Three keys for Northwestern football vs. South Dakota State

Northwestern kicks off the 2026 season with a matchup that carries a lot more weight than the Week 1 tune-ups of the rest of its Big Ten compatriots. South Dakota State isn't some cupcake off the FCS ranks looking to cash a paycheck. The Jackrabbits are ranked No. 2 in their subdivision, they won back-to-back national titles in 2022 and 2023 (in large part because of Zach Lujan, regardless of how his NU tenure went) and they just finished torching Stetson 70-7 in their own opener. On top of that, this is the debut of Chip Kelly as Northwestern's offensive coordinator and the first live snaps of Aidan Chiles' Wildcats career, all happening in a temporary stadium before the real Ryan Field opens up in October.

There's a lot on the table in this early-September Saturday night matchup. Here are the three keys for NU that could decide how this one goes:

1. Establish the run and spread the workload across the whole room

Chip Kelly has never been the coach who wants to throw the ball 40 times a game, and his track record backs that up everywhere he's gone, especially when you focus specifically on this decade. His 2022 UCLA offense set a school record at 503.6 total yards a game while leading the Pac-12 in rushing at 237.2 yards a contest, which was sixth nationally. The year before that his Bruins ranked 14th in the country on the ground. When he went to Ohio State in 2024, his physical run game behind Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson established the identity that propelled the offense to a national title, ensuring they didn't have to constantly lean on the passing game to bail them out. Kelly himself put it simply this offseason, saying his approach starts with figuring out what his personnel does well and building around it. The RBs need to take this opportunity to give him something to figure out.

In any new offense, starting off with an emphasis on the ground game is a reasonable bet, but it's especially important with THIS one. If Northwestern is going to dispatch South Dakota State, it needs to do it on the backs of its running back room. Besides Griffin Wilde, there are two real strengths on this side of the ball right now, and neither one is Aidan Chiles just yet. The left side of the offensive line, with Grant Seagren, Ezomo Oratokhai and Jackson Carsello all lined up next to each other, projects as one of the better units in the conference, and the running back room behind them might be the deepest it's been in years.

Chiles' progression is obviously the key to whatever Northwestern wants to accomplish this season, but nobody needs to see that today. He's talented, but he's already played for two other programs before landing at Northwestern, and he's had less than a full offseason to get comfortable in Kelly's system. Nobody in Evanston needs him going 20-for-25 tonight for this to work. What he needs is a run game that keeps the offense on schedule and takes the pressure off him early, and Northwestern has the pieces to do exactly that.

Caleb Komolafe broke out in a real way last season, netting 1,001 all-purpose yards on 190 carries with 11 touchdowns, both the most by any back in the Braun era and the first time a Wildcat cracked 900 rushing yards since Evan Hull in 2021. Joe Himon II, one of the team's six captains this year, ran for 486 yards and caught 21 passes for another 118 last season. He's already shown he can handle a lead role himself, piling up 103 yards in their 2025 win at Penn State. Then there's Gavin Sawchuk, who many on our staff have tabbed as a breakout candidate himself. The guy ran for 486 yards and eight touchdowns last year. He also 1,463 career yards and 19 touchdowns total to his name between his time at Oklahoma and Florida State. David Braun said as much himself at Big Ten Media Days this summer, calling the running back room a real strength of the team with Komolafe, Himon and Sawchuk all sharing space in it, and that's not just coach-speak when the résumés back it up. If Northwestern wants control of this game early, it comes from rotating that depth in and wearing down an FCS front physically before it has a chance to adjust. Even if Komolafe eventually separates himself, in week one that happens by not asking one guy to do it all himself.

2. Take away Chase Mason's legs before he beats you with them

Chase Mason isn't just a name on the other sideline tonight. He's a 6-foot-4, 240-pound dual threat quarterback on the preseason Walter Payton Award (FCS OPOY) watch list, and even in a season cut short to nine starts by injury he led South Dakota State to an 8-1 record in those starts and accounted for 21 total touchdowns, 15 through the air and six more on the ground, while completing 64.9 percent of his throws for 2,005 yards. That resume alone is reason enough for Northwestern's front seven to circle his number all week.

What's worth watching closely is how little the Stetson tape actually tested him. South Dakota State piled up 628 yards of offense in that 70-7 win, but Mason himself only threw the ball 10 times all night, completing five for 157 yards and hitting a 73-yard touchdown on the very first snap of the season, and he barely had to move outside the pocket because Stetson's defense collapsed immediately while the Jackrabbit running backs did most of the damage on the ground. Northwestern hasn't actually seen him forced off schedule yet this season, which means the pressure the Wildcats generate tonight matters more than whatever coverage scheme they dial up behind it. Getting him moving laterally in the pocket is what turns a dangerous dual threat into an average one, since accuracy drops for any quarterback once he's on the move, talented or not.

And if Mason does break contain and picks up yards with his legs, Northwestern has more than one answer waiting for him. Robert Fitzgerald leads the way. He led the Big Ten in solo tackles last season with 70 and finished with 115 total tackles, an interception and four pass breakups, the kind of season that got him voted the program's No. 1 jersey by his own teammates, the highest honor Northwestern hands out. But he won't be the only one out there. Braydon Brus, another of the team's six captains, set career highs at linebacker a year ago with 81 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, exactly the kind of player who can get to Mason before he ever has a chance to create anything. And if Mason does slip past the front seven, strong safety Damon Walters gives Fitzgerald more help than he had for most of last season. Walters earned All-Big Ten honors in 2024 before a season-ending injury wiped out most of his 2025, and he's back now to pair with Fitzgerald at the back end. If Mason gets loose, that group is built to turn it into a five-yard gain instead of a backbreaking one.

3. Respect South Dakota State, but don't undersell yourselves either

UMass took down Rutgers in incredible fashion on Thursday night, in Piscataway, as nearly 30-point underdogs. With no skin in the game, it is awesome to see a team that hadn't won a game in almost two years take down a Big Ten foe. That said, it is also a stark reminder of exactly what not to let happen, and it's something Northwestern cannot shrug off heading into a game against a team with two national championships to its name.

So yes, South Dakota State deserves real respect. The Jackrabbits won back-to-back FCS titles in 2022 and 2023, they've made the playoffs 14 straight years, and they've beaten FBS opponents before, taking down Kansas in 2015 and Colorado State in 2021. David Braun isn't the kind of coach who needs a reminder about any of that, and his players shouldn't either. But there's a difference between respecting an opponent and forgetting who you are, and Northwestern has the better coaching staff in this specific matchup, full stop, with an offensive coordinator who won a national title at Ohio State and took Oregon to a national championship game as a head coach. The Wildcats also have more talent at nearly every position than a program that, as good as it is at its level, is still playing a level down.

It would be easy for Northwestern to treat tonight like some kind of lesser occasion. It's non-conference, there's no marquee name on the other sideline that casual fans recognize, the students haven't even moved back to campus yet and the team is still playing in the temporary stadium instead of the finished product waiting across town. None of that should matter. A home game is still a home game, and Northwestern should still be the better team regardless of what's surrounding it. If anything, playing in the temporary setup by the lake might work in the Wildcats' favor more than against them, since this team already knows exactly how the wind off the water affects the passing and kicking game in a way the Jackrabbits have no way of preparing for.

Nobody needs to be told twice not to overlook South Dakota State. The real danger is spending so much energy on that warning that Northwestern forgets to just go be the better team it actually is.