Get In The Lab: How South Dakota State Can Improve Its Rushing Offense In 2026

We take a look at how South Dakota State's rushing attack could be the key to a run to Nashville next season.

South Dakota State running back James Basinger (32) | Samantha Laurey / Argus Leader / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As we head into summer, I'll be starting a new series called "Get In The Lab." The focus of this series will be to examine specific weaknesses of playoff-contending teams ahead of the 2026 season. My goal will be to highlight the reasons for the struggle, while also exploring how these teams can "Get In The Lab" this offseason and correct the issue next season.

Each article will focus on one aspect of the game, such as pass-rush, explosive plays, or red zone efficiency. For each category, we will look at teams that finished with a winning record and had an obvious weakness last year. Then we will narrow our focus to the top contender in each section, mainly teams that have championship aspirations or the talent for a deep postseason run.

We kick the series off with a very important aspect of FCS football... Rushing offense. Our spotlight will focus on South Dakota State, which enters next season as one of the favorites to win the FCS national championship.

Bottom 5 Yards Per Carry (Teams with Winning Record)

1. South Carolina State (3.48)
2. Lamar (3.75)
3. South Dakota State (3.76)
4. Western Carolina (3.90)
5. Dayton/New Hampshire (3.91)

This list features three playoff teams, along with South Carolina, which won the HBCU national championship last year. All three playoff teams had early exits, maybe predictably so, and often relied on their defense throughout conference play.

It's a testament to how good a job Chennis Berry was able to do at South Carolina State, everywhere else with the roster to overcome this deficiency, but remain as effective as they were all season. Still, it's an area that should be looked at for the Bulldogs ahead of next year. It's hard to imagine that without marginal improvement, this team will return to Atlanta for the third consecutive season.

The rest of this article will be focused on South Dakota State. The fact that the Jackrabbits found their way onto this list is a bit shocking, given how successful this program has been running the football. Their rushing attack has done an excellent job of blending power and explosiveness in the run game over the past handful of seasons.

I really wanted to dive in and take some time to examine the issues from last year and why they may be different in 2026.

Diagnosing The Problem

I mentioned how surprising it is to find South Dakota State on this list, and it really was unprecedented for the Jacks compared to recent seasons. Not only did SDSU have the third-worst yards per carry of all winning teams in the FCS, but in conference play, they ranked dead last in the MVFC at 3.6 yards per carry. That's behind Murray State, Indiana State, and Northern Iowa.

Now, let's look at some recent history for the Jackrabbits. Last season's 3.76 YPC was the worst rushing average for the Jacks since 2015. Not only that, but most seasons since 2015, SDSU has consistently been above 5.0 yards per carry. So what went wrong in 2025?

If we are talking strictly on the field, there appeared to be three main reasons, two of which are connected. Those were negative plays allowed and personnel continuity. SDSU ranked 104th nationally with 338 yards lost on 5.64 TFLs allowed per game. Obviously, that amount of negative yardage greatly impacts YPC, while also killing the flow of the offense, impacting success throughout the game.

One clarifying point is that the amount of TFLs was not necessarily the problem. SDSU was about average in overall TFL numbers, but the fact was that when the negative plays happened, the degree to which they happened was abnormal and devastating.

I think the lack of continuity across personnel was the biggest contributing factor to this, specifically the quarterback and the offensive line. It was well-documented that SDSU struggled to find the right group of offensive linemen and where those guys should play in the unit. They were shuffling players late into the season, which often leads to blown assignments, which could lead to negative plays.

At quarterback, Chase Mason's injury only amplified the issues with the run game. Not only did the play calling have to change, but teams weren't going to respect the SDSU passing game and were able to load the box more often.

But even when he was healthy, Mason was also part of the problem. He was one of the worst QBs in the country at taking negative plays and escaping negative situations or pressure. I think the biggest reason for this had to do with off-field reasons, which I'll discuss later in this article.

The final and biggest reason that SDSU struggled to run the ball was the lack of explosive runs. Their down-to-down rushing success numbers were decent, and their short-yardage success was about average. Despite this, they just didn't generate nearly enough explosive plays in the run game.

It's very difficult to rely on 3-4 yards per carry for an entire game. It makes the offense so much more predictable and gives the defense more opportunities to get off the field. With no explosive plays, the odds of penalties and negative plays increase, while those mistakes also become more impactful.

I wanted to take a look at the explosive run percentage for all 10 teams in the MVFC last year. This takes the amount of explosive runs (15+ yards) on designed runs and divides them by the number of designed rushing attempts. It measures how often you are generating an explosive run every time you call a run play, excluding QB scrambles on broken plays.

Explosive Run Percentage (MVFC)

1. South Dakota (8.43%)
2. North Dakota State (7.62%)
3. Youngstown State (7.03%)
4. Southern Illinois (6.89%)
5. North Dakota (6.75%)
6. Indiana State (5.61%)
7. Illinois State (5.61%)
8. Murray State (4.10%)
9. Northern Iowa (3.91%)
10. South Dakota State (3.69%)

The Jackrabbits weren't creating what they needed to in the run game to give their offense any advantages. It's like trying to climb a mountain with one hand tied behind your back. Interestingly, and importantly, for next season, the one running back who won't be back (Julius Loughridge) was really the only player generating explosive plays.

Loughridge accounted for over 50% of the explosive runs for the Jacks, while James Basinger and Josiah Johnson were particularly bad in this area. They combined for only 3 explosive runs, which is 1.9% of the explosive run rate. So, whether it was continuity issues, these running backs just not reading the play correctly, or play-calling, these explosive runs were just not happening for SDSU.

Getting back to Chase Mason, we know how dangerous a weapon he can be with his legs. In 2023-24, Mason was utilized almost exclusively in packages where the defense knew he would be running the ball, but he still generated 8 explosive runs on 66 attempts, which is an incredible 12.1% rate.

This past season, Mason finished with zero explosive runs on 60 designed runs, which is a remarkable drop-off in production. It really leads me to believe that Mason was never 100% healthy last season. There's really no other logical explanation for that sort of change, especially for a player who was devastating when he had the ball in his hands.

South Dakota State Jackrabbits quarterback Chase Mason (7) | Samantha Laurey / Argus Leader / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Another thing I wanted to highlight is the off-field issues that SDSU had to overcome ahead of the 2025 season. To be clear, these issues were things that were completely out of their control, but it started with the complete overhaul of the staff after Jimmy Rogers' departure to Washington State.

They had a very short time to implement a system and get the players comfortable before the year. The Jacks also had to overcome a terrible tragedy with the death of running back Nate White, who passed away in June. Add all of this to losing Mason to injury during the season, and this offense really had no shot to operate at the highest level.

Solutions For The 2026 Season

Thankfully for the Jackrabbits, many of the issues we highlighted should be able to be corrected with an offseason of continuity and key players remaining healthy. The staff will finally have a full offseason to learn and implement the systems they want to run during the season.

More importantly, quarterback Chase Mason should finally be fully healthy. It will finally allow the offensive staff to turn Mason into more of a weapon in the run game, which would allow the Jacks to manipulate the alignment of the defense, along with making it easier on the running backs with more room to breathe.

An underrated aspect of this conversation is that the backup quarterback situation has vastly improved for SDSU. This could allow the Jacks to be a bit more aggressive with Mason, creating opportunities for him to generate those explosive plays that were missing last year.

The biggest challenge for the Jacks will be finding a group of offensive linemen who can gel together, along with 2-3 running backs they can really lean on in big moments. The OL unit will have five returning players with starting experience, along with plenty of depth with key rotational players. Basinger, Johnson, and Blair all return at running back, but it's a question of who will step up as the true home-run threat.

Division II transfer running back Ramon McKinney Jr. may be the wildcard in the rotation in 2026. He displayed a ton of speed and explosiveness at the D2 level, and could make a huge impact for the Jacks if he finds the consistency and physicality necessary to make the transition to the Division I level.

Ultimately, I think a year of continuity and better health will automatically raise the floor of this rushing offense. Without changing anything or having anything special, the Jacks should vault back to a solid rushing team in terms of yards per carry.

There is a difference between average and what they had during their championship seasons with that offensive line and running back Isaiah Davis. If SDSU wants to get back to that level, it will need some stars to emerge along the offensive line and someone to have a true breakout season in the running back room.

The talent at South Dakota State is clearly there. It's on the rest of these factors to raise this program back up to a true FCS national championship contender.

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