The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick hitters, and commentary on various topics.
A new Daily Dose will be published multiple times a week.
Mark Gronowski Returns, Terrell Allen Enters The Portal
The window to enter the transfer portal and be eligible to play this upcoming fall closed at midnight last night for non-grad transfers. Grad transfers have until midnight tonight.
It’s crunch time for FCS and G5 teams to hold on to their star players as P4 teams and their NIL collectives make final efforts to convince them to transfer.
The FCS saw good news and bad news yesterday.
The bad news was 2023 Buck Buchanan Award winner Terrell Allen entered the portal. The Tennessee State defensive end was a force last season, totaling 65 tackles, 14.5 sacks, and 28 tackles for loss.
It’s a tough loss for Tennessee State, who will be in contention to win the Big South-OVC. The Tigers were 6-2 entering last November before losing their final three games.
The good news was 2023 Walter Payton Award winner Mark Gronowski officially announced his return to South Dakota State. While I felt confident, even going back to January, that Gronowski would be back, the speculation of him entering the portal wasn’t going to stop until the portal window closed or he made an official announcement.
And that’s what Gronowski did yesterday, tweeting a picture of the old Michael Jordan “I’m back” press release with the caption “Back to back to…..”
He’s, of course, indicating back-to-back-to-back national championships is the goal.
Gronowski threw for 3,058 yards, 29 TDs, and five interceptions last year along with 402 rushing yards and eight scores.
Gronowski, who will be a senior this fall, still has two years of eligibility remaining. The 2021 spring was a free year of eligibility due to COVID, and 2021 was his redshirt year as he recovered from a knee injury suffered in the spring national championship game. That leaves 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 for his four years of on-field eligibility.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder could test the portal waters next January, or perhaps declare for the NFL Draft. Or he could be a Jackrabbit again in the 2025 fall. All we know right now is the best FCS QB will be back in Brookings this fall.
The two-time Most Outstanding Player in the national title game could go down as the most accomplished quarterback in FCS history.
Gronowski is 37-3 as a starter, or 37-2 if you throw out the 2021 spring championship game when he got hurt early, or 37-1 if you exclude a road loss at P5 Iowa. His last loss to an FCS team was at UND on Feb. 27, 2021. Weird.
Gronowski is 13 wins away from breaking the FCS record for QB victories, which is currently held by NDSU’s Easton Stick (49-3 record).
The Jacks lose some high-end talent from last year. Eight players have signed NFL rookie contracts (two draft picks, six UDFA deals). But they’ll still be the preseason favorites for another national championship. The defense should remain top-tier. Offensive weapons won’t be an issue with the talent on the roster. The o-line is the main question mark, needing to replace three starters.
SDSU had a historic senior class in 2023. Veteran leadership will be strong again this fall with 28 seniors.
Hampton Makes A Head Coaching Change
Yesterday, it was announced Robert Prunty was no longer the Hampton head football coach.
Director of Athletics Anthony D. Henderson Sr. announced that Robert Prunty is no longer with Hampton University and the Pirate Football program.
Running backs and special teams coach Trent Boykin, a veteran of 28 years of collegiate coaching experience including 10 years on the FBS level at Akron, Boston College, and Ball State, will serve as interim head coach for the 2024 season.
Quite the odd timing for a coaching change, so we’ll see what else comes out on this and why this happened now.
Hampton has struggled in its first two seasons in the CAA, going 4-7 (1-7 in conference) in 2022 and 5-6 (3-5) last year. Prunty was 26–29 overall as Hampton’s head coach.
This marks the 30th FCS head coaching change before the 2024 season.
Other Daily Doses
FCS In The NFL Draft Trends, Grad Transfers Now Have A Portal Window, NDSU’s Eli Green Enters Portal … READ MORE
Increase In Playoff Seeds Gets Key Approval + Braedon Sloan Enters Portal + NDSU-Colorado Moved To Thursday … READ MORE
UND & NDSU Now Have 3 Ways To “Pay” Athletes … READ MORE
