Hooray! A premier Top 5 FCS showdown on Saturday — No. 3 South Dakota State at No. 2 Montana State!

The best of what FCS has to offer will be on display in Bozeman, Montana: Two regular national title contenders locking horns in the latest chapter of a heated rivalry with recent playoff history.

But are the days of this being an FCS game numbered? Will it be an in-conference FBS game (Mountain West, anyone?) within five years?

Happy Host John Gaskins thinks so, and explains why it will be a good thing for SDSU and its fans.

Meanwhile, former SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski's FBS debut was not a distaster, but it certainly was not dynamite against FCS also-ran Albany. So how on earth won't things blow up for Gronowski and the Hawkeyes on the road against No. 16 Iow State, which just blew out South Dakota?

Gronowski's history in games like this, plus the nature of Iowa's program and the CyHawk Series give us hints. So does Vegas.

The Cyclones made sure the Travis Johansen era at USD started 0-1. What does the first-time head coach make of it? And what now?

Johansen joined Gaskins for a 22-minute conversation to break down the trip to Ames:

• Early success, then "self-inflicted wounds"... How can they be fixed/prevented?
• Aidan Bouman — "things he'd like to take back"
• Offensive line's satisfactory performance
• Self-evaluation of first game as head coach
• Defensive breakdowns = ISU's size & length or USD mistakes?

Toward the end, a look ahead to an FCS road game at Lamar in South Texas, a program the Coyotes faced in 2023. What is similar, what is different, what should both the USD offense and defense be prepared for most? How the team will get ready for the scorching heat and steambath humidity?

Plus, a peek inside a sneaky-integral new aspect of the USD football program — a full-time athletic performance director just for football.

Finally — as inevitable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, Jeff Fylling's dulcet tones hummed through radio and internet airwaves on a college football Saturday in Sioux Falls last week as he sat in a booth and called an Augustana game at Kirkeby-Over Stadium.

But a year ago, that was as far from inevitable as possible for a man who has been the venerable Voice of the Vikings for 40 years.

Fylling sat out both the football and basketball seasons as he battled cancer, and for a few months he lived in Rochester, Minnesota, so his brother Bob could drive him to the Mayo Clinic every day for treatment.

Did the Augie alumnus ever worry that he would live, let alone ever put on a play-by-play headset again? Considering the latter did happen on Saturday, what were his emotions?

A Lennox native, Fylling fills us in on his year-plus "setback" with the same to-the-point yet thorough description listeners have come to expect as he "paints the picture" of Vikings football and basketball games.

His one-hour conversation with fellow Husker fan Gaskins at a mutual favorite haunt — Gateway Lounge — also threads through his childhood in Lennox, early Nebraska football fandom, then an encounter with an Augustana legend that changed his life forever and set him on a course to become the Voice of the Vikings. A major part of that journey was Fylling sitting alongside his mentor and Augie Hall of Famer Danny Olson for several years before assuming the lead role.

In his typical mild-mannered and matter-of-fact way, Fylling tells these stories with ease while also sprinkling in his favorite memories of Augie coaching icons like Jim Heinitz, Bill Gross, Dave Krauth, and current football leader Jerry Olszewski. A lot of those memories involve the good old days of the North Central Conference.

During and after the chat, you'll understand why Fylling was so flooded with well-wishes and prayers from so many in the Augustana and Sioux Falls communities while fighting through his "setback."