Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Every Friday, "South Dakota Sports Lounge" displays some of the most captivating and entertaining conversations from daily sports talk shows in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and Fargo. Plus, for this week, a full Gridiron Report discussion on the South Dakota high school football state championships.
 
Here are this week's segments:

 
Happy Hour with John Gaskins (Sioux Falls): Local TV football analyst Kurtiss Riggs picks apart SDSU's win at Northern Iowa, Chase Mason's improvements, and the Jackrabbits' chances of winning a national championship. Plus, what USD must do to maximize quarterback Austyn Modrzewski's abilities and the offense's output to earn a playoff home game (or even a bye). Riggs also breaks down the matchup between No. 1 Sioux Falls Jefferson and No.2 Sioux Falls Lincoln in Saturday's Class 11AAA state championship game.
 
Hot Mic with Dom Izzo (Fargo): FCS analyst Sam Herder tackles the hot topics of the week and looks ahead to the second-to-last week of the regular season.


 
The Nate Brown Show (Rapid City): Dane Mizutani, Vikings beat writer from the Pioneer Press, reacts to the Vikings' acquisition of Kirk Cousins. 
 
Gridiron Report - Mitchell Republic's preview of all seven South Dakota high school football state championship games in the DakotaDome.

Talk about a walkoff.
 
The last time she coached South Dakota's women's basketball team, Amy Williams twirled a net over her head while smiling and howling in ecstasy. 
 
This was after her Coyotes won the 2016 WNIT Championship in front of 7,415 roaring fans during the final basketball game in the history of the DakotaDome.
 
That win capped a memorable March and earned Williams a dream job at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska.
 
The whirlwind of wild wins and the opportunity of a lifetime feels like a lifetime ago to Williams, who is still coaching the Huskers.
 
The Spearfish native returns to her home state on Saturday when the No. 25-ranked Big Red face Kansas in the Marketbeat Invitational at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls.
 
It will be Williams' third trip to Heritage Court with the Huskers, who have reached three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and are off to a potent 3-0 start, partly fueled by South Dakota product Ashlyn Koupal, a freshman who is averaging 11.3 points per game and is the niece of USD's all-time leading scorer Mandy Koupal.
 
And more South Dakota talent is coming to Lincoln. On Wednesday, Sioux Falls Jefferson stud Brinley Altenburg signed her National Letter of Intent with Nebraska.
 
Williams spent almost 25 minutes with the Happy Hour host providing insight into those two South Dakotans, her own high school career in the Rushmore State — which included the unenviable assignment of guarding Becky Hammon several times — and how she slow-baked the Huskers into a consistent winner since leaving Vermillion.
 
Before the Williams conversation, the Happy Hour host had his weekly Football Forecast conversation with Sioux Falls Live sportswriter Trent Singer at the Orion Pub in downtown Sioux Falls. On the docket:
 
* South Dakota State's charge at a Top 4 seed (at worst) in the FCS Playoffs continues in Carbondale, Illinois, where the Jackrabbits are a 16.5-point favorite against a Southern Illinois squad that likely needs two wins in its last two games to clinch a playoff spot and is also staging Senior Day. It will be prolific quarterback D.J. Williams' final career home game. Are those elements enough to put the Jacks on Upset Alert?
 
* South Dakota hosts the Northern Iowa team the Jacks dismantled last week in Cedar Falls for the Panthers' first and only home loss all season. SDSU dismantled the Coyotes in Brookings the week before, but SDSU had a bye week to heal physical and psychological wounds. USD is undefeated at home. UNI is winless on the road. Should we expect a Yote romp?
 
* Augustana just beat No. 3 Minnesota State in a wild, for-the-ages fourth quarterback to thrust the Vikings to No. 6 in its region's rankings. One game remains, at home against Wayne State, who is also 8-2. It very well could be a playoff-before-the-playoffs game to determine which team makes it to the postseason.
 
* No. 1 Jefferson faces No.2 Lincoln in the 11AAA state championship game in the DakotaDome on Saturday night. The Cavaliers score about 50 points per game and shredded the Patriots 42-14 in their meeting nine weeks ago. 
 
But the Patriots have Brody Schafer, who has over 10,000 career yards and 130 career touchdowns and countless "holy bleep" moments when he takes over a game and takes your breath away. Jefferson coach Eric Struck was Schafer's offensive coordinator at Lincoln for a 50 point-per-game offense that won the state title and now must craft an offense to stay ahead of Schafer. Who wins?

the Happy Hour host had his weekly Football Forecast conversation with Sioux Falls Live sportswriter Trent Singer at the Orion Pub in downtown Sioux Falls. On the docket:
 
* South Dakota State's charge at a Top 4 seed (at worst) in the FCS Playoffs continues in Carbondale, Illinois, where the Jackrabbits are a 16.5-point favorite against a Southern Illinois squad that likely needs two wins in its last two games to clinch a playoff spot and is also staging Senior Day. It will be prolific quarterback D.J. Williams' final career home game. Are those elements enough to put the Jacks on Upset Alert?
 
* South Dakota hosts the Northern Iowa team the Jacks dismantled last week in Cedar Falls for the Panthers' first and only home loss all season. SDSU dismantled the Coyotes in Brookings the week before, but SDSU had a bye week to heal physical and psychological wounds. USD is undefeated at home. UNI is winless on the road. Should we expect a Yote romp?
 
* Augustana just beat No. 3 Minnesota State in a wild, for-the-ages fourth quarterback to thrust the Vikings to No. 6 in its region's rankings. One game remains, at home against Wayne State, who is also 8-2. It very well could be a playoff-before-the-playoffs game to determine which team makes it to the postseason.
 
* No. 1 Jefferson faces No.2 Lincoln in the 11AAA state championship game in the DakotaDome on Saturday night. The Cavaliers score about 50 points per game and shredded the Patriots 42-14 in their meeting nine weeks ago. 
 
But the Patriots have Brody Schafer, who has over 10,000 career yards and 130 career touchdowns and countless "holy bleep" moments when he takes over a game and takes your breath away. Jefferson coach Eric Struck was Schafer's offensive coordinator at Lincoln for a 50 point-per-game offense that won the state title and now must craft an offense to stay ahead of Schafer. Who wins?

Talk about a walkoff.
 
The last time she coached South Dakota's women's basketball team, Amy Williams twirled a net over her head while smiling and howling in ecstasy. 
 
This was after her Coyotes won the 2016 WNIT Championship in front of 7,415 roaring fans during the final basketball game in the history of the DakotaDome.
 
That win capped a memorable March and earned Williams a dream job at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska.
 
The whirlwind of wild wins and the opportunity of a lifetime feels like a lifetime ago to Williams, who is still coaching the Huskers.
 
The Spearfish native returns to her home state on Saturday when the No. 25-ranked Big Red face Kansas in the Marketbeat Invitational at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls.
 
It will be Williams' third trip to Heritage Court with the Huskers, who have reached three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and are off to a potent 3-0 start, partly fueled by South Dakota product Ashlyn Koupal, a freshman who is averaging 11.3 points per game and is the niece of USD's all-time leading scorer Mandy Koupal.
 
And more South Dakota talent is coming to Lincoln. On Wednesday, Sioux Falls Jefferson stud Brinley Altenburg signed her National Letter of Intent with Nebraska.
 
Williams spent almost 25 minutes with the Happy Hour host providing insight into those two South Dakotans, her own high school career in the Rushmore State — which included the unenviable assignment of guarding Becky Hammon several times — and how she slow-baked the Huskers into a consistent winner since leaving Vermillion.

NLA: Zim on Cousins-to-Vikings, Jacks resurgence, USD off bye, Augie's "playoff" game vs Wayne and more