in the last couple of days they they intend they clearly plan on winning a football game there's no hey we're going to give it a shot I mean Jimmy basically one I love it was such an exciting quote it was essentially like hey you can I forget what it was but it was something like we we quit on um moral victories years ago or some something like that I'm like okay let's go that'll get you fired up yeah it was it was it was pretty cool especially stoic as he is and it's not in a cocky way I just that's what they to do to have playb listen you win 29 games in a row you're allowed to say moral Vic are out the window right we're coming here to win a football game and I think honestly if if from my perspective and I think probably even from fans if they do any type of halfway research you know it's like there's a skill to winning football games in the way that you guys have won football games by controlling the line of scrimmage having a great defense and so forth and so on and and teams can learn how to lose and team's can learn how to win and when you have a team that knows how to win football games that's what scares you right you you you have an early an early interception a fumble or something get you guys confidence building so forth and so on you know that's you that's what you guys capitalize on us so as you brought up for me it's the the line the line of scrimmage play you guys are replacing quite a bit there but those guys are in this program for a reason this program has done this for a reason right and so I think I think we're going to see a lot more of the same so I uh again on the defensive side of the ball I think it's going to be this is G and I say this as a a former defensive lineman I always kind of ramble about how as a d lineman you can play a perfect game and never see the stat sheet and I think we very well could see one of those where we just need four guys that are fundamentally sound that can get a yard and a half into the back field and just stay put and not give up ground and allow the the linebackers are going to swarm to the ball the safeties are going to get to the ball and make tackles so it's really about not getting not giving up lateral movement on the defensive line is what I think the key is going to be defensively uh jumping back to offense real quick just because we we gave up a lot uh a lot of depth there on the offensive line we didn't touch on it much I was initially a bit concerned about that but I'm not as much anymore uh SDSU has I call it like three and a half returning starters essentially because on the offensive line yeah on the offensive line Sorry jumping back to offense quick I I know we're talking defense now but we didn't quite get into this part of it we only talk skill guys and I did want to mention so left tackle um replacing you know the All-American Garett Greenfield who's with uh Seattle uh Quinton Christensen is a I think a sophomore and he actually played in every game last year and they squeezed his 66 310 lb body into like the number like 82 jersey and stuck him at tight end all year which was just hysterical uh so he I mean he played a ton so he's essentially a returning starter um Ethan vibert left guard returning Gus Miller we talked about or no then sorry vibert uh is stepping in you've got barstein who's a returning starter and then at right tackle it was a battle between either a guy named Sam Hagen who's a three uh two-year starter up at University of North Dakota or Marcus Hicks who was uh transfer from University of Oklahoma um so at any rate there's enough returning talent and somebody that transferred in from North Dakota that I think oine should be in pretty darn good shape and I'm not as concerned as I was early gosh well that's good to know I mean going into it from the outside looking in I see it as wow you guys I mean these are big big time guys big pieces from the offensive line especially but to hear that you got you not not necessarily a rebuild but a Reload situation I mean that's got to give you a little bit more confidence heading into the game for sure that that that's the hope at least that's what I've convinced myself because I've had way too much time to think about this yeah well I love how earlier you brought up that this team was built essentially to stop North Dakota State you know North Dakota state has obviously been a Powerhouse in the FCS now from the last report that I saw there were 14 former North Dakota State Bison football players in the NFL five of them are offensive linemen three of them quarterbacks and again we we've touched on it already but North Dakota State South Dakota State they've got NFL level Talent the fact that South Dakota state has been able to stop that level of talent I mean might that might give some posi for concern on Oklahoma State fan base a little bit so so what I've told I've said this a few times now I think um if if a celtico State fan wants to feel good about this matchup because we are going to Stillwater we are going to play on the face of the Sun at 1:00 in Oklahoma um that okay so South Dakota State again we we were built to beat North Dakota state that that's what we had to do and it took a long time we lost a lot of games to them and they won a lot of games and I hate them but they when you look at the way their recipe for success and compare them to your current team they had an elite offensive line that again put a couple guys in the NFL every year forever uh from the line uh quarterbacks who by the way are still in the NFL if you look at eastn stick and Carson Wentz obviously um and T Lance isn't working out very well he's actually from right by where I grew up my Conference in high school um I honestly I think he just got thrown in if he could have been a guy that didn't get that hype and could have had four years on the bench to learn he would have been fine but but anyway you've got you know multiple quarterbacks still in the league um so they were built on Elite offensive line good quarterback and you know uh a solid Run game so essentially what do you guys have an elite line um you know I think that possibly the level quarterback North Dakota state had might be even better than what you have right now and that's not a shot at your guy um and then but you guys obviously have better running backs right now so it's it's not a totally different uh uh scenario than what we've been built to have to play against and I think that should give SDSU fans a little bit of of confidence or or or hope going into this I think well not to give you any more confidence but it sounds like it may be not even as hot as what you're thinking you know it has been 110 degrees over the past few weeks but all of a sudden it's looking like high of 87 maybe now the humidity will be high it'll be like you know 75% humidity so that it'll be sticky out there but you know it's not going to be 87 in August in Oklahoma every Oklahoma ever would take that and run that's absolutely so I uh I think you guys are a little bit Lucky in that sense so oh you know we gotta keep it as even as possible and make it as interesting as possible I guess I hope it's interesting we'll see well Dallas last couple things uh before we let you go we mentioned it a little bit briefly but you've got new offensive coordinators or co-offensive ators this year what can we expect from them do you think it'll be a little bit of a learning curve for the jack rabbits this season or do you expect it to be business as usual we gonna see some new schemes or just keep rolling with what we've what we've been seeing I wish I had some insight I am so curious to find out I don't think I mean these are both we we know both these coaches um talk to both of them they're both very accomplished uh it'd be stupid to reinvent the wheel when when you've got you know this quarterback all World quarterback coming back that knows the system so that that's highly unlikely uh we got spoiled the last couple years Zack Luhan who is you mentioned is now at Northwestern he he's still like in his 20s I think the guy is he's just a freak he's going to be I call it he's he's going to win a National Championship as a coach uh in the next decade he's so brilliant uh but we went from a guy before that Jason eek who is the head coach at Idaho right now who was a great offensive coordinator but I always joke like you could see his fingerprints on it like it like felt like a Jason e called game just in some of the situations we spent the last two years never noticing a play call like plays just football happened on offense and you were never aware of it so that's something that we've grown really accustomed to get my dog crawling on my feet here out um sorry so it's it's something we've grown accustomed to so I'm I'm really curious to see if that Creeps in because uh Danny Frey who were really fortunate to pick up as a co- offensive coordinator he came down from the University of North Dakota and they had a little bit of a gadgety offense at times it was fun to watch it was exciting but I I also wonder if it's because they didn't have some of the ponies that we do necessarily and it might have been out of necessity so I I don't know that in terms of schematically or play calls that we'll see anything super different but I'm curious to see having co-offensive coordinators I think they're both up in the booth uh there might be some weird Kinks to get worked out with either decision making or communication or something as we go through this so that that'll be interesting if something really weird happens early on on offense my mind's immediately going to go to hey is the fact that we have two two guys in charge and they're both new did something weird weird go on there and uh you know what's your what's your approval rating of second year head coach Jimmy Rogers oh I 10 out of 10 I mean I I don't know on one hand again we joke that 15 out of 15 already yeah I mean you like I said Stig left the keys to the Ferrari on the table on the way out but he still did it so you can't fault him and there was and they got better as the season went on you mentioned the what what did s do you have that in front of you what the playoff score was scores were I think it was 146 to 15 yeah I mean so it it's hard not to sound arrogant but I mean that's you're playing the best of the best and you just dismantle your way through uh you know the the FCS playoffs so now they got better they lived up to every expectation and you know got through some injuries and and so yeah 10 out of 10 and and we're we're already nervous how long we're going to get to keep him for I mean again the guy bleeds yellow and blue but he's got a family Money Talks so hopefully nobody hopefully nobody pays too much attention to him here we went to the same thing with Coach Gundy for quite a while yeah and uh you know ultimately that's a sign of respect it means you're doing something right you know if you're not it's kind of like especially in today's day and age it's like if people aren't talking to your players or if you don't have players leave early then that's the problem because you're not y you know what I mean so good point I think I think uh I think you all even thinking about that let you know what kind of quality of coaching program you guys have built so that's credit to Y all oh I appreciate that uh hearing that from from some from you know somebody outside the outside the fan base uh and and honestly we've had through our run because it's you we we've got the two back to backs but again we had a third one where we um you know lost the championship game and very well could have should have won it uh and then the the following year we had a brand new quarterback come in it took the first third of the season to get settled in ended up making it to the semis couldn't we saw we played four games in four different time zones in four weeks and just couldn't you know play we're on the Road the entire way through the playoffs and couldn't get through it um so I mean and then I think we were in the semi-finals the previous two years before that so we've we've had a really good run in the FCS finally broke through here and we've had outside of Stig we've had a ton of turnover like it was Stig and Jimmy but all these other guys have really worked their way up really quickly you look at you know coach bobit who is I've seen him on these Elite uh Co you know defensive coach you know with with with other with FBS coaches and power four coaches listed our our de coordinator he's in his 20s and was you know a positional coach last year two years ago um everybody's really had to step up and and Stig has just put put this system in place and put this this belief system in place where I don't know they've just been able to backfill and it's it's been cool to see all right we're going to move on to some score predictions now last time I checked the over under for the total score was 54 a half and and OSU opened as an eight-point favorite but it looks like that's moved to 10 someone's streak is going to end South Dakota State on a 29 game winning streak Jimmy Rogers is 15-0 as a head coach Oklahoma state has won 28 uh consecutive home openers for the longest such streak in school history and uh Mike Gundy is also 15-0 against FCS opponents Dallas how do you see this one playing out and give us a score prediction put me on the spot so we for the record on our pod we don't do score predictions uh for the FBS games Matt won't let us uh I tell you what there's I'm going to give a long winded answer not a short one so it's what we're here for this is what we need I could I could one this game could go so many ways which is a lazy answer there's there's again there's the scenario where hey we had these great guys and and we weren't you know we just don't have anybody to backfill that and this ends up being a four- score game uh I also genuinely believe that South Dakota State can go in and and win this game by a touchdown I I really do if they do certain things um something actually that we didn't get to was I think the recipe for winning this game for SDSU is different than you typically see in these types of matchups usually it's a you slow it down you don't make mistakes those are the things that you focus on right you don't let big plays happen happen you know you really got to be careful uh you know on on defense with with some of the guys on the outside this is actually the opposite where I think for us to win they cannot allow you guys can't have five eight nine 10 minute drives like that's actually what can't happen so we can't allow that um and I'm not really worried about South Dakota State having a pick six or a fumble you know a scoop and score against uh I do think that we do need a defensive touchdown against your offense and then again and then back back I already talked about the the Special Teams thing where typically is like just don't let don't let them return a touchdown and fall down when someone gets close to you and don't fumble right like that that's kind of the the mentality a lot of times and it's the opposite where I'm really not super again you've got dudes I'm this isn't sliding anybody but I'm not really concerned about that portion of it so to me that's that's the recipe for South Dakota state uh to win this game is to not allow these long grinding uh drives so um that said uh I think South Dakota State covers even though the line moved um again who knows of our defensive line if if if this is more than a a one- score game it's because our defensive line just wasn't quite ready yet um and I think they will be by the end of the season but they just don't have the plays under the belt but I'm going to go with 34 to 30 I'm taking the over 34 to3 Oklahoma State okay I appreciate all that that's great Insight Nathan what do you got what do you got for us I when I was looking at this and I have so much respect um and I know the way that coach Gundy typically plays these games and it seems very similar to your old coach um many of Oklahoma State fans will yell to the rooftops about how conservative coach Gundy is especially in the bigger games um it's also the reason why he's won so many on score football games he understands possessions and things like that and so for me I'm going to take the under in this game um and I am gonna I'm G to go with something like a 277 Oklahoma State um I just I don't see a lot of big plays from you know like a two pass 80 yard Drive type of thing happening to your point Oklahoma state knows who they are this year and they're really going to lean on that heavy so they're not going to get away from OE um even though the weapons that we do have on the outside are all Big 12 caliber um I think it's going to be a kind of a lower scoring um not get outside of our box and and go take the game and let all the and our best players do that so um I see that as a as a lower scoring 27 to 17 very physical football game and uh you know big on ball control field field possession and and a 10-point not an easy you know not going to be like a 17 that gets cut down to 10 I think it's going to be a one to two possession game the whole way through that's that's what I'm I'm feeling if it's more than that I think as an Oklahoma State fan I feel even better than I already do about this game because about this team I should say because of the quality of opponent that you all present if we're do that early on the season it it votes well to the character that this team has Nathan I am pretty much right there with you man I've got it at about 31 to 17 I guess I'll stick with that number now I understand it was a while ago but when Mark granowski played at Iowa in 2022 it looked like he only completed 38% of his passes for 87 yards no touchdowns he had negative 21 yards rushing now while we're not you know we're not Iowa's level of Defense but for that reason I think he will have some success you know going through the air and as you may be aware of one of our weaknesses last year was missed assignments blown coverages given up on some explosive plays but I think our defense really has something to prove here I'm thinking you know gronowski probably goes for about 150 and a touchdown maybe maybe has to but you know my biggest concern is really running back Amar Johnson I mean how how well can our defense contain him and as far as the defense goes you know in dominating fashion South Dakota State's defense you know held its four playoff opponents to 15 points at the end of last season you know five defensive starters return plenty more who have playing experience but I don't necessarily believe the offenses that they faced even in the playoffs you know you got Mercer Villanova U Albany and Montana I think they're anywhere near the same level of offense as Oklahoma State and while you know SDSU has some solid Playmakers I just yeah I I feel like Oly Gordon should be able to get rolling this isn't anything new to him you got two bikov watch list receivers who have some stuff to prove against a stout secondary and from everything we're hearing it sounds like Alan Bowman is Lighty years ahead of where he was this time last year so for all all those reason I'm I'm going 31 to 17 maybe a little bit closer than we like a little more cardiac Cowboys and you know Oly has a late touchdown or something to make it 3117 where we maybe maybe score a little bit later and make it look like it's a a bigger win than what it really appeared to be so I I think we're in for some great football regardless it should be a sound football game either way uh real quick back on on South Dakota State on offense a couple of notes I I am definitely much more bullish on what Mark is going to put on the field because one you know some of his performance maybe against Iowa was a fair comparison because it's it's tough right when you compare these two teams you don't you don't have any real good measuring stick right of teams that play at two different levels and two different sets of teams and I I get that right like it's fun to look at we always look at the composite rankings at the end um I love sagron because sagron always has us way higher than anybody else and and yeah we've been yeah yeah we've been pushing top 25 uh for a while which is is fun to look at it means nothing but what the one thing that I think you guys need to keep in mind Mark is putting gonna is is out to put together film this year and he is out to earn money and he is out to get drafted and this is the best film that he can put together right so he will be up and he will be ready and he will be prepared and and and also again that Iowa game was his first game back after injury and he he was Rusty he missed a couple that would have been touchdowns um that that isn't characteristic for him so again I mean do I think he's going to go for uh you know 450 and four no but but uh I I do think that we're going to see a hell of a performance out of him I was gonna say you know if if a player of his caliber struggles in this game I I I don't expect but if he does I don't know how much of that would be on him as it is to Los in your big tight end not having the guys in the outside that are maybe ready to make those plays for him in one-on-one situations that they may be left in you know those type of things I don't think it's going to come down to the quarterback not being ready that's for certain he seems like a very accomplished level-headed dude that is not going to be overwhelmed by which quite frankly is one of the more underrated atmospheres in college football um everybody's right on top of you got six feet you know from sideline to the to the field um so I don't think that's going to be the problem I I if I foresee anything getting away from SDSU it's just some of the newer guys like you said right on the dline that it's not the skill it's just the Reps and maybe this isn't the best place to get your first reps to be able to make big impact plays so talking about line play again real quick not to drag this out further another matchup I think that will be interesting to watch who is your uh nose guard or D tackle that's like the size of yeah Justin Kirkland so Kirkland versus Gus again Gus Miller is he has every intention of being a draft pick this year and going to the combine and if you want to do that you put up numbers against a guy that everybody knows can bench 225 a million times or whatever theage so so I mean those are that bodess well I think for SDSU that those two guys are going to be up for this for that reason try to put up some good tape Counterpoint Justin Kirkland knows that Gus Miller is a beast and also wants to put up some good film to there's some good uh good quality debate going on here yeah so Dallas my understanding is you're not going to make the trip to still water but you know some some South Dakota State fans who will be in Stillwater yes there there should be a fair number I I'm really sad I can't make it my son's got a game the night before and I'm not going to drive through the night to get down there for the night game I absolutely would be there so I appreciate you again having me on your show I was able to to drops some food spots and everything that fans might want to check out and I mentioned you know Eskimo Joe's Hideway Pizza they're going to be packed out I mentioned just wafflin some great breakfast food Aspen Coffee and then brumms for ice cream okay we got all that covered but one thing I failed to mention and I forgot on the spot just on your show the other night you got to come down to Oklahoma and get some real barbecue okay oh yep so in Still Water we got a couple of place oh really three I guess so bad Brads smok and Joe's and Cherokee strip so all three of those spread the word fill up on some great food when you come down here bad my personal favorite of the three which one so which one bad Brads bad Brads got it I've got some yeah some good memories there so I will say Oklahoma State fans very hospitable a lot of really anywhere across Oklahoma very friendly hospitable game day atmosphere is going to be fun and energetic and as long as South Dakota State fans come in and and don't act like sooner fans you'll be great it'll be good not gonna happen it's actually it's really fun being the the cute little team that just showed up uh everybody's super nice to you and then you hope your team just punches up the mouth then you put it on them and you say still GNA be we are trying to educate our fan base that is not the case all right we got some legitimate contenders here but uh what I got listed here game one versus the South Dakota State jack rabbits will be Saturday August 31st at 1 pm Central Time in Boon picking Stadium it's Aggie day so wear orange and be loud the game will be streamed live on ESPN plus Dallas man thanks again for coming on to help us understand a little bit more about the Jacks anything else where can we where can we find you where can Oklahoma State fans give you shouts out shout outs and all that oh that actually that's a good point if anybody is out there looking to learn a little bit more uh just head to Jackrabbit Illustrated dcom and you're going to have links to all of our socials and uh podcast we got three different weekly podcasts or four now uh you know blog post everything else so if you want to if you're you're a complete sicko and and you just are looking for football and you got nothing else to do with your time uh in the next four days Jack reillustrated dcom check it all out there are a few of us out there who are sickos so that's good stuff well I appreciate it again this episode of the believe in okay State podcast is presented by bet online please like share and subscribe to show your support we'll see you next time and remember all things are possible to the one who believes and