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Defending national champion South Dakota State will face Montana in the 46th FCS Championship game in Frisco, Texas on January 8.
The Jackrabbits opened as 13.5-point favorites at FandDuel.com and the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com favor SDSU by 11.43.
South Dakota State is 6th in the nation in total offense (456.1 yards per game) while Montana ranks 39th (382.9).
The Jacks' defense topped the FCS, allowing 257.1 yards per game, while the Griz rank 17th at 311.2.
Veteran SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowksi threw for 2,883 yards while connecting for 28 TD passes against just 4 INT's for a nation's-best QB rating of 182.72. He added 414 yards and 7 TD's on the ground.
Four different receivers hauled in at least 5 TD passes, while Isaiah Davis led the ground game with 1,510 yards and 17 rushing scores.
Linebacker Jason Freeman recorded 96 tackles and 5 TFL's. The defense collectively picked off 18 opponent, forced 12 fumbles and has a TO margin of +15.
For Montana, Clifton McDowell has thrown for 1,861 yards with 13 TD's and 3 INT's. He is the team's second-leading rusher with 898 yards and 9 TD's,
Eli Gillman is just 2 yards shy of 1,000 and will also be looking to add to his 12 TD's rushing.
The receiving corps is paced by Keelan White's 50 catches for 779 yards and 4 TD's, and Junior Bergen's 55 catches for 766 yards and 5 TD's.
In the last two playofff games, Bergen has returned a kick-off for a TD, 2 punts for scores and thrown a 2-point conversion pass.
On defense, Montana linebacker Braxton Hill has recorded 116 tackles, 6.5 TFL's, a pair of INT's, and accounted for 7 QB hurries.
Linebacker Levi Janacaro has 10 TFL's, and Riley Wilson racked up 8.5 sacks.
In the first season under new head coach Jimmy Rogers, the Jackrabbits are headed back to the national championship game after giving John Stiegelmeier the title last year. Stiegelmeier resigned after capturing his first national title in his 26 years at the helm in Brookings. Rogers was a long-time assistant and former player under Stiegelmeier,
In the Friday night semifinal against Albany, the Jackrabbits put together a near-flawless performance in a 59-0 shutout. Per the SDSU athletics website, the top-seeded Jackrabbits scored in all three phases of the game in improving to 14-0 overall and running their winning streak to 28 games dating back to the 2022 campaign. UAlbany, which was seeded fifth, ended its season with an 11-4 overall record.
The entire recap of the game can be found here.
On Saturday, Junior Bergen, who had a kick-off return and a punt return for TD's in the 35-28 overtime win over Furman last week, added to his Montana football legend status in Saturday's 31-29 overtime win over North Dakota State.
Bergen had a 47-yard punt return TD early in the 4th, and threw a 2-point pass in the second OT that proved to be the game-winning points when the Bisons' 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted in the end zone on a similar play call. Bergen was under heavy pressure, but escaped being pulled down by the facemask. The pass deflected off of one receiver in the end zone and into the hands of Keelan White to make it 31-23.
It was the second OT game for both teams in the playoffs.
All games played November 25. Home team in CAPS
Chattanooga 24, AUSTIN PEAY 21
DELAWARE 36, Lafayette 34
NORTH DAKOTA STATE 66, Drake 3
YOUNGSTOWN STATE 40, Duquesne 7
MERCER 17, Gardner-Webb 7
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 35, Nicholls State 0
RICHMOND 49, NC Central 27
Sacramento State 42, NORTH DAKOTA 35
When: Sunday, January 7 at 2 p.m. ET
Where: Frisco, Texas (ABC)
Who: #1 South Dakota State vs. #2 Montana
Home team in BOLD
| 12/2 | 12/8-9 | 12/15-16 | C'ship (Frisco) (1/7, 2 PM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercer 0 1 SDSU 41 |
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| 1 SDSU 23 8 Villanova 12 |
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| Youngstown 28 8 Villanova 45 |
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| 1 SDSU 59 5 Albany 0 (Friday) |
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| Richmond 13 5 Albany 41 |
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| 5 Albany 30 4 Idaho 22 |
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| Southern Ill. 17 4 Idaho 20 (OT) |
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| 1 SDSU 2 Montana |
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| Sacramento St. 24 3 South Dakota 34 |
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| 3 South Dakota 17 NDSU 45 |
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| NDSU 35 (OT) 6 Montana State 34 |
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| NDSU 29 2 Montana 31 (OT) (Saturday) |
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| Chattanooga 7 7 Furman 26 |
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| 7 Furman 28 2 Montana 35 (OT) |
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| Delaware 19 2 Montana 49 |
This season had 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army played two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that did NOT play a FCS program, 7 were in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three were Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
The FBS programs were 114-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,800-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - Won 28 straight over-all, 18 straight conference games, 8 straight road games.
Last: The #1 seed won 59-0 at home over #5 seed Albany.
Next: Plays #2 seed Montana for the national championship in Frisco, Texas on Sunday, January 7 at 2 p.m. on ABC
MONTANA STATE - Had won 26 straight home games.
Last: The # 6 seed lost 35-34 in OT at home to North Dakota State
Next: 2024 season opener
FLORIDA A&M - Won 20 straight home games
Last: 35-14 home win over Prairie View A&M in the SWAC Championship game on Saturday, December 2.
Next: Faces Howard in Celebration Bowl in Atlanta on Saturday, December 16.
WESTERN ILLINOIS - Lost 24 straight over-all, 18 straight conference games, and 11 straight home games.
Last: 48-6 home loss vs. South Dakota in season finale on Saturday, November 18.
Next: 2024 season opener
CAL POLY - Lost 16 straight true road games.
Last: 48-21 home loss to Weber State in season finale on Saturday, November 18.
Next: 2024 season opener