There are probably worse weeks to come home.

South Dakota just spent back-to-back Saturdays at Boise State and Youngstown State.

And now?

Dakota Days.

The Coyotes return to the DakotaDome at 3-2 and 0-1 in the Valley, looking to reset against Indiana State on one of the biggest weekends of the year in Vermillion.

USD has won nine straight Dakota Days games dating back to 2016.

Saturday would make it 10.

---

Youngstown Was Different Than Boise

The Boise loss left you feeling pretty good about South Dakota.

Youngstown didn’t.

USD actually opened the second half with a 71-yard touchdown drive to pull within 23-21.

Then the game got away.

Youngstown scored the next 24 points, forced three turnovers and turned those giveaways into 17 points on the way to a 47-28 win.

The bigger concern?

343 rushing yards.

Beau Brungard ran 28 times for 170 yards and three touchdowns.

Lynn Wyche-El added 62 rushing yards and two scores.

One week after Boise ran for 325, Youngstown ran for 343.

That’s 668 rushing yards allowed in two games.

That’s the number USD has to fix.

And the Run Game Isn’t Fixed Either

South Dakota did rush for 185 yards at Youngstown, which looks much better than the 36-yard performance at Boise.

But I don’t think we’re ready to say the rushing attack is back.

Charles Pierre Jr. finished with just 30 yards on 11 carries.

Carson Fletcher led the team with 59.

Jackson Proctor added 36 on three carries.

Reid Watkins had 32.

So yes, there were productive runs.

But this still doesn’t look like the offense that averaged 251 rushing yards per game over the first three weeks.

Over the last two?

USD has rushed for only 221 total yards.

Coyotes haven’t consistently been able to line up and create yards with the running backs the way they did in August and early September.

---

Indiana State Is Better Than You Remember

The last time Indiana State came to Vermillion, USD won 49-0.

That was 2024.

This isn’t that Indiana State team.

The Sycamores are 2-3, but they’ve shown plenty offensively.

They beat Eastern Illinois 42-35.

They beat Valparaiso 39-16.

And last week they pushed ranked North Dakota into the fourth quarter before losing 42-35.

Indiana State is averaging more than 31 points and 400 yards per game.

So while USD will deservedly be favored at home (-18 last I saw), this isn’t a team you can sleepwalk through because of what happened two years ago.

---

A New Quarterback

Indiana State opened the season with #2 Elijah Owens at quarterback.

But Owens was injured against Valparaiso and missed last week’s game against North Dakota.

That meant #18 Brady Allen got the start.

Allen is 6-foot-6, 225 pounds and originally signed with Purdue before also spending time at Louisville.

Against North Dakota:

18-of-33

270 yards

4 touchdowns

2 interceptions

Not bad for his first start of the season.

And he’s got receivers.

#14 BJ Wuest, #83 Jayden Reed and #17 KeShon Singleton all have at least 250 receiving yards already.

Reed went for 129 yards and two touchdowns against UND.

So this will be a very different challenge from Youngstown.

Brungard stressed USD with his legs.

Allen is much more likely to sit in the pocket and push the ball downfield.

---

#25 Aaron Ball

This is probably the Indiana State player I’m watching closest.

#25 Aaron Ball has rushed for 352 yards on 53 carries, averaging 6.6 yards per attempt.

He ran for 182 yards against Valparaiso.

North Dakota held him to 50.

After the last two weeks, USD’s first defensive goal should be pretty simple:

Make Brady Allen beat you.

Don’t let Indiana State look at the Boise and Youngstown film and decide the easiest path is simply running the ball until USD proves it can stop it.

Modrzewski Gets a Chance to Respond

Austyn Modrzewski had his first real rough afternoon at Youngstown.

He finished 16-of-22 for 147 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

Three turnovers.

Against a quarterback like Brungard, that’s almost impossible to survive.

Still, we’re five starts into his college career. There were always going to be games like that.

Now we get to see the response.

Indiana State has allowed around 300 passing yards per game, while opposing quarterbacks are completing better than 68 percent of their passes.

There should be opportunities. The key is taking them without giving possessions away.

Dakota Days

And then there’s the weekend itself.

This is the 112th Dakota Days.

USD has won the last D-Days games.

The Coyotes are 2-0 against Indiana State on Dakota Days and 5-0 against the Sycamores in Vermillion.

---

1. Can USD Stop the Run?

This has to be first.

668 rushing yards allowed in two weeks.

Indiana State has a back averaging 6.6 yards per carry.

Nothing else matters much if that problem continues.

2. Can USD Actually Establish Its Own Run Game?

The 185 yards at Youngstown were an improvement.

But Pierre had 30.

The offense still isn’t consistently getting the kind of production from the backfield we saw during the 3-0 start.

Against a solid Indiana State run defense, this will tell us something.

3. Modrzewski After Youngstown

Three turnovers last week.

A vulnerable Indiana State secondary this week.

This feels like a good opportunity for the freshman to settle back in.

4. Brady Allen

One start.

Four touchdown passes.

USD’s secondary is going to get tested in a very different way than it did against Brungard.

5. The Reset

USD was 3-0.

Now it’s 3-2.

The Valley opener didn’t go well.

But the Coyotes are back in the Dome, it’s Dakota Days and Indiana State comes to town.

There’s not much mystery about what Saturday needs to be.

Get the run defense fixed. Get the offense back on schedule. Protect the football.

And get back in the win column.

Indiana State at South Dakota
Saturday, October 3
2:00 p.m. CT
DakotaDome — Vermillion

Nine straight Dakota Days wins.

Time to go get 10.