Young quarterbacks impress in South Dakota State spring football game

Matt Zimmer
Argus Leader
Blair Mulholland (5) gives the ball to the official after scoring the first touchdown of the SDSU spring football game Saturday at the S-JAC

BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State spring football game did not settle the question of who will be the next starting quarterback for the Jackrabbits.

But it did provide hope that it will be a guy the Jacks can win with.

Redshirt freshmen J’Bore Gibbs and Matt Connors were both impressive in their first true game action as Jackrabbits. Kurt Walding, the junior transfer from Arizona State, was also solid as the offense defeated the defense 47-37 on Saturday in front of a crowd of over 1,000 at the S-JAC.

Connors was 8-of-12 for 108 yards and a 16-yard touchdown run, Gibbs threw for a game-high 148 yards and a 55-yard touchdown to Jake Aanderud, and Walding completed 5-of-8 passes for 55 yards.

With a loaded backfield that includes 1,000-yard rusher Pierre Strong as well as senior Mikey Daniel and speedster C.J. Wilson, the Jacks expect to be a run-first team in 2019, but they looked surprisingly balanced against their own defense on Saturday.

More:Q&A with South Dakota State offensive coordinator Jason Eck

“We all won,” coach John Stiegelmeier said when asked about the offense vs. the defense. “We had a bunch of young guys playing and I know we got better as a football team. The two young quarterbacks stood out. J’Bore did and Matt really did. Our receivers made some tough catches, we had a decent pass rush – there were a lot of positives.”

The Jacks held out a huge number of starters and key players due to injury, including Christian Rozeboom, Cade Johnson, Wes Genant, Ryan Earith, Krockett Krolikowski, Jacob Brown, Seven Wilson and others, but that gave the coaches a chance to take a longer look at less experienced players.

Former SDSU and current Philadelphia Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert (far right) meets with his old teammates at Saturday's spring football game

The offensive line was especially thin, but those that played – primarily Evan Greeneway, Matt Clark, Eagan Lickiss, Aron Johnson and Jon Gruetzmacher, handled the heavy workload admirably.

“It went really good, I thought,” Greeneway said. “The O-line stepped up and the offense as a whole played well. We started slow but we rallied to get the win as an offense, and that was nice.”

More:Jordan Brown, Taryn Christion shine at South Dakota State Pro Day

The defense earned points through sacks, three-and-outs and turnovers, and they led 24-14 at halftime. Tolu Ogunrinde, Austin Smenda, Elijah Wilson, Xavier Ward and Cade Terveer all had sacks, while Kyle Tuttle had a game-high eight tackles. Logan Backhaus, Levi Brown and Preston Tetzlaff each had seven stops.

But with graduated four-year starter and all-time passing leader Taryn Christion in attendance (as well as recent SDSU stars Dallas Goedert, Jake Wieneke, Jacob Ohnesorge and Kellen Soulek, among others), the focus was surely on the quarterbacks.

More:SDSU spring football report: New look offense a work in progress

Gibbs and Walding are the frontrunners for the job, but Connors may be pushing to be in the mix with his strong throwing and surprising mobility for a 6-foot-4 pocket passer. Kanin Nelson looked good with his feet before getting hurt Saturday, but struggled with his passing accuracy.

Gibbs was a highly-touted recruit coming out of Chicago and spent almost all of last year working with the scout team as a true freshman. Now that he’s getting to work with the big dogs on offense he’s gaining confidence.

SDSU assistant coach Zach Lujan talks with SDSU quarterbacks at halftime of Saturday's spring football game

“I just wanted to show I could lead this offense; that if they give me the keys to the car that I can take it and go,” Gibbs said. “I have to lead by example as the quarterback, and I feel like I have a duty to prove myself in everything I do, and that’s what I wanted to do today.”

And how would the young signal-caller evaluate his first spring game performance?

“I’d give myself maybe a C,” Gibbs said. “There’s always room for improvement. Individually I made a big leap from the beginning of the spring until now, and especially from last year running the scout team until now. They brought me here to be the quarterback and I have to continue to prove I can be.”

With the Jacks slated to open the season on Aug. 29 at Minnesota, SDSU will report for camp early, in late July. And Stiegelmeier thinks his team set itself on course to hit the ground running when they regroup.

“We got better, we had a lot of good practices,” said Stiegelmeier, whose team went 10-3 last year and made the playoffs for the seventh straight season. “I liked the energy and I liked the focus. We have high expectations so we have to figure out how to take the next step.”