South Dakota State Eyes Title Defense, Key Battles in Spring Practice

Chase Mason walked into the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex on March 10 healthy, upright, and back in full pads. That single fact changes the entire calculus for South Dakota State's 2026 title push. Last season, Mason's foot injury in Week 8 against Murray State split the Jackrabbits' year clean in half: 8-1 with him, 1-4 without him, and a quarterfinal exit from the FCS Playoffs. A program that was two years removed from winning a national championship finished 9-5, not because of a talent deficit, but because of the cascading consequences of losing one player. Now, with Mason returning for his final college season and head coach Dan Jackson entering Year 2, the roster complexity of spring 2026 comes down to three questions that will decide whether Brookings hosts a title celebration next January.

Question 1: Who Wins the Most Important Position Battle in the MVFC?

The backup quarterback competition is the single most consequential position battle SDSU will hold this spring, and it is not particularly close in terms of stakes. Jack Henry gained valuable experience playing in Mason's absence in 2025 and enters spring with the inside track to QB2 as a sophomore. Henry is one of the fastest players on the roster and brings a legitimate running element to the offense, but scouts and coaches both noted he wasn't yet consistent enough as a passer to hand him the role outright. That assessment prompted the staff to add competition through the transfer portal.

The urgency is backed by hard evidence: SDSU went 8-1 with Mason under center and 1-4 without him. That split is not a coincidence of schedule or luck. It reflects how deeply the offense is engineered around Mason's ability to process information, move through progressions, and threaten defenses as both a runner and thrower. If Mason goes down again in 2026, the Jackrabbits need a backup capable of winning games, not merely managing them. What scouts want to see from Henry this spring: improved accuracy under pressure, decisiveness on second reads, and command of the full playbook beyond the designed run game. The player who earns QB2 may not throw a regular-season pass, but the battle itself tells Jackson exactly how prepared his program is to absorb the worst-case scenario.

Question 2: What Schematic Wrinkle Can Unlock the 2026 Offense?

The wrinkle to watch is not on the chalkboard. It is the healthy return of wide receiver Lofton O'Groske, and specifically how offensive coordinator Eric Eidsness builds the passing scheme around what O'Groske does that nobody else in the FCS can replicate.

Before injury cut his 2025 season short, O'Groske had already compiled 27 receptions for 355 yards and four touchdowns. His breakout performance against Montana State, a 12-catch, 133-yard, two-touchdown performance, showed exactly why his absence mattered so much. As the SI FCS Football Central preview noted, O'Groske's ability to win 1-on-1 matchups opened up the entire offense because defenses had to commit extra attention to stopping him, which freed other receivers and created space in the run game. Without him, opposing coordinators could simplify their coverage structure and funnel resources elsewhere. With a fully healthy O'Groske lining up next to Mason in 2026, Eidsness can reintroduce the stress package that made SDSU's offense so dangerous through the first half of 2025. The specific thing to watch in spring: how quickly O'Groske and Mason rebuild the chemistry and timing that makes their connection so hard to defend.

Question 3: Which Unit Can Realistically Regress?

The secondary is the honest answer, and the concern is real enough that Jackson went aggressively to the transfer portal to address it. Noah St-Juste is the only returning cornerback who played over 300 snaps in 2025. Every other meaningful piece of the Jackrabbits' defensive backfield either graduated, transferred out, or is coming off significant injury. In response, the staff added multiple defensive backs through the portal, but integrating new personnel into a system built on communication and trust takes time. New corners learning leverage assignments and safety rotations in real-time is exactly the kind of vulnerability that an experienced FCS quarterback can exploit.

The defensive line presents the counterargument. Coach Logan McCormick has built visible depth on the front, with Nick Wells, Sam Watts, Dawson Ripperda, and Logan Green all logging reps this spring. The line's ability to generate pressure and control the line of scrimmage could mask a secondary that needs several months to cohere. But MVFC quarterbacks, particularly those at North Dakota State, know how to attack soft zones and find leverage against corners still establishing their positioning instincts. The secondary is where the title defense could genuinely crack.

The NFL Scouting Lens: Three Jackrabbits Who Need a Statement Spring

No conversation about SDSU's 2026 program is complete without accounting for the NFL talent on the roster, because the players scouts are watching also happen to be the players the Jackrabbits most need to perform.

*Chase Mason, QB.* His "unreal skill set and size" have made him a legitimate NFL prospect, according to evaluations from the transfer portal cycle. What scouts need to see in 2026: sustained efficiency across a full 15-game season, particularly his ability to process pressure and throw from a clean pocket against top-flight FCS defenses. Scouts will clock his arm velocity, but the more important measurable for an FCS quarterback trying to crack an NFL roster is completion percentage in contested situations and yards per attempt against the MVFC's top defenses. Mason already proved he can carry a team. A statistically dominant final season could make him one of the most interesting small-school quarterback cases heading into the 2027 draft process.

*Lofton O'Groske, WR.* His 1-on-1 winning ability is the trait scouts covet most. The question is durability and snap count. Evaluators need to see O'Groske log a full season above 60 receptions, demonstrate route diversity beyond the intermediate range, and record his 40 time at a pro day setting. A healthy campaign in 2026 that validates the Montana State performance as the floor, not the ceiling, of what he can do, would put him squarely on Day 3 draft boards.

*Joe Ollman, LB.* Ollman emerged as a top contributor when injuries decimated the linebacker room in 2025, and the spring is his first real opportunity to own the role rather than inherit it. What the scouting community needs to quantify: his range in zone coverage, his ability to close on the ball in the flat, and his tackling efficiency against D-I running backs. A strong spring showing will invite the kind of pre-season camp invitations that build legitimate late-round draft profiles.

The Bigger Picture

Dan Jackson's second season in Brookings begins from a structurally stronger position than his first. The coordinators know the personnel. The captains know the expectations. The offense's best player is healthy, and the program's most painful lesson from 2025, that depth at quarterback is not optional, has been directly addressed in the portal. Whether the secondary coheres in time, whether O'Groske plays all 15 games, and whether Mason can carry his NFL-caliber production across a full schedule: those are the variables that will determine whether the Jackrabbits' title defense ends in Nashville or somewhere earlier on the bracket.