SDSU football: Northern Iowa no longer a pushover

Nov. 4—BROOKINGS — When the schedule came out, South Dakota State's trip to Cedar Falls to take on Northern Iowa looked like their most winnable road game. The Panthers entered the season coming off consecutive 3-9 seasons, and the Jacks have won four in a row in the series. The last time SDSU visited the UNI-Dome, in 2024, they walked away with a 41-3 win in their final game against longtime Panther coach and legend Mark Farley. But in year two under former Drake coach Todd Stepsis, the Panthers have shown signs of rekindling the fire. They're a modest 4-4, but they're 4-0 in the UNI-Dome, with a pair of potential program-altering wins. They beat then-No. 3 Illinois State 28-21 in late September, then after a bye came back and beat then-No. 4 North Dakota 24-17. They haven't been able to replicate that success on the road, as they followed those two wins with consecutive away losses to Youngstown State and Southern Illinois, but this game isn't on the road. It's in the UNI-Dome. And the Jacks are 0-1 indoors this year. Throw in that SDSU (7-2) is coming off a fiercely emotional rivalry game, their 31-21 win over South Dakota, and everything is lined up for Saturday to be the very definition of a trap game. Coach Dan Jackson knows that, and he's honed in on making sure his team avoids that pitfall. "I think our guys understand now, in a lot of ways, it's playoff football," Jackson said. "And so maybe with a group that doesn't have as much experience now, we had a setback. We've experienced that. I learned, the team learned, and there's just a sense of urgency in the building right now that I have felt was there and I thought early in the season was definitely there. And now I feel urgency and confidence in our team that they know when we play a certain way, what we could be. They know that they have to play that way if they wanna get to where they wanna go. "We (have to) understand the implications of every game. We want to win, we wan to win big, we want to look a certain way when we play. And all those things factor into the end goal, and so it all matters. I think the urgency and confidence has grown in the group in the last two weeks." When asked if there's something specific that has traditionally made the UNI-Dome a tough place to play, Jackson halfheartedly speculated on things like the lighting, the turf, the humidity inside and even the fact that the visiting locker room is always hot, before landing on the fact that the Panthers have usually been good. They weren't for a couple of years, and now it looks like they are again. "UNI won a lot of games at home in the past because they had really good teams," Jackson said. "And that's kind of what I'm seeing this year, is they're just a good team." Similarly, Stepsis was asked if he had a secret formula for his team's home field success this year, and he quipped that if he did he'd take it on the road with him (where the Panthers are 0-4). He did acknowledge, however, that his team thrives in the environment in their indoor stadium. "I do attribute it to this place," Stepsis said. "It's so obvious when we're not here how good we have it (at home). So when you walk into that dome you just have a ton of pride in how nice it looks and how grateful we are to have it. And all the great Panthers before us who did amazing things while they were here, and knowing they're following us, they're rooting for us and want us to do well — all of those things stacked on top of each other really make a difference." Statistically the Panthers rank near the bottom in most categories. They're 7th out of nine in total defense and 8th in total offense. They used some breaks — turnovers and special teams big plays — in their win over UND, but in their win over Illinois State they won the line of scrimmage. The Panthers have two pick-sixes this year and a punt return score, and Jackson likes Panther quarterback Jaxon Dailey, a veteran who's completed 61 percent of his passes for 1,674 yards and 12 touchdowns. "They're kind of a blue collar, gritty chip on their shoulder type of team," Jackson said of the Panthers. "We need to understand what type of team that we're playing and we got to make sure that the new guys know. Like, this is a team that's gonna want to punch you in the mouth. They don't care so much about who you are and they're not intimidated by that."