Coyote football aims for one more shot to glory in rivalry game
South Dakota will end its season against its biggest rival, South Dakota State, Saturday, and while the Coyotes are sitting 2-9 (0-7 Missouri Valley) on the season, the team isn’t short of motivation.
Junior linebacker Keyen Lage said his team, because of who they’re playing, will play with a lot of pride.
“It just brings out the best of everybody’s school spirit. Everybody is rooting for whatever school they are for. Even the quiet fans come out at this time of the year,” Lage said. “It really brings out the best of both schools and it’s a super intense rivalry, so it should be a crazy game.”
To prepare for the outdoor climate at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium in Brookings, the Coyotes are practicing outdoors this week. Lage said practices will be a little different leading up to the game.
“They’ll be a little more intense and a little more personal, because that’s what this game is,” Lage said. “It’s definitely personal for both teams.”
Junior Eric Shufford has not played in the last two rivalry’s games. The Coyotes lost 31-8 in 2012 and 27-12 last year. Despite the double-digit losses, Shufford said his team won’t show any signs of being the underdog in this matchup.
“We want to show that we run South Dakota. That’s our mindset,” Shufford said. “We want to win this game for USD, all of our students, all of our alums and all of our fans.”
The last Coyote victory over the Jackrabbits was in 2000. Since then, the Jackrabbits have won the last five matchups. Head coach Joe Glenn is looking for his first coaching victory over South Dakota State in his third try.
“The last two years the Jackrabbits have been all over us,” Glenn said. “But we closed the gap a little bit last year in the Dome and we hope this Saturday in Brookings every Coyote supporter, fan and student can make the trip to help cheer us on to victory.”
To beat SDSU, the Coyotes will have to slow down senior running back and all-American Zach Zenner.
Zenner is second in the conference in rushing yards, only trailing Illinois State running back Marshaun Coprich, who ran for 221 yards against the Coyotes last week.
As a sophomore, Zenner faced the Coyotes in Brookings and ran for 164 yards and two scores. Last year, the Coyotes bottled him up pretty well, yet he still ran for 137 yards and a score.
“Zenner is a great running back and probably the best we’ve ever seen,” said junior defensive end Drew Iddings. “We’ll have to find a way to stop him or control him, and if that happens the outcome will turn out our way.”
Iddings said ending the year with a win, not only being their first in the conference of the year, but against SDSU, would be a special end to an otherwise down season.
“We have the opportunity to go into the off-season with a win and a pretty good taste in our mouths,” Iddings said. “We could hang our heads pretty high in the state of South Dakota and not get asked what happened in the SDSU game, but instead say, ‘Yeah, we beat them.’”
Kickoff is Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium in Brookings.
(Photo: Kevin Earl, junior quarterback for the University of South Dakota football team, drops back to pass Nov. 15 in the DakotaDome. The Coyotes lost to Illinois State 45-26. Emily Niebrugge / The Volante)
