John-o-logue: USD will fare better than SDSU at Montana, Jimmy Rogers is perfect hire at Iowa State despite "loyalty" concerns

A bonkers weekend of college football like this in South Dakota and beyond is why this show "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" was created almost exactly a year ago:   Content about the Jackrabbits, Coyotes, and FCS-at-large as juicy and delicious as the best Grade A steak you've ever had.   USD, good-for-dead and looking like a non-playoff team at 2-3 and 5-4, bulldozed supposedly the best team in the talent-fertile SEC territory 47-0.    Thanks to No. 3 Montana avalanching No. 14 South Dakota State, No. 1 North Dakota State's upset-of-the-century home loss to unseeded Illinois State, and unseeded North Dakota's 31-13 road defeat at No. 4 Tarleton State, the Coyotes are the only Dakotas team left out of eight.   And, now USD gets its shot at Montana. Why does Happy Hour host John Gaskins and the show's Monday afternoon quarterback Kurtiss Riggs feel the Yotes are more equipped to beat the Grizzlies in Missoula — "The Mecca of the FCS" — than the Jackrabbits were?   Hint: It's the exact reason why the Coyotes are still standing — and the Jacks aren't — in the first place.   Meanwhile, what now for SDSU? No. 1 on that long list is "what now for Chase Mason?" Riggs says agents have told him the uber-talented Mason will likely receive seven-figure NIL offers to be a Power Four conference quarterback, like the Riggs-estimated $2 million Mason's predecessor Mark Gronowski took at Iowa.   Mason not only stayed in Brookings when Jimmy Rogers likely tried to take him along with 15 other Jacks to Washington State. The Hurley native and Nebraska (baseball) transfer took the program into his own hands — along with Quentin Christensen — and personally helped new head coach Dan Jackson recruit back dozens of SDSU players and recruits who were also being tugged to WSU or other schools during the coaching change.    But now, big bucks and a potential better platform for NFL scouts to evaluate Mason could be in his grasp. Riggs remarks on if that step is needed, and Mason's current NFL stock.   While Mason's loyalty to SDSU (which nobody would doubt even if he leaves) will be put to the ultimate test between now and the Jan. 16 portal window closing, Jimmy Rogers poured gasoline on the fire for both SDSU and WSU fans who now mock and amplify the "I'm as loyal as they come" remark he made at his WSU introductory press conference last year.   Hear why both Riggs and Gaskins think the "loyalty" aspect regarding Rogers' two-bolts-in-one-year is overblown... and why Rogers is, in both men's opinions, the ideal hire for Iowa State.   Also with Riggs — why Alabama belongs in the playoffs over Notre Dame, why the Chiefs dynasty is over, and what to make of a field day for J.J. McCarthy and the Packers' win over the Bears at Lambeau Field.