It's now or never for high school football teams all across South Dakota on Thursday night in the state playoffs. Win, and you "survive and advance." Lose, and your season comes to an end. The same can be said for the South Dakota Coyotes (5-4) when they face No. 8 North Dakota (6-2) in the Dakota Dome on Saturday. While USD will have two more regular season games after the border clash, many FCS experts feel their postseason dreams die with a fifth loss. If that happens, there might be a slim chance USD could sneak into the playoffs wins over ranked squads like No. 4 South Dakota State and No. 16 Southern Illinois in those final two contests, but the Yotes would rather not be backed into that corner. The biggest question (at least here) is — can the Yotes overcome their offensive struggles against top-tier Missouri Valley Football Conference teams to beat any of them. A failure to reach 21 points for the sixth time in nine 2025 games doomed USD in the 21-13 loss at home to No. 17 Illinois State last week. Coyotes coach Travis Johansen joins Happy Hour host John Gaskins for their weekly chat to explain why the end zone has been difficult to reach and how USD — which has a salty defense that has held three of its four league opponents to 24 points or less — can light up the scoreboard enough to bypass a Fighting Sioux squad averaging 40 points per game. Johansen also dives into the return of linebacker Gabe Hardman, the health of dangerous receiver/returner Tennel Bryant, the emerging talents of freshmen Brayden White and Carson Fletcher. Plus, a few words about the World Series, USD's Native American Heritage helmets and uniforms, and Halloween. Before the chat with Johansen, Gaskins sits down with Sioux Falls Live reporter Trent Singer for their weekly "Thirsty Thursday Football Forecast" from Orion Pub, where they'll pick apart and predict: * SDSU vs Indiana State * USD vs UND * Augustana vs Northern State * USF vs Winona State CLASS 11AAA QUARTERFINALS

• (8) Sioux Falls Roosevelt at (1) Brandon Valley, 6 p.m.
• (7) Rapid City Central at (2) Sioux Falls Lincoln, 4 p.m.
• (6) Sioux Falls Washington at (3) Sioux Falls Jefferson, 6:30 p.m.
• (5) Harrisburg at (4) O'Gorman, 6 p.m.

The first three of those games can BE WATCHED LIVE ON TV on the Midwest Sports Plus app, which you can download by going here. Here is Trent's preview article of these high school games