‘Not going to hang our heads’: SDSU reflects on loss

STILLWATER, OKLA. (KELO) — SDSU’s historic 29-game winning streak came to an end in its season-opening loss at Oklahoma State.

SDSU’s last loss came at the beginning of the 2022 season. Before the program had any national championships, and when John Stiegelmeier was still the head coach. The Jacks’ run of 29 straight wins stands as the third longest run in FCS history.

“I’m not overly concerned about where this stands,” SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers said. “We have a whole season ahead of us, and we’re not going to let this one interrupt what we envision ourselves as a football team.”

Despite falling by 24 points, 44-20, the Jackrabbits were only outgained by six yards by the No. 17 team in the nation.

“We’re not going to hang our heads,” Rogers said. “That’s a great football team. They have an opportunity to win the Big 12, just with the skillset, the depth the have. You can just see how mature they were, and I feel like at times you can see how young we were.”

Mark Gronowski threw for 264 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Griffin Wilde reeled in seven catches for 150 yards.

“We were moving the ball,” Rogers said. “We were having success. We were hitting some runs. We were taking the open throws, and it was working. And then we would kind of kill ourselves. We’ll grow from that.”

The Jacks were within a touchdown and a field goal midway through the third quarter before the Pokes reeled off 17 straight to balloon the lead.

“It’s hard to, when you take a loss like that, to find so many positives,” Rogers said. “I told the team, like, there are so many good things in there today, but you have to stack them together, and they have to be consistent. We lost our energy, and that’s what I’m maybe most disappointed about because we have been extremely competitive in this fall camp, and it just got away from us there.”

The Jackrabbits will play their home opener on Saturday against Incarnate Word at 6 p.m.

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