SDSU Pro Day Draws 14 Participants, Spotlight Shines on QB Chase Mason

Fourteen Jackrabbits ran the 40, pressed iron, and ran position drills Friday at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex in Brookings, the largest group in recent SDSU Pro Day history. At the center of it all was Chase Mason, a quarterback not even draft-eligible until 2027 who drew enough professional interest to earn a workout slot in front of NFL scouts nonetheless.

That Mason threw at an FCS Pro Day as an underclassman is not typical. It is, however, increasingly expected for a program that has become the most prolific FCS-to-NFL pipeline in the country.

Mason's credentials hold up under scrutiny. He posted an 81.2 overall PFF grade during the 2025 season, ranking 71st among 302 qualified quarterbacks nationally, a number that competes favorably with most FBS production. Through 270 dropbacks, he threw for 2,007 yards and 15 touchdowns. At the midpoint of the season he was completing 66 percent of his passes (111-of-169, 1,419 yards, 11 touchdowns, one interception) before a foot injury interrupted his run. When he came back, he came back clean: 16-of-20 for 230 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-3 FCS playoff dismantling of New Hampshire. Draft Scout already has him profiled as a future NFL prospect, and Friday's workout formalized what that profile implies.

Mason's road to Brookings runs through Hurley, South Dakota. At Viborg-Hurley High School, he passed for 2,218 yards and rushed for 1,159 more as a junior, scoring 55 total touchdowns and leading Viborg-Hurley to a Class 9AA state championship. A torn ACL ended his senior season before it began. That he developed into one of the more efficient quarterbacks in the Missouri Valley Football Conference speaks to both his resilience and SDSU's player development under head coach Dan Jackson.

The backdrop for Mason's emergence is a program that has earned every scout who walked into the SJAC. All 32 NFL teams sent representatives to SDSU's Pro Day on March 26, 2025, a figure that is almost unheard of for an FCS school. The year before, 31 of 32 teams were present. Eight former Jackrabbits were in NFL training camps in 2024, and Mason McCormick and Isaiah Davis, both drafted that year, were the fourth and fifth Jackrabbits selected since 2022 alone. SDSU is the only FCS program with multiple draftees in that stretch.

The program's 29 all-time NFL Draft picks include Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Langer and Adam Vinatieri. It won its first FCS national championship on January 8, 2023, defeating North Dakota State 45-21, finished 12-3 in 2024, and entered the 2025 season ranked third in the HERO Sports FCS Preseason Top 25. Multimedia journalist Tanner Castora, who authored "Stig and the Rise of South Dakota State Football," a biography of former coach John Stieglemeier, has covered SDSU Pro Days extensively and documented that institutional growth firsthand.

With Jackson now running the program Stieglemeier built, Friday's 14-man workout is the latest evidence that the pipeline holds. Mason has two college seasons ahead of him. What scouts saw Friday will shape how his stock builds between now and the 2027 draft, and whether SDSU keeps drawing a full house of NFL personnel every spring.