Week 4 screening: SDSU hosts Titans for Beef Bowl
Here are some pre-pregame notes for South Dakota State vs. Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Saturday in Brookings for the Beef Bowl. I'll have live coverage starting at 5:30 p.m.:
Expect SDSU to be without several players on its usual two-deep chart due to mostly minor injuries: TE Cam Jones is definitely out and OLs Trever Greger and Bryce Siverling are questionable.
Defensively, safety Nick Mears and linebacker Drew Kreutzfeldt have missed time this week, too.
Meanwhile, there's nothing new on the Austin Sumner front. He's likely to get his first follow-up x-ray around the four-week mark from the injury (broken right foot) suffered on Aug. 30. Coach John Stiegelmeier is thrilled with the way the senior captain has stayed involved and invested.
"He hasn't made it a setback," he said.
The Oakland Raiders were the latest NFL team to send a rep to Brookings. That club has relatively recent experience with SDSU, signing tight end Chris Wagner as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2008.
SDSU has eight players from Wisconsin, including a few that were high school teammates with some of the Titans.
The UWO individuals that stood out the most on film to Stiegelmeier: Defensive end Cody Huemmer and tight end Joe Sommers. Both are all-WIAC picks. The 6-3, 240-pound junior Sommers has five catches for 97 yards. The 6-foot, 235-pound senior Huemmer has 10 tackles, including 3.5 for loss. He's also a close friend of SDSU offensive lineman Dylan Seiter; both played for Sun Prairie High School.
SDSU isn't the only Missouri Valley Football Conference member that had to resort to a lower-level game in order to fill out its schedule. Southern Illinois hosted NAIA Taylor and the University of South Dakota faced NAIA William Penn.
That said, UWO is the only non-scholarship program of the three.
The biggest difference between last year's 8-2 Titans and this year's 0-2 club? Coach Pat Cerroni said last year's roster was full of players with extensive experience, including holdovers from the 2012 national semifinal squad.
"We're trying to reload this thing," he said.
The Jacks figure to have a chunk of recruits visiting this weekend, almost entirely on unofficials. Stiegelmeier said those are becoming more frequent, and often happen on relatively short notice. The solid weather forecast may bump up this weekend's number.
SDSU was favored by 45 points as of Thursday night, according to 5dimes. The Jacks beat FCS non-scholarship Butler 55-14 in 2013 in their most recent such meeting.
A new entertainment feature will debut this week: A cannon. Located in the northeast corner of the stadium, it'll be operated by the SDSU ROTC for subsequent home games with firing when the Jacks enter the field and when they score.
Terry Vandrovec also posts regular updates on his Twitter page.