I-90 rivalry resumes play after twenty-year hiatus

The Augustana Vikings and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits fought over the pigskin for the first time in 20 years on Sept. 14 in Brookings, SD. The non-conference matchup brought back together the DI back-to-back Football Championship Subdivision national champions and the DII Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference champions to the sold-out Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium with 19,376 spectators in attendance. SDSU won the game with a final score of 24-3.

The Vikings took an early lead after SDSU fumbled the ball on the kick-off. Freshman defensive back Kael Ryan recovered the ball at SDSU’s 11-yard line. Roughly two minutes later on the game clock, sophomore kicker Jake Pecina kicked a successful field goal attempt from the 32-yard line, giving the Vikings a 3-0 lead. This would be the first and only time the Vikings would lead the game. 

The Jackrabbits would strike back after completing 60 yards throughout six plays. SDSU senior quarterback Mark Gronowski would rush for nine yards into the endzone, landing State up 7-3 following SDSU senior Hunter Dustman’s extra point.

South Dakota State University would go on to score 10 points in the second quarter and seven in the third, winning the game. 

Head Coach Jerry Olszewski addressed the media in the post-game press conference alongside senior wide receiver Canyon Bauer and senior linebacker Haden Wallace.

“I thought we prepared all week really well. I think our coaches coached a really good football game,” Olszewski said. “We can’t win against a really good football team, you know, and at the end of the day, you can’t have the mental mistakes we made.”

Over the course of the game, the Vikings committed seven penalties resulting in a loss of 40 yards. Bauer, who attended SDSU from 2019 to 2022 as a wide receiver, was with the Jackrabbits during their 2022 season that resulted in Bauer's first FCS championship ring.

“In an interview I had earlier this week, I said, ‘I know I’ve been on both teams and I know we could play and hang around with these guys,’” Bauer said after being asked about similarities he sees between the two teams. “We have a lot of talent and I’m just excited to watch the tape continue to grow and take one step. Our motto has been ‘go 1-0 each week,’ so just keep getting better each day, each rep and just keep building and stacking and then it’ll take care of itself down the road.”

While the Vikings held SDSU to a relatively low-scoring game, Head Coach Jimmy Rogers was underwhelmed with his team's performance. Rogers felt that while the total yardage was in their favor, the team needs to grow and “not make mistakes when it is the opportune time to score.” SDSU lost 110 yards over nine penalties and turned the ball over three times. The first of which came right after kick-off in the first quarter, allowing the Vikings to score. 

On two occasions throughout the press conference, SDSU running back Amar Johnson and Rogers each mentioned how Augustana has a good defense. 

“They are aggressive – they play a sound defense. I felt like they did a good job of disrupting our run game and not letting us run into the middle,” Rogers said.  

While this non-conference game may seem like a rare occurrence for the two teams, the first recorded game between the two schools took place in 1926. At that time, South Dakota State and Augustana College were in the North Central Conference (NCC) which disbanded in 2008 and included Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, North Dakota State, University of Nebraska-Omaha and the University of South Dakota. 

According to Jason Hove, the assistant athletic director for sports information at SDSU, the Jackrabbits made the decision to go DI in August of 2002. They would finish up the ‘02 season as DII while taking an “exploratory year,” as Hove phrased it, during the ‘03 season. Their first year of DI schedule play did not come until ‘04. 

From 1926 to 2004, the two teams would face each other a total of 62 times. Augustana won 15 games, lost 45 and tied twice. 

Bill Gross, former Augustana athletic director and graduate of 1973, recalled attending home games as both a student and faculty member. Prior to the building of Kirkeby-Over stadium in 2008, home football games were played at Howard Wood Field, which houses about 10 thousand spectators. 

“Back in those days, at least for a good part of that, most of the time those games were sellouts. It was a big rivalry for both schools,” Gross said. 

Both Olszewski and Hove see it highly unlikely for the two teams to play against each other in the coming years, as working with different divisional schedules can be very difficult. Following the game, Olszewski also mentioned that the team took quite the beating and, in a joking tone, said he wanted to review the medical report before making that decision. 

Senior running back Jarod Epperson suffered a head-to-head collision in the third quarter. Epperson walked off the field on his own will, but remained on the bench for the remainder of the game. Starting quarterback senior Thomas Scholten took a lower leg shot and stepped out of the game. 

The Vikings will continue their conference play with their first home game on Saturday, Sept. 21 against Northern State.