Hobo Day hiccup in 2025?

Hardly a chance, or so it appears, with No. 2 South Dakota State barging through the second half in Youngstown to improve to 5-0 while 2-3 Northern Iowa stumbles through growing pains with an entirely new coaching staff, most recently a 35-7 loss to North Dakota.

But whenever UNI is listed on SDSU's football schedule as the homecoming opponent, some Jackrabbit fans — especially alumni from 2015 and 2017 — might wince in trauma from past Panther upsets.

But is UNI worth any worry this Saturday? Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer has covered the Jacks for a decade and has his thoughts in the latest weekly edition of Happy Hour's "Nobody's Listening Anyway" with John Gaskins.

SDSU coach Dan Jackson, in his weekly Happy Hour chat on Monday, conveyed a clear message about what he wants out of Jacks fans on Saturday — strong attempts at the biggest and loudest crowd in Dykhouse Stadium history — and this leads to a discussion about Jackson as the football program's "brand manager" and how natural that unofficial role is for him.

Jackson credited his "great program" and "great culture" for the come-from-behind win at then-No. 24 YSU. But was it a great win? Zim and John break down what went wrong in the first half and why SDSU dominated the second half, assessed the latest performance from quarterback Chase Mason, and the emerging strength of running back Julius Loughridge and the "605 Hogs" up front.

From there, what is there to make of South Dakota's 49-24 win over Murray State, which has lost all of its nine Missouri Valley Conference games since joining the league last season, beside that Travis Johansen was right when he told John last week that his program has too strong of a culture to let the season go off the rails? (Here is Johansen's follow-up chat from Tuesday, with plenty of insight about his defense, penalties, playing violent, and an update on retired predecessor Bob Nielson).

The Coyotes have gone "back to the pack" of the rest of the MVFC challengers to NDSU and SDSU's supremacy, but where does USD, UND, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, and Youngstown State appear to be in the current picture?

Then, a recap of the latest, incredible chapter in the "Key to the City" series between backyard rivals Augustana and the University of Sioux Falls in which the Vikings came back from a 28-10 fourth quarter deficit to win 29-28:

• All of the crucial, compelling "swing plays" that built the Cougar's 18-point lead, then took it down
• The performance of true freshman Rich Lucero, Jr., in his first-ever college game, pulled from his redshirt and guiding the Vikings' three fourth quarter scoring drives after three difficult prior quarters
• The decision by coach Jerry Olszweski to pick Lucero over two other experienced Augie quarterbacks to put Augie's 5-0 record, top 10 national ranking, and bid for a third consecutive NSIC title and playoff berth all on the back of a true freshman
• The decision by "Coach OJ" to go for two points after Augie scored a touchdown with 1:50 left when an extra point kick would have tied the game, and the nifty reverse play that won the game
• How much did Augie seize the win and how much did USF blow it?

"Coach OJ," by the way, will join Happy Hour tomorrow (Thursday) for more of the anatomy of a legendary win, especially the Lucero decision and performance.

While Carson Wentz played "fine" in guiding the Minnesota Vikings to their own fourth quarterback in London in another "boring, non-descript" overseas game, what fascinated Zim more than anything on Sunday morning was Will Reichard's fourth quarter field goal kick that was veered off line by striking a seemingly invisible camera — and how nobody seemed to know what the hell happened for a while.

The episode ends with Zim's takeaway from Tuesday's Summit League men's and women's basketball media day, plus the battle between two native South Dakota head coaches in the WNBA Finals, Nate Tibbetts and Becky Hammon. As John mentioned to start Tuesday's show and Zim wrote in a Wednesday column, this source of Rushmore State pride has been decades in the making, a product of a state that has valued an supported girls and women's basketball since well before other states finally found it fashionable.