STU-WHITNEY

Whitney: Jacks face clear path to respectability – beat the Bison

Stu Whitney
Argus Leader
SDSU's Taryn Christion (3) runs away from NDSU's Caleb Butler (95) as he looks to pass during the NCAA Division I Football Quarterfinals at the Fargodome on Sat., Dec. 10, 2016.

Dana Dykhouse was a junior defensive tackle at South Dakota State in 1977, when the Jackrabbits were mired in a 17-game losing streak to North Dakota State, an NCAA Division II powerhouse.

Jim Wacker, the NDSU coach who later took the reins at TCU and Minnesota, gave a speech at a Fargo banquet attended by both teams the night before the game that extolled the virtues of college football and the excitement sparked by Bison success.

“At the end of the night, I was wishing I played for North Dakota State,” says Dykhouse, now CEO and president of First Premier Bank and a major Jackrabbit booster. “They had great coaches, great fan support, great tradition. They had it all. And we’ve been trying to catch up ever since.”

SDSU fans:Who do you hate more — USD or NDSU?

The gap has closed in recent years, with SDSU improving its facilities and ratcheting up recruiting to become a perennial playoff team making consecutive FCS semifinal appearances.

But as the Jackrabbits head north for Friday’s high-octane border battle with NDSU, with a national championship berth at stake, the programs still seem worlds apart.

The defending champion Bison have captured six national FCS titles on the heels of five Division II and three College Division crowns, while SDSU seeks its first-ever trip to the finals at any level.

Scenes from the NCAA Division I Football Quarterfinals featuring SDSU vs. NDSU at the Fargodome on Sat., Dec. 10, 2016.

NDSU boasts a hardcore home-field advantage at the Fargodome, with an overall winning percentage of .864 and a 23-1 postseason mark. The Jacks are 0-3 in playoff matchups at Fargo and have struggled to draw postseason crowds in Brookings despite unveiling a new stadium in 2016.

While the Bison have a tradition of sending head coaches up the ladder, with Chris Klieman extending the trend by taking the Kansas State job this week, SDSU relies on “coaching continuity” by firmly standing behind John Stiegelmeier, who is not coveted at higher levels.

And, of course, ESPN’s College GameDay has twice traveled to Fargo, while the network only mentions SDSU to praise its basketball prowess or to confuse it with San Diego State.

More:The five best NDSU/SDSU games of the Division I era

“There’s a little bit of a ‘little brother’ syndrome that we might have,” admits Dykhouse, whose name is on SDSU’s $65 million stadium and the school’s football headquarters. “We’ve definitely earned some respect over the past five years, but we haven’t been able to take that next step.”

That’s really what this national televised matchup comes down to. The next step.

NDSU is a symbol of what an FCS program is supposed to be: overachieving players and innovative coaches pushing the limits of a “lesser” division, nabbing wins over major D-I foes and dominating everyone else, with full-scale fandom all around.

They’re not afraid to tell you about it, either. It gets rather annoying.

Friday night’s clash, the biggest football game in SDSU history, gives the Jacks a chance to negate the noise from up north and become championship caliber after decades of subservience to the Dakotas version of the Evil Empire.

If you don’t think one football game can really be that monumental, you haven’t been paying attention.

Tale of two cities

Former SDSU head coach Mike Daly has seen the rivalry from both sides. The Sioux Falls resident served as defensive coordinator at SDSU from 1975-78 before taking the same role at NDSU under Don Morton, who later became head coach at Wisconsin.

Daly helped guide Bison teams that lost in the national finals in 1981 and then won it all two years later, sparking a run of five titles over eight years for the North Central Conference powerhouse. While many Division II fan bases that Daly ran across were lukewarm at best, he saw the NDSU faithful as loud, large and loyal.

“They were crazy, in a good way,” he says. “The school was into it, the town was into it, the region was into it. The support was incredible, in more ways than one.”

After stops at Tulsa, Wisconsin and Western Michigan, Daly returned to SDSU to take the head coaching job in 1991 and found that not much had changed.

While NDSU was preparing to move into the 19,000-seat Fargodome with the help of public funds, no significant athletic facilities in Brookings had been put forth since the opening of Frost Arena in 1973.

The Jacks head to their practice field in 2009 with trailers used as offices and the Dykhouse Center under construction in the background.

“The locker rooms in 1991 were the same ones I left in 1978,” says Daly. “They still smelled the same.”

With no football headquarters, Daly tried to schedule meetings in classrooms at Frost Arena. But if a professor decided the room was needed, the coaches had to go.

Recruits were not shown the cramped home locker rooms or the visitors’ accommodations across a parking lot in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building. Luring top talent from the region became a chore.

“It wasn’t just facilities, but the overall image of the school,” says Dykhouse, whose son, Dan, lettered for the Jacks from 2004-06. “The dorms the players were living in, the labs they were going to. We lost a lot of South Dakota athletes to NDSU because they were the model that we all wanted to become. How can you deny it?”

Preview:What to know about South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State

Still, Daly saw glimpses of hope before stepping down after 1996 and handing the reins to Stiegelmeier, who would be entrusted with guiding SDSU into a challenging Division I era less than a decade later.

Daly’s 1993 team ended the 17-game losing skid to the Bison by handing them a 42-30 Beef Bowl defeat at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, with quarterback Todd McDonald passing for 264 yards and running for a pair of touchdowns before a crowd of 6,225.

“I’m in shock,” said McDonald after the game, echoing the thoughts of those around him. “I really can’t believe it.”

Making up ground

Though NDSU and SDSU exited the NCC and went Division I at the same time in 2004, they didn’t follow the same path. The Bison went all in with football under Craig Bohl, funneling resources for a full coaching staff and competitive recruiting budget to match the expectations of their fan base.

The Jacks chose a more balanced athletic department approach, securing future success for sports such as basketball while leaving football underfunded. Dykhouse, whose personal and professional relationship with T. Denny Sanford allowed him to think big, knew that waiting for public money to lift SDSU’s fortunes was a recipe for failure. Private and corporate partnerships were the key.

Dana Dykhouse is the namesake of the Dykhouse Student Athletic Center at and Coughlin Alumni Stadium in Brookings.

“I remember attending an athletic scholarship banquet up in Fargo, where the top auction item was a minivan totally decked out with Bison gear,” says Dykhouse. “Our top item that year was a cooler filled with beer. Back then we raised about $50,000 with our scholarship auction, while last year we brought in over $1 million in one night.”

A $6 million donation from Dykhouse and Denny Sanford in 2007 got the ball rolling for the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center. Denny then chipped in another $10 million in 2013 to jump-start the stadium project, followed by Sanford Health’s $10 million gift that sealed the indoor practice facility.

By then, Stiegelmeier’s coaching staff had reached full proportion and the recruiting swath widened, leading to seven consecutive playoff appearances and last year’s berth in the semifinals. The formula fits what Daly knew was needed back in the early 1990s, but progress comes one donation at a time.

More:FCS playoffs: Klieman's move could spark Bison vs South Dakota State

“When you look at facilities, we have caught (NDSU) and passed them,” says Daly. “And SDSU coaches have the budget now to recruit nationally. You want to work your home base, but you also need some kids from outside, and they have the staff to be able to do that.”

Consecutive wins over the Bison in 2016 and 2017, the first of those coming in Fargo, seemed to portend a changing of the guard. But NDSU got the last laugh in the 2016 playoffs by drilling SDSU 36-10 and soared again last year for its sixth FCS crown, beating James Madison 17-13 in Frisco, Texas.

SDSU's takes the field for the game against University of Northern Iowa Saturday, Dec. 2, at Dana Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings.

“One of the trademarks of their program is that players consistently peak perform in the biggest games,” says Daly. “Through confidence and preparation, they rise to the occasion when it matters. Until you do the same and win a national championship, I don’t think you can compare yourself to North Dakota State.”

So the task is clear for SDSU. Take the next step. Find a way to make history.

It would be the perfect way for quarterback Taryn Christion to cap his college career, erasing the sting of last year’s semifinal struggle in the toughest possible atmosphere at the best possible time, paving the way to Frisco.

Big brother is watching. He’s waiting to see if little brother can finally, after all these years, stand tall and seize the moment.

Argus Leader Media columnist Stu Whitney can be reached at swhitney@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter @stuwhitney