Jackrabbits to face tough test at Northwestern

South Dakota State will face its lone FBS opponent of the season on Saturday night and while it’s not one of the powers of the Big Ten, Northwestern is still expected to be their toughest matchup of the season.

The Wildcats are entering year four of the David Braun era. Braun was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State and took the DC job at Northwestern in the spring ahead of the 2023 season. 

During that offseason, Pat Fitzgerald, the head long-time head coach for NU, was fired for alleged abuse and hazing within the program. Braun was named interim coach on July 14, 2023 and led the Wildcats to an 8-5 season. During the year he was named full-time head coach on Nov. 15, 2023 and was also named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2023. The Wildcats have gone 4-8 and 7-6 the past two seasons.

“I have a lot of respect for coach Braun and his staff,” said SDSU head coach Dan Jackson, who coached against Braun when Braun was at NDSU in 2019. “I don’t know [him] very well, but I’ve known about him and have coached against him, and some of my best friends have been on his staff. So, I’ve [followed] their program pretty closely for the last few years on what they do and how they operate and how coach Braun runs the team and the program, and I have nothing but respect.”

For what it’s worth, Fitzgerald filed a $130 million wrongful termination lawsuit against the school. In August 2025, Fitzgerald and Northwestern reached an undisclosed out-of–court settlement and Fitzgerald is beginning his first season as the head coach of Michigan State.

The Wildcats closed out the 2025 season with a 34-7 win over Central Michigan in the GamAbove Sports Bowl, but Northwestern made some big changes on offense ahead of this year.

NU added one of the premier names of college football at offensive coordinator in Chip Kelly. Kelly earned his fame as the Oregon head coach from 2009-2012. He was then the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 2013-15 before leading the San Francisco 49ers for one season in 2016. 

Kelly then moved back down to the college ranks and was the head coach at UCLA from 2018-2023 before leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2024. After one season with the Buckeyes, where they won a national championship, Kelly went back to the NFL and joined Pete Caroll’s staff as the offensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders. Kelly was fired after a 2-9 start and went back to the college ranks to join Braun’s staff, replacing former SDSU quarterback and offensive coordinator Zach Lujan.

Jackson said there’s a lot of guessing involved when you’re going up against a new offensive coordinator, especially one that has been in the game for such a long time.

“It’s an honor to play versus such a brilliant coach as coach Kelly,” Jackson said. “He’s done a lot of different things in his career. I mean, you could watch film from literally the NFL, multiple college stops. You’re trying to look at their personnel and say ‘Okay, this what they have, and this is what we think he might do with this type of personnel.’ And their personnel is good. … It’s going to come down to execution. We can’t put in too much and guess and be wrong about what they’re going to do. So we’ll be sound, simple, play fast and have some variance for him.”

Northwestern also added senior quarterback Aidan Chiles through the transfer portal. Chiles comes from Michigan State after beginning his career at Oregon State. In two seasons for MSU, he threw for 3,807 yards with 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, while completing 60.8% of his passes. He also ran for 531 yards and 12 touchdowns in his first three seasons. Chiles only started eight games for the Spartans in 2025 as he was sent to the bench.

Leading rusher Caleb Komolage is back for the Wildcats and he ran for 941 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2025. Jackson said he’d like to keep Chiles in the pocket and make him pass more, which begins with limiting Komolage and the rest of the Northwestern running backs.

“I’m excited to see our guys play [against Chiles]. I think their quarterback’s talented. He’s fast, he’s got a really strong arm and he’s experienced. He’s got some experience in big games and big environments, so we’re going to have to put some pressure on him. We’re going to need to confuse him and make it hard on him. It’s going to start with stopping the run primarily. … I think they’re going to have some creative ways to run the football and we have to be ready for that, and then try to make it a one dimensional game,” Jackson said.

It will be a reunion between SDSU and Northwestern’s top receiver Griffin Wilde. Wilde spent the first two seasons of his career with the Jackrabbits and caught 90 passes for 1,546 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was SDSU’s leading receiver in 2024.

In his first year with Northwestern, Wilde was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team after catching 71 passes for 880 yards and eight touchdowns. The 880 yards were the most by a Northwestern player since 2016 and he was sixth in the Big Ten in receiving.

Defensively, the Wildcats gave up less than 20 points per game last season. The Wildcats return their leading tackler in senior safety Robert Fitzgerald. They lost their top pass rusher in Aidan Hubbard and interior defensive lineman Camine Bastone to graduation. Defensive lineman Anto Saka also transferred to Texas A&M, but senior Michael Kilbane, who earned All-Big Ten Honorable Mention honors in 2025 is back on the defensive line.

“This is a top 15 defense in the country at any level,” Jackson said. “They really have been one of the best defenses in the Big Ten over [Braun’s] time. You can really see the quality of defense they are, because it’s not like they’ve had elite offensive production at times over the years, and their defense still stands up and makes plays.”

Northwestern is opening up a new stadium this year, but the Jacks will not be the first team to play at the new Ryan Field. That will be Penn State on Oct. 2.

Instead, SDSU will play at the makeshift Martin Stadium at Northwestern’s practice facility on the front of Lake Michigan, where the Wildcats played most of their home games last season. Jackson said he and his team don’t care where they are playing, but thinks the conditions right on Lake Michigan could be an advantage for his team, as well as it being a smaller venue than the new Ryan Field.

“I think either way would be something we could look at as a positive in this situation,” Jackson said. “We’ll play in what’ll surely be a sellout crowd this way. The lakefront is beautiful and I hope there is some wind blowing out there because it tends to do that in South Dakota too. … I know a lot of our fans are looking forward to making the trip. 

“… It’s always cool to see a new stadium, and I’m sure the new one is very well designed and beautiful and those things. But it’s the same thing where we don’t care so much about who we’re playing and where we’re playing. As long as the surface is great, you know, from a health standpoint, we can go out there and execute and do our jobs, and that’s what matters to me. I’m looking forward to this one and I actually think it will be more of an intimate environment.”

Kickoff between SDSU and Northwestern is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday night. You can watch the game on Big Ten Network or listen to the game on AM 910 KJJQ.