BROOKINGS — It’s been over five years since South Dakota State’s Chase Mason was the starting quarterback of a football team.

From two devastating knee injuries, to a sporting change in college, and even having to rally the troops this past offseason, Mason’s college career will come full circle Saturday evening.

The former Viborg-Hurley four-sport athlete’s journey to QB1 started back in his senior year of high school when he tore his ACL on Aug. 28, 2020 in a game against Arlington/Lake Preston.

At the time, Mason was a highly-touted prospect in both football and baseball but was split between the two sports up until the injury when Mason chose his future on the diamond playing for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

“I played four sports in high school so I never truly experienced the grind of a college sport,” Mason said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, especially with COVID and everything. After I tore my ACL I said screw it and went to go play baseball.”

But that decision only lasted one semester as Mason had a change of heart, and found his way back to football, committing to the Jackrabbits in the spring 2022.

“I came to find out I didn’t love it to go and do it at that level but I always had the itch to go back and play football,” Mason said. “So I just said I’m going to do what I want, I don’t really care what anybody else thinks, and I haven’t looked back and I love it.”

Early in his first spring camp in Brookings, Mason suffered a setback tearing his right ACL for the second time. Between the injury and his return to football after over a year-long hiatus, Mason says it was a learning process to relearn the quarterback position.

“It was kind of like starting from scratch,” Mason said. “Even at that point I didn’t play football for a long time. It was a lot of learning and I honestly had zero clue what was happening and it was a lot of asking questions and learning from film.”

But Mason was able to learn and develop behind some veteran quarterbacks already in the Jackrabbit system, including the established starter at the time of Mason’s arrival, Mark Gronowski.

“It was definitely a growing process but Mark was a great mentor for me and all of the older guys at that time like Keaton Heide and Rudy Voss,” Mason said. “They took me in and kind of took me underneath their wing and helped me a lot.”

Mason was healthy for the 2023 and ‘24 seasons, but only saw the field in short spurts.

In 2023, he racked up 184 yards and two rushing touchdowns with 267 passing yards and one touchdown. In ‘24, those numbers only increased as the Jacks used Mason’s 6-foot-4, 240-pound frame on short yardage and two-quarterback packages.

He totaled 464 yards and six rushing touchdowns, while adding 133 yards and two passing touchdowns last season. Mason says he used last season as a chance to prepare like a starting quarterback to better himself for the 2025 season.

“I feel like I’m in a really good spot as far as just getting mentally prepared for the game,” Mason said. “I kind of took the time last year to prepare like I was going to play and was going to start so I‘ve kind of been used to the routine.”

While the Jacks fell short in the FCS semifinals last season to the eventual champion North Dakota State Bison, a major shift took place shortly after with two-year head coach Jimmy Rogers moving on to Pullman, Washington, to be the head football coach at Washington State.

With Gronowski eventually announcing his decision to transfer to Iowa, Mason’s duties as the leader of the Jacks got started before the new year.

Between him and fellow South Dakotan left tackle Quinten Christensen, the two spent most of their days early in the offseason trying to keep guys from moving on to another program.

“I knew it was my time and I’m a South Dakota kid,” Mason said on deciding to stay with the Jacks. “I love Brookings. I love SDSU and I really couldn’t see myself being anywhere else. I think me and Q (Quinten Christensen) were kind of just like you know what, we’re South Dakota kids, we’re going to do what’s right here.”

It was later announced that former Idaho defensive coordinator Dan Jackson would be the new coach of the Jackrabbits along with a plethora of other coaches who will lead the Yellow and Blue out of the tunnel Saturday night.

“He genuinely cares about us as players,” Mason said of Jackson. “Everyone kind of says that a lot, but he genuinely does care about us as people. It’s not always about football when you go talk to him. He’s just so much more personable than any coach I’ve had. His room is open anytime so any person,  any guy on the team can just go up there and talk to him whenever they want.”

After a full offseason as the starting quarterback of the Jackrabbits, Mason is ready to lead a new era of Jackrabbit football.

“I don’t feel that much pressure going into this game, it's more about preparation and I feel like we’re in a good spot this week,” said Mason.

Mason and the No. 3 ranked SDSU football team take on No. 14 Sacramento State Saturday at 6 p.m. inside Dana J. Dykhouse stadium.