SD Mines football with new look this fall

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The South Dakota Mines football team will look slightly different come August.

In April, the Hardrockers introduced a new offensive coordinator, and have their eyes on a new starting quarterback.

Ryan Freeman will take the reigns of the Mines offense this season. Freeman comes from the University of Memphis where he spent time as and offensive analyst and assistant quarterbacks coach. He takes over for Ryan Gent who left for Northwest Missouri State after last season.

“He’s a great people person,” SD Mines football head coach Charlie Flohr said. “He’s willing to get to know our student athletes and knows what makes them tick. And from my standpoint, he’s going to come in and gel well with our kids offensively.”

New blood means new energy and a different vision, which can sometimes change the identity of a program. However, coach Flohr did his research and is super excited about this hire.

“He’s worked under the same, some of the same people I’ve mentored and looked at from an offensive standpoint,” Flohr said. “It made the conversations really easy, you know, from the interview process and getting to know him. He’s familiar with the area, he’s been in the area before.”

Second to a new OC, Mines is looking for a new man behind center. After this year’s spring game, four year starter Jayden Johannsen announced he’d be transferring schools to pursue a post-grad degree. This leaves the Hardrockers coaching staff with decisions to make.

As of now, their full trust is in fifth-year senior Jake Martinelli.

“Although he doesn’t have quite the game experience that we’ve looked for within a backup, but again he’s been in our system, he knows our kids and you know he works extremely well those guys,” Flohr said. “I know they’ve got a lot of faith and trust in him.”

Martinelli has been with the program since his freshman year, and now he’s finally going to hear his number called.

“He’s sat here for four years,” Flohr said. “He’s going to play as a fifth-year senior, and you know, he’s kind of waited his time, and you don’t see that much in college football nowadays. And it says a lot about this character, it says a lot about his faith and trust in us as a coaching staff.”

SD Mines kicks off the season at 6 p.m., Thursday, August 29 against CSU Pueblo.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KEVN. All rights reserved.