The USD football team has put out its 2010 schedule, which features some of its toughest competition to date, and a fan-friendly balance of home and away games.
However, the biggest draws of the 2010 schedule are two away games, and they will launch the new season: the University of Minnesota and Central Florida on Sept. 4 and 11 respectively.
‘This year will have been one of the toughest schedules that we’ve had in awhile, but I am looking forward to it,’ sophomore running back Chris Ganious said. ‘It will put our skills to the challenge and we will see what sort of athletes we have here.’
The Football Bowl Subdivision opponents are guarantee games for the Coyotes, athletic director Joel Nielsen said, because USD will be paid for those games and also receive the visibility of taking on a nationally known football team.
Ganious agreed and said he and his teammates were excited about for the competition.
‘It’s always good to play against good talent,’ Ganious said. ‘It will be the first time that a lot of us have played in front of 50, or 60,000. I am definitely looking forward to it, as are a lot of the guys I know, and it will be fun to play in front of thousands; that’s our dream.’
With the excitement also comes the challenge of playing top-ranked national schools at the very beginning of the season, head coach Ed Meierkort said. The sterner competition is part of USD’s larger plan as they transition into D-I sports. In exchange, Meierkort said, the games become more exciting.
‘We used to get on a bus and go play at Mankato in front of 800 people,’ Meierkort said. ‘Now you get in a plane and go play at Cal Poly in front of 12,000 people. It is much more exciting and the fact that these Division I programs will play us in just our third year is a pat on the back to our program.’
The Coyotes will be playing in those games with a new quarterback at the helm, as senior Noah Shepard will have graduated and sophomore Dante Warren will step into his shoes.
‘Dante will be a good leader,’ Ganious said. ‘He works hard and hopefully he can lead us to some victories because we are going to need him. Noah Shepard was great, one of the best players to come through USD, but there needs to be another person to step up and hopefully Dante can fill those shoes.’
Meierkort agreed.
‘As a coach you just turn the page,’ he said. ‘I am excited about the possibilities with Dante Warren and I think it’s very important that our team and our fans know the next quarterback just has to step up.’
A couple weeks after the big FBS games is Dakota Days when USD will face its other rival to the north, the University of North Dakota. The game is expected to be a double win for Coyote fans, adding the excitement of the UND rivalry to the atmosphere of D-Days.
‘It’s always special around D-Days,’ Meierkort said. ‘But North Dakota is special. They are a good team, a lot of playing on the field, not a lot of talking.’
Adding to that rivalry are the similarities between the two schools, both of which are used to each other, to domes, and recruit the same types of football players, Meierkort said.
Nor will UND be the only tough match-up at home. Northern Iowa, Cal-Poly and Northern Colorado will all be coming to the Dome in 2010, bringing with them the excitement of watching high quality football competition at home.
‘Arguably, it’s one of the better schedules we’ve ever seen at the Dome,’ Nielsen said. ‘Number one is the number of Division I teams that are on the schedule, but also with the familiarity of the teams such as Northern Iowa, North Dakota and Northern Colorado.’
For the first time in D-I, USD will host two home games in a row, playing against Northern Colorado and Cal-Poly. Nielsen said USD and Northern Colorado had worked out a two-year deal where USD traveled to take them on last year, losing 21-17, and this year they are coming to play at the Dome.
That is just one of many elements of negotiation for the schedule, which has been worked out for the past four to five years, Nielsen said, but as the new contacts are made in D-I, the scheduling becomes easier and more attractive for fans and players alike.
‘When we went to D-1, we lost a seven team conference, and gained a five team conference,’ Nielsen said. ‘Right out of the gate it took us awhile to get on our feet so the last few years have been challenging from a scheduling standpoint. For the student athlete, for any of us, the routine is better.’
As a result of that routine beginning to form, almost every other week will be a home game, which is helpful for fans and for players, Ganious said.
‘We had lost a few games, real close games, and I guess being on the road we go into environments where we are not favored but I feel these last two years have been learning experiences for us,’ Ganious said. ‘Each year our players as well as our coaches and staff learn more and more so nas the years get on we get stronger and sooner or later it will come together and we should have a pretty good squad.’
Reach Reporter Sarah Paulus at Sarah.Paulus@usd.edu.
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