Delaware at South Dakota State football: Five things to watch in FCS playoff game

South Dakota State returns to the field for the first time in 20 days today when they host Delaware in the second round of the FCS playoffs at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

It’s a rematch of the 2021 spring season semifinals. We covered some of the history and lead-up to the game here, but with kick-off hours away, here are five things to watch in SDSU’s first home playoff game as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.

Will the Jacks be rusty?

Coach John Stiegelmeier and the SDSU players have insisted since it became apparent the Jacks were going to get a first round bye that having two weeks off in a row (they had a scheduled bye in the final week of the regular season) would be beneficial to heal up from all the injuries and general wear-and-tear of 11 straight weeks of football.

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But Stiegelmeier also admitted when he first saw the schedule he wasn’t thrilled about it. If SDSU had only just caught fire at the end of the season, two weeks off might be a true threat to their momentum, but SDSU honestly peaked in the middle of the season, and by the end of their last game they looked like they could use the break. The Jacks are going to be as fresh as any team in December is ever going to be.

That said, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Jacks were a little rusty early in the game. Delaware is coming off a dominating win over St. Francis in which they put up huge offensive numbers. They should be ready to go. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the Jacks to find their groove.

Will Adam Bock play?

Bock suffered a significant foot/leg injury in Week 8 at North Dakota and hasn’t played since.

He’s now had six weeks to recover, which, at the time of the injury, sounded like the best-case scenario for a return. Stiegelmeier said this week Bock could play, but Jacks coaches, like football coaches everywhere, love to get it out there that their injured players are close to returning, even if they may not be, in hopes of making their opponent prep for them.

Delaware isn’t a push-over, so the idea that the Jacks should just sit Bock for another week could be risky, but they’ve also done just fine without Bock, thanks in large part to the emergence of Jason Freeman.

Assuming Bock gets clearance from team doctors and staff, might make sense to get him a few reps but not rely on him too heavily, unless they unexpectedly need to.

Can the Blue Hens match up physically?

Delaware was 7-0 and looking like a national champion contender when they came here 18 months ago. They not only got blown out, they got pushed around. Nolan Henderson, who was the Blue Hens quarterback then and still is today, got the crap beat out of him.

After the game, then-Delaware coach Danny Rocco was almost contrite in assessing the damage, admitting that his team was not equipped to compete with the Jacks on the line of scrimmage, something they clearly had not expected.

Rocco is no longer the coach, but there’s no question the Hens learned something that day. They know what to expect from SDSU. Will that make a difference? There’s a lot of the same players on both sides, and Delaware has been much more vulnerable this year than they were in the spring season. And SDSU’s defensive line has been dominant this year, and will be fully rested and healthy. That could be very bad news for the visitors.

Can the Jacks win the special teams battle?

Special teams problems have plagued the Jacks this year – blocked kicks, long returns, fumbles, penalties, converted fakes, onside kicks – there have been plenty of plays in the kicking game that have negatively affected the Jacks.

And Delaware is coming off a game in which they blocked a punt and forced a fumble on a kickoff that they returned for a touchdown.

Kicking has been a struggle for the Hens – three different kickers have combined to go 4-for-10 on field goals, but punting has been a strength thanks to former Jackrabbit Ben Dinkel. Dinkel transferred to Delaware after losing his job to Hunter Dustman, and averaged 42.7 yards per punt this year with 14 of his 35 punts dropped inside the 20, with zero touchbacks.

What will the crowd look like?

The horse is dead at this point but we’ll mention it one more time: Playoff attendance in Brookings has been poor, and the weather forecast isn’t terribly pleasant. We know 15,000 isn’t going to happen, and 10 is probably a pipe dream, too.

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But if another crowd of fewer than 5,000 shows up for a team that’s gone 10-0 in the FCS, won the Valley at 8-0, has multiple NFL talents on their roster, busted their asses to earn home field advantage and is playing for the first time in three weeks, that would really be disappointing.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: 5 things to watch in SDSU football's playoff game against Delaware