Three takeaways from South Dakota State's win over New Haven

South Dakota State put together another blow out victory on Saturday night, beating New Haven 57-14. 

We are a quarter of a way through the season and the Jackrabbits identity is starting to take shape. This was a bounce back spot for SDSU after it lost against Northwestern and it was also a bit of a tune up game before the Jacks start conference play next week. Here are my three takeaways from the game.

Getting the Tight Ends Involved

Since Tucker Kraft left South Dakota State after the 2023 season, the Jackrabbits have been looking for someone to break out in the tight end room. Every coaching staff always talks about wanting to get tight ends involved more in the pass game and Greyton Gannon was trending in the right direction at the end of last year.

On Saturday night, Gannon caught three passes for 65 yards and two of those catches went for touchdowns. He wasn’t the only tight end with a touchdown though as Coleman Kuntz had a 25-yard catch in the end zone. Brayden Delahoyde also made a one-handed catch that went for 16 yards.

In the first two games, the tight ends combined to catch four passes and had no touchdowns. Gannon said after the game that there was a good game plan for the tight ends and as a collective group they made the most of their opportunities. 

SDSU head coach Dan Jackson said it just played out that the tight ends got more passes thrown to them on Saturday, but he thought it was well deserved.

“We did some game plans and things for them based on what we saw on film, and then honestly, when you block as hard as those guys have been. It’s going to create some opportunities in the game plan room to where their coach is going to say, ‘hey, let’s throw these dudes a ball. Let’s get them involved in other ways.’ … The ball can go anywhere on a pass play, but I thought we had some really nice things designed for those guys and I’m glad we got them called,” Jackson said.

Complimentary Football

I have been impressed with SDSU’s special teams so far this season and on Saturday the Jacks had a special teams gem and turned it into points on defense.

Ryan Harrington had a kickoff in the second quarter that hit just before the goal line and spun backwards. It forced the New Haven returner to field it inside his own five yard line and then the Jackrabbit kick team surrounded him and tackled him at the four.

Jackson said he’s been impressed with the kickoff team, whether it’s the kickoffs themselves or the coverage unit.

“[Harrington has] done a great job of pinning people into that corner, and his hang time is so good that it makes returners have to make a decision. I love how our kickoff coverage team is covering. When I watched the film from [the Northwestern game], one of the most impressive things was how we covered kicks and how physical and violent we were,” Jackson said.

Three plays later Carter Sitzman met Zaon Laney behind the goal line and tackled him in the end zone for a safety.

Jackson said his team practices those types of situations, both on offense and on defense. He said he was really excited with how his team executed on both sides of the ball.

“We practice situational football a lot,” Jackson said. “Our offense was actually backed up, which is a situation we work on versus our defense, where our offense is backed up and they have to find a way out of it. We went on a 99-yard scoring drive, which was great, and then on the flip side of the same situation, we were able to get the safety. 

“So, it’s positive for us to be able to show the players, look, I know we work on these situations in fall camp, and they may not come up often. But when they do, you can capitalize on them and those things can change games completely. So, I was really excited at how we executed that sequence.”

Taking Care of Business

It was a bit of a lackluster start for the Jacks on Saturday, but they ended up taking care of business against a team that they were favored to beat by more than 40 points.

It’s the second time this season that the Jacks have blown out an opponent and that’s something that only happened once in 2025.

There were plenty of upsets in college football on Saturday, with the biggest one coming in the FBS where Oklahoma State, who had lost 12-straight games, beat No. 6 ranked Oregon.

SDSU was coming off of a loss to Northwestern and could have let that loss completely carry into the game against New Haven. SDSU senior offensive tackle and team captain Quinten Christensen said the team got over the Northwestern loss quickly because in today’s college football, there’s no time for sulking. Any team can win.

“We wanted to win [against Northwestern], we intended on winning that game, but in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t affect the future of the season and it sure as heck doesn’t put a damper on what we’re trying to do here,” Christensen said. “We kind of have a 24-hour rule where we let it soak in, learn from the mistakes we made and then go onto the next game. 

“Because you know, like you see in college football today, every team’s beatable, and any team at any given moment can win a football game. So, I don’t think dwelling on the past is something that you have to get past in college football, because regardless of who you’re playing, that team’s going out there with the intention to win the game.”