South Dakota State reloads after injuries, eyes another title run

South Dakota State still looks like the program everyone else is chasing, but 2025 left a sharper question hanging over Brookings: how much room is left when the roster gets beat up? The Jackrabbits finished 9-5, reached the FCS playoffs for the 14th straight season and still carried the kind of baseline most programs never touch. But the season ended badly in Missoula, where Montana routed SDSU 50-29 on Dec. 6 behind Keali'i Ah Yat’s 360 passing yards and four touchdowns. That kind of loss does not erase the standard South Dakota State has built, but it does expose the risk that comes when the depth chart is no longer as clean as the name brand.

That is why spring matters so much for Dan Jackson’s program. South Dakota State did not merely reload around a few holes. Jackson announced 17 mid-year transfers on Feb. 4, and all 17 had enrolled and were set to work through spring practices. That is not the move of a program drifting. It is the move of a contender trying to keep the top shelf from getting crowded. The Jackrabbits have spent years winning with continuity, physical line play and a roster that usually survives the departure of key pieces without losing its edge. Now the job is different: replace production, settle battles and make sure the injury trouble that showed up in 2025 does not become a longer-term drag.

The spring game on April 18 at 10:30 a.m. at the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex gave the staff a first real look at how that reset is taking shape. No admission was charged, and the defense opened with a 17-0 advantage in the scrimmage format, another reminder that South Dakota State still treats the spring as an evaluation tool, not a public relations event. That same hard-edged approach is what has kept the Jackrabbits in the national title conversation even as the roster changes around them.

The schedule picture points the same way. South Dakota State finalized a 12-game slate with seven home games, and Jackson said it gives the program a chance to sell out Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium seven times. The Missouri Valley Football Conference also moved to an eight-game league format for 2026, with four home and four road contests for each team. That leaves SDSU with the kind of path a heavyweight expects: enough home inventory to protect the floor, enough conference pressure to reveal whether the roster still separates from the field. The bigger question is no longer whether South Dakota State belongs in the title race. It does. The question is whether injuries and turnover have finally made the margin narrower than the Jackrabbits would like.