Happy Hour with John Gaskins

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

There's nothing quite like reuniting with your old flame.
 
Will the fire blaze even brighter than before for Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings? The 38-year-old began his second marriage with the team on Wednesday, a day after they traded a third-round draft pick to Las Vegas for him.
 
The Happy Hour host thinks Cousins 2.0 will yield results as good as, if not better than, the six seasons "Captain Kirk" spent in Minnesota, which produced only two playoff berths and one playoff win. 
 
Why should it be better — maybe even Super Bowl material? The host makes his case as he tries to talk down from the ledge die-hard Vikings fans and Cousins non-believers like the Happy Hour video producer/
 
Then, a pair of Happy Hour guests have stories to tell about coaching against people they spent many successful and memorable years coaching with. 
 
 
Augustana coach Jerry Olszewski
Long before becoming the head coach at Augstana in 2013, Olszewski spent seven season in two different stints at Minnesota State-Mankato from 1993-2001 as an assistant. He wanted to be the next head coach after the second go-round. It didn't happen, and Olszewski decided to leave the profession and become the CEO of the downtown Mankato YMCA.
 
For the last 13 years, he has coached against the Mavericks. The man who got the job "Coach O.J." applied is still the head coach, Todd Hoffner. The Vikings are usually the underdog because almost every team MSU plays is the underdog.
 
Saturday, the Mavs came in 9-0 and ranked No. 3 and led Augie 30-17 midway through the fourth quarter. But "OJ" had quarterback Gunnar Hensley and a team that refused to quit. The Vikings stormed back and won 31-30, their fourth win in their last six trips to Mankato.
 
Olszewski explains how his team pulled it off, part of a five-game winning streak that has vaulted them to 8-2. The streak started with a lights-out, second half shutout of rival USF in the Key to the City game. Then came blowout wins by a combined 100-0 over Concordia-St. Paul and Southwest Minnesota State, making it 10 consecutive quarters without a point allowed.
 
Not bad for a defense that started the season as the NSIC's worst while the league's No. 1 offense carried the load. The Vikings are averaging 42 points per game with Gunnar Hensley living up to his first name, especially last Saturday during the legendary comeback charge.
 
Now the Vikings host Wayne State (8-2) on Saturday, possibly in a "knockout" game for a playoff spot. It's the perfect time to catch up with O.J. on Happy Hour to find out how Augie has turned the corner.
 
Jefferson HS coach Eric Struck
In his final season before taking over the Cavaliers, Struck called the offense for Sioux Falls Lincoln under head coach Jared Fredenburg and then-sophomore quarterback Brody Schafer.
 
All that produced was a state championship — the first for Fredenburg and the first at LHS in a decade.
 
Schafer has become the most productive quarterback in Class 11AAA history, surpassing brother Tate, whom Struck also coached for the two years before the title season with Brody.
 
But on Saturday, Struck will make calls for Jefferson's state-best offense (nearly 50 points per game) against the Patriots defense, which is called by his former boss Fredenburg. Struck may also have some pointers for his own defensive coordinator Ed Whiting in attempting to limit the slippery, lightning quick, laser-throwing Schafer.
 
Yeah, talk about a reunion. 
 
Struck describes what the week has been like preparing for that scenario and how the Cavs come bursting into the DakotaDome as the only team in their class to win every game this season, including a 42-14 whopper over Lincoln nine weeks ago.