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St. Cloud State University
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Sports
SDSU presents biggest challenge yet
By Matt Janda
Published:
Thursday, September 26, 2002
If you mention the name Josh Ranek around members of the SCSU defense, it conjures up a number of various memories, none of them very good.
“It was no fun trying to tackle him at all,” said Huskies’ safety Nate Loughran. “We’ll let the Canadians do that now.”
Ranek, the NCC’s all-time rushing leader and perennial Harlon Hill Trophy finalist, graduated from South Dakota State last spring and is now playing in the CFL. What he left behind at SDSU however is no joke. The Jackrabbits, who take on the Huskies Saturday at Selke Field, filled his position with 220-pound senior running back Scott Nedved, who was Ranek’s understudy for the past three seasons. Combine that with an offensive line that averages 300 pounds and returns four starters, and the SDSU offense is still threatening, but with more all-around weapons.
“They’ll rely on the quarterback a little bit more,” said SCSU head coach Randy Hedberg. “(Senior QB Dan) Fjeldheim didn’t play exceptionally well against us last year, but he really had a good season the rest of the way.”
Fjeldheim has the Jacks off to a good start this season. SDSU is averaging only 32 more yards passing than rushing on the offense, giving them a dangerously balanced attack that gives the Husky defense reason to pause.
“Now they have a lot of different personnel,” said Huskies’ senior defensive tackle Jeremy Pilarski. “We have to separate things and try to figure them out. We can’t focus on (Ranek) anymore; there’s a lot more people to focus on.”
The Jacks are coming off a 38-21 victory over the University of Nebraska-Omaha last Saturday, a game in which they jumped up to a 35-0 lead in the first half, and Fjeldheim completed passes to eight different receivers.
“Omaha turned the ball over a couple of times early and gave SDSU good field position, and they took advantage of those with touchdowns,” Hedberg said. “I think that’s going to be huge. Our turnover ratio is excellent (+7), and that’s one thing we’ll need this week. Hopefully we can take a few from them.”
Turnovers were a big part of the Huskies preseason meetings on both sides of the ball, and so far, both sides have done their part to keep football’s most important statistic in their favor. The offense has only given the ball up five times, while the defense has made 10 interceptions and recovered two fumbles.
On the offensive side the Huskies are gearing up for another big week. SDSU has several returning starters on defense and have yet to allow a rushing TD, but they have shown they’re vulnerable on the ground (133.5 ypg allowed) and through the air (220.5 ypg). SCSU quarterback Keith Heckendorf passed for a school-record 369 yards against the Jacks last season, and Nebraska-Omaha went almost exclusively to the air last week and managed 21 points. Hedberg has found success in his season-long plan so far and is sticking to it.
“We’re going to attempt to run the ball, that’s still going to be a big part of our attack,” he said. “I also think they’ll try to bring pressure on Keith with some different looks up front, some twists, and they’ll bring some linebackers also.”
The Jacks will have to do something to disrupt Heckendorf’s rhythm, because he has shown that if he has time, he can slice up just about any secondary in the conference. The Jacks will bring different defensive looks, including bringing safety Justin Landis up in run protection. If their guessing game goes well, the Heckendorf-Nelson combination might have problems. If not, another 40-point performance might be in the cards for SCSU.
