Column: Clock ticking on Coyote football

Head coach Joe Glenn has brought a steady presence to the University of South Dakota football team.

The Coyotes football team has seen a steady rise in their play on the field each year he’s been here. The first year’s win total was all of one game. Last year’s win total jumped to four. Three week’s ago the program notched what Glenn called a “signature” win by beating No. 22 Northern Arizona.

A bye followed, and good vibes were felt all around.

But now, two weeks later, those good vibes seem like a long-lost memory.

After the bye week, the Coyotes performance on the road against Southern Illinois was a 41-10 dud that included USD giving up 31 unanswered points in the second half.

The Coyotes still looked like an improved squad, but realistically they weren’t ready to beat an upper-echelon team on the road. But the excuses were thrown out the window this past Saturday.

Sitting at 2-3, the Coyotes hosted Northern Iowa, a team they beat last year on the road. Heading into the game, I thought it marked — though still early in the season — the defining game of 2014 for coach Glenn and the Coyotes.

The 100th Dakota Days football game wasn’t just the most important game of the year. Hosting UNI at the DakotaDome was the most important game of Glenn’s three seasons here.

The reasons were obvious. It was scheduled on Dakota Days. The team’s starting quarterback was healthy and ready to return. A win would have proved last year’s win wasn’t a fluke. And falling to 2-4 would be fatal heading into the final stretch of the season.

A Dakota Days win would have told the Coyote fans and FCS football USD is on the upswing.

The record of their final six opponents is currently 25-10. That’s not pretty. Falling to 2-4 while heading into that stretch of games and expecting to see the team make another jump in progression isn’t impossible, but the odds are heavily stacked against it.

But Saturday’s loss proved they haven’t taken much of a step forward from last year. In fact, they may have taken a step back.

The Coyotes currently sit at 2-4. At this point last year they were 3-3.

The team has just one sack through six games. The offensive line, though not entirely their fault, has given up 20 sacks. That’s how many they gave up all of last season. The defense is giving up seven more points per game, and the team continues looking sluggish coming out of halftime.

The Coyotes have already been outscored 55-17 in the third quarter this year after getting outscored 75-23 in the third quarter last year.

The Coyotes are at a bit of a crossroads. It’s still fairly early in the year, but it might also be getting too late.

If the Coyotes want to continue gathering more respect from people around the FCS, they need to get more wins. They didn’t last weekend. Heading into the week I thought it was the most important game for the Coyotes since they entered the Missouri Valley. After the game, I felt like it was their most disappointing loss.

It was a tough pill to swallow, and the team now has a steep hill to climb.

There’s still time. South Dakota State or North Dakota State are still on the schedule. But time is running out on the Coyotes.