FULL SHOW: USD DAY with Charles Pierre, Gabe Hardman & John Thayer

The more things change with USD Football, the more they stay the same.   The Coyotes begin the 2026 season — stop if you've heard or read this sentence a trillion times — with a third different head coach in the last three seasons.   Bob Nielson retired after back-to-back FCS quarterfinal appearances in 2023 and '24. Travis Johansen left to become Rutgers defensive coordinator after a third consecutive "Elite Eight" FCS showing in '25.   After each of those seasons, USD lost several of its best players on both sides of the ball to either graduation or the transfer portal. This season, steadying force and USD's FCS QB GOAT Aidan Bouman is not leading the offense for the first time in four years — USD's last season without a postseason.   And yet, the Yotes are the only team in the nation to reach the quarterfinals three years in a row and a fourth consecutive trip would not shock anyone.   Sure, it would surprise some, given the new head coach, new quarterback, mostly new starting offensive line, and a retooled defensive line.   Stop if you have heard or read this before — USD has so many "question marks" at key spots that, despite being among the nation's last eight teams standing three straight seasons, the Yotes start the season outside the Top 10 of the STATS preseason poll and are picked fifth out of nine teams in the loaded Missouri Valley Football Conference.    And yet, things feel solid and stable in Vermillion. Why is that? What is in the stable that makes new (and rookie) head coach Matt Vitzthum and many Coyote fans confident despite constant annual change?   Well, that's what Happy Hour's "USD Day" show investigates.   John Thayer, the seventh-year Voice of the Coyotes, has been around the program for nearly 15 seasons and has a broad perspective on what steadies a once-shaky program.   And, as someone who has inside-the-ropes access to the spring and August practices, Thayer details with the Happy Hour host what will make the Yotes tick in '26.   Then, a couple of veteran USD players who faced each other in youth football in Miami about a decade ago explain what they see and go against every day in the DakotaDome or the outdoor practice field next to it.   Running back Charles Pierre Jr. and linebacker Gabe Hardman also share this in common — being raised on football from an early age by fathers who played their sons' positions at the FBS level.   Pierre Jr. also shares a bond with fellow running back Keyondray Jones-Logan — the heartbreak and headache of early-season injuries that kept them off the field for a bunch of 2025 and the motivation of making up for lost time in '26.   The former details to the Happy Hour host the injury at Lamar that ended his season and subjected him to the training room while backup running back L.J. Phillips burst right out of the gate and finished as the top FCS rusher in the nation, which earned him an assumed hefty payday at Iowa.   After over an hour of insight, it will become clearer why the present and future look bright at USD despite the mysterious cloud of change once again circling the DakotaDome.