Happy Hour with John Gaskins

FULL MONDAY SHOW: Dan Jackson (SDSU), Kurtiss Riggs (Monday PM QB), and WTF, USD?


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You don't know. You may think you know. But you don't know.

That wasn't just a famous line from former Saints and Colts coach Jim Mora, Sr., over 30 years ago. It serves as the motto of Happy Hour with John Gaskins. It's is what the nature of football in 2025 — the ever-changing NFL and the transient college football landscape — continues to prove.

Exhibit A: The South Dakota Coyotes being considered a preseason national championship contender. Made sense, with USD returning its sturdy and proven quarterback and All-American running back, plus hiring as head coach the defensive coordinator that made the Coyotes a defense to be reckoned with the last few years in their climb into Top 5 status.

Oh, sure, USD lost its best few defensive playmakers, some skill weapons, and most of its offensive line to FBS schools, but isn't every FCS school going through that? Well, yes, but Saturday's 51-13 sledgehammer beating at No. 1 North Dakota State, which dropped USD to 2-3 and in a position where it will have to fight to just make the playoffs proved our motto:

We don't know. We may think we know. But we don't know. Happy Hour host John Gaskins leads off the show with where or how things went wrong, and, later in the show, our Monday afternoon quarterback and local radio and TV football analyst Kurtiss Riggs gives his assessment. Riggs also explains why the Coyotes have dropped so far (so far this season), yet South Dakota State has mostly upheld its elite status through four games, all wins.

After a 3-0 start but with plenty of things to sharpen during last week's bye week, South Dakota State checked a lot of boxes and rolled through its check list on Saturday in the 51-7 win over Mercyhurst:

  • 3rd down conversions — The Jackrabbits were 26% coming in but 69% against the Lakers (9 of 13)
  • Red Zone conversions — SDSU was 8 for 8, although settling for three field goals in the first half wasn't awesome
  • Explosive plays — Chase Mason threw four passes of 28 yards or more, including a 52-yarder
  • Getting more receivers beyond Lofton O'Groske involved — Mason connected with seven different receivers, and four of them had at least three grabs
  • Place kicking — Eli Stader, benched in the Drake game after missing his fourth field goal of over 30 yards, made all three of his attempts
  • Defense — Well, there wasn't too much to complain about, but some things did improve

In his weekly Happy Hour chat, SDSU coach Dan Jackson explained WHY all of these things improved in time for the Jacks' MVFC opener at No. 24 Youngstown State on Saturday. What about the Penguins would make a road win a hard-earned win, particularly from YSU's quarterback?

Meanwhile, Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer survived and advanced.

The South Dakota native and former University of Sioux Falls national championship player and coach took some heat off of himself in Alabama's wire-to-wire 24-21 win at Georgia on Saturday.

What appears to be different about the Crimson Tide from both the @eek 1 loss at Florida State and last season's four losses?

DeBoer's best friend and former teammate Riggs digs into the win, the kinds of things DeBoer has to deal with in-season during the transfer portal era, quarterback Ty Simpson, fellow USF coaching alumnus Ryan Grubb's play-calling, and Saturday's game against a Vanderbilt squad led by former SDSU assistant Clark Lea, who last year beat DeBoer in a game that sparked the flames that DeBoer still finds himself.

Riggs also picks apart SDSU's win, NDSU's destruction of USD, Carson Wentz's not-so-fabulous follow-up act in Dublin, some of the most impressive high school football talents in the state through five games, and why Mark Gronowski's time at Iowa has so far resembled the movie "Misery."

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Happy Hour with John GaskinsBy John Gaskins

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