VERMILLION, S.D. – South Dakota held its annual football media day Thursday in the DakotaDome Club of the Sanford Coyote Sports Center and the turf of H. Lauren Lewis Field of the DakotaDome. Several members of the local media were present including six television stations, four newspapers and three radio stations.
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The student-athletes showed their personalities in front of the green screen with several Coyotes involved in media requests. Head coach
Bob Nielson along with
Andrew Gray,
Darin Greenfield,
Shamar Jackson and
Austin Simmons were part of a press conference inside the Club (full video can be viewed above). Many others were part of one-on-one media requests before practice inside the DakotaDome.
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Here are five quick highlights from Coach Nielson's press conference:
One:
When talking about the start of camp, Nielson commented that the camp has gotten off to a great start due to the fact that the team had a great summer. "We had 100 players here for the majority of the summer. They have worked hard and put us into a position where we could jump forward with the start of practice."
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Two:
Although the team had nearly 100 student-athletes stick around for the summer, as a whole, the Coyotes are young. Of 107 players on the roster, there are 25 juniors and seniors. "That is about as young a team as I have worked with," Nielson commented. "At the same time, a lot of those younger players have played, so we have experience in that group."
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Three:
The Coyotes have a new defensive coordinator this year in Brian "Moose" Mohnsen, a member of Nielson's coaching staff for four years when dating back to Western Illinois. With the new coordinator, the Coyotes has installed a new defensive scheme with multiple looks up front. "It'll still look like a four-man front, but you'll also see some three-man front looks," Nielson added. "We're trying to do some things from a coverage standpoint that will allow our guys to do things faster."
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When asked if the change had to do with the change in staff, Nielson responded that it was a combination of factors. "Every defensive coordinator has their area of expertise and will tweak your system a little bit. Also, what we're doing now really fits our personnel well. It gives us a chance to do some things that will hopefully allow us to confuse blocking schemes and create more chaos than we did a year ago."
Four:
Nielson talked individually about several players throughout the presser. Here is what he had to say about the two team captains,
Darin Greenfield and
Austin Simmons.
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"Darin is a guy that leads by example with the way he plays. He is going to give you everything he's got when he plays. He is maybe a little undersized at the defensive end but he makes up for it with some really good technique and the way he plays."
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"The hard thing about
Austin Simmons is that he is going to get compared to
Chris Streveler all the time. Chris is a very unique football player. Austin is highly skilled. It is just a matter of him gaining in his game experience. Austin has a fair amount of experience and he might be the only undefeated quarterback in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. He basically started three games and I think he is 3-0. Our guys have a lot of confidence in him."
Five:
After reaching the FCS playoffs last year, and moving into the second round after a victory over Nicholls, Nielson was asked if there was a change in the attitude of the team. "I think there is a different confidence level in our football team from a standpoint that our guys now that is the ultimate goal every year. We want to be a national playoff team year in and year out. The thing that I have noticed this year, even with a young football team, is that there has been a much more businesslike approach to practice. The guys understand that these are the things we need to get better at, these are the things we need to focus on and these are the things that made us better a year ago. We've got to keep building."
More from Media Day
Argus Leader: New challenge is to build on recent success by Mick Garry
KDLT News: Coyotes looking ahead to 2018 season by Mark Ovenden and Zach Borg
Keloland: USD football attempts to build on last season's success by Travis Fossing
KSFY: Coyotes hope to build off success by Erik Thorstenson
KTIVÂ News: South Dakota hopes to have personnel to contend in Missouri Valley by Mark FreundÂ
Siouxland News: Simmons ready to handle workload in 2018 by Owen Siebring
Sioux City Journal: Coyotes are young, but experienced by Barry Poe
