Six South Dakota State Jackrabbits earn preseason All-America honors
Six Jackrabbits made Stats Perform’s preseason All-America team, and South Dakota State has already turned that kind of star power into another national-title push.
South Dakota State added another preseason marker to its championship case Monday when six Jackrabbits were named to the 2026 Stats Perform Football Championship Subdivision Preseason All-America Team, the second-most of any school in the country. Montana State led the list with eight picks, but SDSU’s haul says more about the program’s footing than its recruiting flash: the Jackrabbits keep losing key pieces and replacing them with players who are already proven at FCS level.
Quinten Christensen headlined the group with a first-team selection on the offensive line. The left tackle started all 14 games in 2025, earned second-team Stats Perform All-America honors after the season and was also first-team all-Missouri Valley Football Conference. South Dakota State’s own numbers make the case for how much he mattered: with Christensen in the lineup last season, the Jackrabbits averaged 28.6 points and 379.7 yards of total offense per game and cleared 200 rushing yards five times.
Four more Jackrabbits landed on the second team in spots that map out the roster backbone of a contender. Defensive end Dawson Ripperda gave SDSU edge production with 43 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, and both a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 2025. Linebacker Cullen McShane finished second on the team with 88 tackles, added 7.5 tackles for loss and forced a fumble while earning second-team all-MVFC recognition. Wide receiver Lofton O’Groske flashed the kind of downfield punch that changes games before an injury cut into his season, finishing with 27 catches for 355 yards and four touchdowns in six games.
O’Groske’s best day came in one of the season’s most revealing wins, a 12-catch, two-touchdown performance in a double-overtime victory at eventual national champion Montana State. That is the sort of résumé SDSU keeps stockpiling, not just the sort of preseason label it earns.
The last Jackrabbit on the team, punter Max Pelham, fits the same pattern. South Dakota State ranked second among FCS teams in net punting at 43.04 yards per attempt in 2024 and had converted 97 percent of its extra-point attempts over the previous two seasons entering 2025. That special-teams reliability matters for a team that finished 9-5, made its 14th straight FCS playoff appearance and lost 50-29 at Montana on Dec. 6, 2025, in the second round under first-year head coach Dan Jackson.
Stats Perform’s preseason team included players from all 13 FCS conferences, 53 schools and 101 players. For South Dakota State, six names on that list do not just decorate a roster. They show the Jackrabbits still have enough line play, front-seven punch and special-teams stability to stay in the top tier of the subdivision’s title race.
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