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By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Football teams all over can replicate crowd noise with massive speakers and all sorts of sound effects.

But it takes some effort to prepare a team for perhaps 25 degrees and the always-present chance for white stuff.

What is Mercer getting into? South Dakota takes college football very seriously, at both flagship universities

“I’d love to take a snowmaker and take it out there and spray it all over the field,” Mercer head coach Drew Cronic said about the potential impact of Mother Nature when the Bears visit South Dakota State on Saturday in the second round of the FCS playoffs. “We’ll get us an indoor (facility) and we’ll get that thing freezing cold in there and like make it snow and stuff.”

So far, though, the forecast isn’t all that unfavorable for the Bears, who are dealing with some chilly days early in the practice schedule. As of Tuesday night, gameday in Brookings, S.D. for the 2 p.m. kickoff has a high near 40, and there’s minimal chance of precipitation all week.

Cronic, though, is trying to eliminate thoughts of what weather could be like.

“It’s a mindset,” he said. “You got a choice to make. Either going to play ball or you’re going to let everything affect you.

“You’re going to be distracted by that? You’ve worked this hard for however long, since January, since you were 5 years old maybe, and you’re going to let things like that be a distraction?”

Besides, there’s more than enough to worry about just with the game itself and the opponent.

“We’re going to talk about embracing everything about what’s getting ready to happen this week,” he said. “Playing the best team in the country. In cold weather. At their place, with the world against you.”

The Jackrabbits have won at home this season by 38, 4, 21, 35, 17, and 18. They haven’t lost since the 2022 opener, 7-3 at Iowa.

They haven’t lost at home at home since October of 2021, 26-17 to Northern Iowa, two weeks after Southern Illinois took a 42-41 win home from Brookings.

South Dakota State plays in Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, an impressive complex with a final cost of $65 million upon completion in 2016, and seats more than 19,000.

That’ll make it the biggest place Mercer has played this year that wasn’t a Power 5 facility.

The Jackrabbits’ smallest announced home-game attendance in 2023 is 15,637 in the regular-season finale against Missouri State, a 35-17 win. Tickets for the Bears’ visit are $10, half of Mercer’s first-round rate – for the game.

The adage that defense travels is a boost for Mercer, coming off such a solid performance in Saturday’s 17-7 win over Gardner-Webb.

Concerns about the athleticism of freshman quarterback Jaylen King were there, but the Bears handled it.

“We were worried going in about the quarterback run game,” defensive coordinator Joel Taylor said. “Anytime you add an extra hat into the box, it’s tough to fit the run. I thought our kids did a tremendous job fitting the run.”

A look at South Dakota State
Location: Brookings, S.D., pop. 23,600
Enrollment: 9,900 traditional undergraduates,
Conference: Missouri Valley Football Conference
Stadium: Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, capacity 19,300
FYIs: Former head coach John Stiegelmeier went 4-6 in his first season, 1997. Since a pair of 5-6s in 2010-11, the Jackrabbits have won at least eight games every year, including 8-2 in a combined 2020-21 COVID season. First-year head coach Jimmy Rogers was promoted from defensive coordinator. He played at SDSU from 2006-09… South Dakota State hasn’t played many teams from the Southeast: It beat Kennesaw State 27-17 on the road in the 2018 playoffs. The Jackrabbits have also played Georgia Southern (is 1-3, last meeting in 2009) and Tampa (1-0).

King did throw for 231 yards, but was picked off three times, twice by Myles Weston, and Isaiah Washburn racked up a strip sack and fumble. Eventually, G-W made a temporary quarterback change in hopes of a spark, but that didn’t happn.

SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski is more of a true dual threat. He has completed 68.5 percent of his passes for 2,359 yards and 23 touchdowns with only three interceptions.

The 6-3, 225-pound junior from Illinois has also run for 220 yards on 61 carries, losing only 58 yards all season, and scoring seven times.

“The quarterback, he’s a threat in the run game,” Taylor said. “I talked about that before, as far as adding an extra hat in the box. Then they keep you honest because they’ve got some really good receivers.”

Mercer has created 21 turnovers in the last eight games, which Taylor said could have been more. That’ll be big against a team that’s sixth nationally in turnover margin and 27th in turnovers gained, out of 121 FCS teams.

The Bears are ninth in turnovers gained and 22nd in turnover margin.

“I felt like we were supposed to be doing what we're supposed to be doing,” Cronic said. “When you only give up seven points, you're going to win a lot of games.”