- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,209,142
- Reaction score
- 59
Jul. 14—SIOUX FALLS — The college football season kicked off in a way on Tuesday, with the Missouri Valley Football Conference holding its annual Media Day event at the Sanford Pentagon.
Both the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University programs were represented. Here's a sampling of what they said in interviews with Midwest Sports Plus. To see full interviews with all nine teams,
visit the livestream replay on our website
.
SDSU quarterback Chase Mason on playing out his senior season at SDSU: "I'm just super excited to play a season with the guys we have. I love the senior class that we have this year. We've got a great group of guys and obviously nobody wants to get hurt, but injuries are going to happen. I think my job for this year is getting guys prepared that, maybe last year, there weren't as many guys prepared when injuries happened. ... We know how high our ceiling can be and we have the most talented team that we could ever want and coach (Dan) Jackson has done a great job recruiting. I feel like the job this summer is to kind of raise that floor up. When injuries happen and things happen in the season like they are going to, you can't go around that. It's those guys that need to step up. There's going to be guys on the team that need to step up this year. That's what the summer is for."
SDSU coach Dan Jackson on the status of the conference after North Dakota State departed: "Look at the talent and the coaching and the depth of our conference. In a lot of ways, I think this is the best conference, one of the best in the country, certainly one of the best in our region. I'm just grateful to be playing in this conference and have an opportunity to win a national title. That's something that I was not able to do as an assistant. These guys have won, but I know they want one for themselves, leading the team, too. It's a lot of fun and it's motivating to be able to play for a national title."
SDSU defensive lineman Logan Green on preparing for a new season: "You just have to take it day by day, every workout and every run. Day by day and making sure you are doing what you got to do so that when you get to the season, you are fully prepared. That's the thing we've been focused on all summer, making sure when the day does come, we are prepared for the season because we have to be better than we were last year and we will be."
Mason on being the league's preseason favorite: "It's something you can look at and it's cool to have the respect from people in the conference. That's as far as it goes for me. At the end of the day, it gets decided on the field."
USD coach Matt Vitzthum on taking over a program with a strong record of recent success: "I think this is such a credit to these guys for the success that we've kind of built and sustained over the past three or four seasons. It isn't about me. It isn't about the new coach. It isn't about my quarterback. I'm just super impressed with the resilience of these guys and the way they buy into the process every single day. And, luckily, that process has proven, you know, pretty to a great result. So I'm super excited about this season. I think we've got a great team."
Coyote defensive lineman Nathan Laperi on what he thinks will make USD's defense strong: "I think we will easily be not only one of the best defenses in the conference, but the country. We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football. Gabe Hardman, Tim White, Kael Kolarik, Wade Abrams, and Chris Dixon, too. Those guys will lead from the front."
Vitzthum on the starting quarterback question, with the Coyotes considering USD veteran senior Nevan Cremascoli, second-year freshman Austyn Modrzewski and senior transfer Jackson Proctor from Dartmouth: "Everyone in 'Yote Nation wants to know that. ... It's wide open to start fall camp. After the first week of fall camp, we are going to have someone move into that slot to be that starter and that guy to get all of the first-team reps. If he can handle it, we'll keep him in that slot and if we don't think he can handle it, we'll rearrange a little bit. It's been our plan for about five months. That's a position that is near and dear to myself because I've coached it my whole career. ... I will continue to press on the fact that the guy that can consistently do what we need to do, whether that's get us in the correct run check, check a protection, whether that's deliver a strike on third down, the guy that can do that consistently for us and keep us out of trouble, that's going to be the guy that ultimately takes the first step and hopefully takes all of the steps at quarterback. ... All three of these guys, whether we design a quarterback run for them, whether they can extend (a play) further, whether they can scramble, all three of those guys have those capabilities."
USD wide receiver Tysen Boze on if he'll miss NDSU in the conference: "Definitely. I feel like they always gave us a run for their money. It was a great environment to play there. It was a great game whenever you played the Bison. I think they're going to be missed."
Continue reading...
Both the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University programs were represented. Here's a sampling of what they said in interviews with Midwest Sports Plus. To see full interviews with all nine teams,
visit the livestream replay on our website
.
SDSU quarterback Chase Mason on playing out his senior season at SDSU: "I'm just super excited to play a season with the guys we have. I love the senior class that we have this year. We've got a great group of guys and obviously nobody wants to get hurt, but injuries are going to happen. I think my job for this year is getting guys prepared that, maybe last year, there weren't as many guys prepared when injuries happened. ... We know how high our ceiling can be and we have the most talented team that we could ever want and coach (Dan) Jackson has done a great job recruiting. I feel like the job this summer is to kind of raise that floor up. When injuries happen and things happen in the season like they are going to, you can't go around that. It's those guys that need to step up. There's going to be guys on the team that need to step up this year. That's what the summer is for."
SDSU coach Dan Jackson on the status of the conference after North Dakota State departed: "Look at the talent and the coaching and the depth of our conference. In a lot of ways, I think this is the best conference, one of the best in the country, certainly one of the best in our region. I'm just grateful to be playing in this conference and have an opportunity to win a national title. That's something that I was not able to do as an assistant. These guys have won, but I know they want one for themselves, leading the team, too. It's a lot of fun and it's motivating to be able to play for a national title."
SDSU defensive lineman Logan Green on preparing for a new season: "You just have to take it day by day, every workout and every run. Day by day and making sure you are doing what you got to do so that when you get to the season, you are fully prepared. That's the thing we've been focused on all summer, making sure when the day does come, we are prepared for the season because we have to be better than we were last year and we will be."
Mason on being the league's preseason favorite: "It's something you can look at and it's cool to have the respect from people in the conference. That's as far as it goes for me. At the end of the day, it gets decided on the field."
USD coach Matt Vitzthum on taking over a program with a strong record of recent success: "I think this is such a credit to these guys for the success that we've kind of built and sustained over the past three or four seasons. It isn't about me. It isn't about the new coach. It isn't about my quarterback. I'm just super impressed with the resilience of these guys and the way they buy into the process every single day. And, luckily, that process has proven, you know, pretty to a great result. So I'm super excited about this season. I think we've got a great team."
Coyote defensive lineman Nathan Laperi on what he thinks will make USD's defense strong: "I think we will easily be not only one of the best defenses in the conference, but the country. We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football. Gabe Hardman, Tim White, Kael Kolarik, Wade Abrams, and Chris Dixon, too. Those guys will lead from the front."
Vitzthum on the starting quarterback question, with the Coyotes considering USD veteran senior Nevan Cremascoli, second-year freshman Austyn Modrzewski and senior transfer Jackson Proctor from Dartmouth: "Everyone in 'Yote Nation wants to know that. ... It's wide open to start fall camp. After the first week of fall camp, we are going to have someone move into that slot to be that starter and that guy to get all of the first-team reps. If he can handle it, we'll keep him in that slot and if we don't think he can handle it, we'll rearrange a little bit. It's been our plan for about five months. That's a position that is near and dear to myself because I've coached it my whole career. ... I will continue to press on the fact that the guy that can consistently do what we need to do, whether that's get us in the correct run check, check a protection, whether that's deliver a strike on third down, the guy that can do that consistently for us and keep us out of trouble, that's going to be the guy that ultimately takes the first step and hopefully takes all of the steps at quarterback. ... All three of these guys, whether we design a quarterback run for them, whether they can extend (a play) further, whether they can scramble, all three of those guys have those capabilities."
USD wide receiver Tysen Boze on if he'll miss NDSU in the conference: "Definitely. I feel like they always gave us a run for their money. It was a great environment to play there. It was a great game whenever you played the Bison. I think they're going to be missed."
Continue reading...
