South Dakota's Charles Pierre Jr. (3) is brought down by Southern Illinois' Shug Walker (33) during University of South Dakota vs Southern Illinois football action, Saturday in Vermillion, S.D., Sept. 28, 2024.
Ryan Timmerman
The University of South Dakota football team isn't acting like it's the first time in program history that the Coyotes have advanced to the NCAA FCS semifinals.
A quarterfinalist last season, Bo. 4-seeded USD is on a mission to play beyond Saturday's semifinal against No. 1-seeded Montana State.
Kickoff for the contest in slated for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the game scheduled to air nationally on ABC from Bozeman, Mont.
"This team doesn't want to be done," USD head coach Bob Nielson said after the quarterfinal win over UC Davis."
Defensively, the Coyotes are firing on all cylinders as the team has nabbed eight interceptions over two postseason games -- wins over Tarleton State and UC Davis -- which is more than USD had for the entire regular season.
Additionally, the Coyotes have been stout up front behind a defensive front that has consistenly moved the line of scrimmage backward for the opposing offense.
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The USD defense features Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year Mi'Quise Grace.
On offense, the 'Yotes have a few players who have taken the team to new heights.
Redshirt junior quarterback Aidan Bouman is 277 passing yards away from becoming the first Coyote since 2018 to throw for 3,000+ yards in a season, the only one to accomplish the feat for USD being Austin Simmons' output of 3,124 yards.
Bouman became just the sixth USD QB to throw for over 6,000 career yards in the Coyotes' win over UC Davis.
On the ground, USD's duo of Charles Pierre Jr. and Travis Theis have both rushed for over 1,000 yards this season.
As a team, the USD rushing attack ranks sixth in the FCS (222.2 yards per game).
The offense has always shown a propesity for big plays as the 'Yotes have accounted for 82 plays of 20 yards or more this season, with 29 of those leading to touchdowns.
While the running game has been key to keeping the chains moving and points on the board, the defense ranks 10th against the run in FCS, allowing just 107.9 rushing yards per contest.
Montana State (14-0) enters the semifinals after winning the BIg Sky Conference.
The Bobcats boast the top scoring offense (42.1 points per game) and total offense (493.7 yards per game) in the FCS this season.
Senior QB Tommy Mellott who has thrown for 2,430 passing yards with 28 passing touchdowns this season for Montana State.
Montana State's run game ranks second in the nation at 307.1 yards per game, with a pair of 1,000-yard rushers: Scottre Humphrey (1,325) & Adam Jones (1,068).
"We set a number of goals back in the spring," Nielson said. "We won a Missouri Valley Football Conference championship, which was a big one, but when we got into the playoffs, we set a goal to play four games, and we won two and looking at the third. Now we have to go take care of business again."
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