{"id":18481,"date":"2024-01-08T11:21:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T08:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/18481\/south-dakota-state-beats-montana\/"},"modified":"2024-01-08T11:21:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T08:21:39","slug":"south-dakota-state-beats-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=18481","title":{"rendered":"South Dakota State beats Montana, repeats as FCS champ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Dakota State beats Montana, repeats as FCS champ\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Mark Gronowski ran for a touchdown and threw another after halftime as South Dakota State won its second straight Football Championship Subdivision title, beating Montana 23- 3 Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The Jackrabbits (15-0) extended their winning streak to 29 games, including their victory over North Dakota State in last year&#39;s FCS game for their first national title.<\/p>\n<p>South Dakota State had an impressive opening drive of the game, but only led 7-3 at halftime.  Gronowski, the quarterback starting his third FCS title game, then drove into the end zone for a 10-yard score midway through the third quarter, and on the next possession he threw for a 23-yard touchdown to Jadon Janke.<\/p>\n<p>Gronowski completed 13 of 21 passes for 175 yards and rushed eight times for 62 yards.  The Jackrabbits edged Montana 372-273.<\/p>\n<p>Montana&#39;s 27 playoff appearances are the most in the second tier of Division I <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/football\/\"   title=\"football\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">football<\/a>. National champions in 1995 and 2001, the Grizzlies (13-2) have now finished second six times, including four under the direction of the coach Bobby Hauck.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#39;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It was the Grizzlies&#39; first title game since 2009, when they were runners-up for the third time in Hauck&#39;s first seven seasons.  Hauck then left for FBS team UNLV and was also on the staff at San Diego State before returning to Montana in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Less than two weeks after South Dakota State was crowned champion last year, John Stiegelmeier retired after 26 seasons as head coach.  He was replaced by defensive coordinator Jimmy Rogers, a former Jackrabbits linebacker who captained their first playoff team in 2009 \u2014 when they lost to Montana after blowing a 27-point lead.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams had just one possession in the first quarter on Sunday.  Montana&#39;s first drive came on the first play of the second quarter, when on its 15th play, running back Eli Gillman was stuffed by Jackrabbits linebacker Adam Bock for no gain on fourth-and-goal from the 1 .<\/p>\n<p>South Dakota State opened the game with a 75-play, 11-play drive.  Gronowski completed his first five passes for 55 yards and converted a third-and-4 with a 9-yard keeper just before Isaiah Davis&#39; 6-yard TD run.<\/p>\n<p>This allowed the Jackrabbits to stay in the lead, although they made a few costly mistakes before halftime.<\/p>\n<p>A few plays after Bock was stopped, one of his 11 tackles, Gronowski had a pass intercepted by Corbin Walker that Montana turned into a field goal for his only points.  South Dakota State also had a turnover on the punt, as the ball ricocheted off one of their players and recovered by the Griz, although they returned it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAKEAWAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Montana: <\/strong>Playmaking quarterback Clifton McDowell, who was 11-0 as a Griz starter, was under increased pressure, especially after halftime.  He completed 22 of 39 passes for 165 yards, but was sacked four times.  After being denied the ball after being sacked late in the third quarter, 295-yard defensive tackle Ryan Van Marel found it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>South Dakota State:<\/strong> In their third appearance in the title game in four seasons, the Jackrabbits became the first team since North Dakota State (2017-19) to repeat as a champion.  It was another stellar defensive performance in this postseason for South Dakota State, which had two lopsided shutout victories (41-0 and 59-0) in its previous three games.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOLLOWING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Montana: <\/strong>The Big Sky champion Grizzlies face Missouri Valley Conference rival SDSU in their 2024 opener. They host Missouri State on August 31.<\/p>\n<p><strong>South Dakota State: <\/strong>The Jackrabbits will open next season on the road Aug. 31 against Big 12 team Oklahoma State, the first major conference team they will face since a 7-3 loss to Big Ten&#39;s Iowa in the game. The opening of 2022 which was their last defeat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Dakota State beats Montana, repeats as FCS champ\u060c FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Mark Gronowski ran for a touchdown and threw another after halftime as South Dakota State won its second straight Football Championship Subdivision title, beating Montana 23- 3 Sunday. The Jackrabbits (15-0) extended their winning streak to 29 games, including their victory over North [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1806,2393,8819,8820,6818,5240,140,1508],"class_list":["post-18481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-beats","tag-champ","tag-dakota","tag-fcs","tag-montana","tag-repeats","tag-south","tag-state"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18483,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18481\/revisions\/18483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}