Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Imagine, if you will:   One of the greatest, most electric, most prolific football players in South Dakota State University history almost never played football.   That was a shocking revelation during Cade Johnson's 72-minute Happy Hour chat on Tuesday.   In the first 28 minutes, we catch up with Johnson's life now. He's in pro football limbo while working in Omaha, the metro area he grew up.   H...

He shared plenty of stories about the Jackrabbit A-listers he played with (and for) during his 2016-19 career, making the hour-plus chat worthwhile:   John Stiegelmeier Dan Jackson Jason Eck Eric Eidness Taryn Christion Dallas Goedert Jake Weineke   The explosive wideout from the Omaha area was a first-team All-American in his third and final season wearing blue and yellow in 2019, and he owns the...

Imagine, if you will:   One of the greatest, most electric, most prolific football players in South Dakota State University history almost never played football.   That was a shocking revelation during Cade Johnson's 72-minute Happy Hour chat on Tuesday.   He shared plenty of stories about the Jackrabbit A-listers he played with (and for) during his 2016-19 career, making the hour-plus chat worthw...

The Jackrabbits hoisting a comined 20 men's and women's basketball tournamemt championships in packed Denny Sanford PREMIER Centers, and their 20 subsequent memorable trips into March Madness.   The Coyote women going through four such experiences of their own.   SDSU football not just joining the FCS ranks, but becoming back-to-back national champion. USD finding its groove in Div. I and reaching...

The latest sign that North Dakota State's plunge into the FBS is for real came last week at Mountain West conference football media days.   The Bison were the new kids in town, but not necessarily the belles of the ball. That distinction went to UNLV, the hometown team of the new site of the media day event and the league offices.   As their Dakota school rival fans watch the Bison's maiden voyage...

Sioux Falls was the mid-summer "work vacation" destination for head coaches and select players in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, including the Jackrabbits and Coyotes.    On the slate— a trip to Great Shots for some golf games and high-end downtown dining at Parker's Bistro.   Meanwhile, it was "Viva, Las Vegas" for long-time MVFC kingpin North Dakota State. You can imagine what kinds of...

One way to beat the sweltering, sports-dead dog days of Mid-July is to have a conference football media day event.   Players and coaches all over the Missouri Valley Football Conference gave local sports fans something to talk and read about, and both Sioux Falls Live and Happy Hour dug in their heels on Tuesday and Wednesday -- ample coverage you'll find on this site.   Another way to smother the...

It is Mid-July, the Sahara Desert of the summer sports calendar.   If you've had a deep thirst to hear about football, Tuesday in the Sioux Falls Pentagon was the time and day to quench it.   Behold, Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day 2026.   All nine teams sent one coach and two players to talk about... well, whatever the media asked them. The men were sent through a car wash of report...

Here is the first part of our 3-part Happy Hour today. We begin with our chat with the University of South Dakota football coach and players from Tuesday's MVFC media. You'll then hear from two other Missouri Valley teams before Zach Borg chats with UNI's coach and Illinois State's running back. Enjoy!

It is Mid-July, the Sahara Desert of the summer sports calendar.   If you've had a deep thirst to hear about football, Tuesday in the Sioux Falls Pentagon was the time and day to quench it.   Behold, Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day 2026.   All nine teams sent one coach and two players to talk about... well, whatever the media asked them. The men were sent through a car wash of report...

The Youngstown State quarterback who racked up 4,702 total yards and 53 total touchdowns to win the "Heisman Trophy of the FCS" is a hometown kid (from 15 miles away). His father is the only QB in YSU history to direct the Penguins to two national titles. So, did Beau grow up always wanting be a QB? Did he always want to play for YSU? Is his allegiance to the town and college the main reason why h...

Being a college football coach can be all-consuming and time-absorbing. In their scant down times, different coaches find different ways to get away from it all. For USD's first year head coach Matt Vitzthum, one of his comfort outlets was a dark and raunchy comedy show from the late 2010's. Hint: The main character on the show about a baseball announcer had a signature sport jacket that looked a...

Yes, SDSU is the favorite to win the MVFC, with 28 of 36 first place votes. Yes, the Jacks feel like the new kingpin of the league with NDSU gone. And yes, they'll miss the rivalry. But on Happy Hour, we're not here to talk to Dan Jackson about these things on MVFC Media Day. Others did. You'll hear those topics with Dan and the players he brought, Chase Mason and Logan Green. Let's have some fun...

North Dakota's head coach played linebacker on a Div. II national championship team in 2001. So, Eric Schmidt has lived UND's heyday. Now he is in his second season as head coach, trying to turn it from a perennial 7-5 FCS team into a national champion. What did he take from years with Dale Lennon at both UND and Southern Illinois, where as a young assistant Schmidt met USF legend and Alabama coac...

Illinois State is not the easiest place to be a head football coach. Well, no school outside of the Dakotas is an easy place to coach in the MVFC. But 18th year Redbirds coach Brock Spack learned from a master of taking a difficult job and creating a masterpiece. Joe Tiller was a coaching mentor of Spack's at Purdue as a player in the 1980's, then as Spack's boss with the Boilermakers during Tille...

Now in his 10th season at Indiana State, Curt Mallory is coming off a 3-9 season that featured one incredible win at South Dakota State. But we didn't talk about that. You can hear about that in tomorrow's show from Mallory's conversation with Matt Zimmer and Marcus Traxler.   No, today, it is Big Ten legends storytime.

Zach Borg goes 1-on-1 with the Fighting Hawks quarterback who emerged from seemingly out of nowhere to become one of the best in the league, but feels like he has a lot more in store in 2026. Then, MVFC commissioner Jeff Jackson responds to questions about the league's current nine-team makeup now that NDSU has left. Is the Valley looking to expand back to 10?

The recount is in. Sioux Falls has a new mayor. Christine Erickson is the first female leader in city history.   Well, probably. Probably the mayor, that is.   Turns out Erickson won the election runoff against Jamie Smith by four votes instead of two — that's out of about 37,000 votes — after the recount that ended last week.   But why isn't her inauguration a done deal, as of Monday night?   Tha...

The recount is in. Sioux Falls has a new mayor. Christine Erickson is the first female leader in city history.   Well, probably. Probably the mayor, that is.   Turns out Erickson won the election runoff against Jamie Smith by four votes instead of two — that's out of about 37,000 votes — after the recount that ended last week.   But why isn't her inauguration a done deal, as of Monday night?   Tha...

North Dakota State played a game of "Let's Make a Deal," and now Bison athletes will literally wear the deal.   And likely, so, too, will Jackrabbit and Coyote athletes. Someday.   On Monday, NDSU athletics announced a multi-year partnership with a local corporation to wear that company's logo on all of its athletic uniforms for lots and lots of money — all in the name of staying competitive natio...

The man who changed the face of South Dakota State football isn't John Stiegelmeier.   It was the head coach who preceded Stig: Mike Daly.   At least, that is what Stigelmeier said in his recently-released biography book  Stig & The Rise of South Dakota State Football  by Tanner Castora. A Fairmont, Minnesota, and Augustana football standout, Daly was a young SDSU defensive coordinator when he hir...

Nobody prepares to be diagnosed with cancer.   But nobody seems better equipped to handle and battle it than Nate Malchow.   After 40 years of competing and coaching sports (and some music) at a high level and with unrelenting focus and conviction, Malchow says he had the right mindset to tackle the chemotherapy, radiation, physical and mental fatigue, worries and doubts, and ability to keep loved...

Nobody prepares to be diagnosed with cancer.   But nobody seems better equipped to handle and battle it than Nate Malchow.   After 40 years of competing and coaching sports (and some music) at a high level and with unrelenting focus and conviction, Malchow says he had the right mindset to tackle the chemotherapy, radiation, physical and mental fatigue, worries and doubts, and ability to keep loved...

News flash: North Dakota State is no longer in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.   Safe to say, the league is now up for grabs without the team that won 12 titles in 15 years, right?   Or will South Dakota State just perk back up to No. 1, as the Jackrabbits did for three out of four seasons in 2020-23?   That's one MVFC topic the Happy Hour host and Sioux Falls Live sports reporter Trent S...