At this point, most sports fans know who Jimmy Garoppolo is. They know he was drafted by New England, was Tom Brady’s backup, and is now the starting quarterback for San Francisco. Few, however, know that Jimmy Garoppolo one time had to play a game in Brookings, SD where he and his team got completely destroyed by SDSU.
It was November 24, 2012, the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the opening round of the FCS Playoffs, the Eastern Illinois Panthers made their way to Jackrabbit territory.
SDSU finished the regular season that year at 8-3. Their three losses in the regular season came to Kansas, Northern Iowa, and North Dakota State – all road games.
Eastern Illinois finished the regular season at 7-4, which was good enough to earn an opening round playoff trip to face SDSU.
Jimmy Garoppolo, who was a junior in college, was the starting quarterback for Eastern Illinois. Yes, this is the same 'Jimmy G,' who currently plays quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.
Garoppolo’s regular season numbers were solid in 2012 with more than 3,500 yards of total passing, 31 passing touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. However, his playoff performance against SDSU that year fell flat on its face.
The Jackrabbits stormed their way to an impressive 58-10 victory against Eastern Illinois. Heck, it was 34-3 at halftime, a game that is easily forgotten for fans of both teams.
Jimmy Garoppolo threw for 221 yards, one interception, and no touchdowns in the blowout loss for the Panthers. Eastern Illinois didn't even find the end zone until midway through the fourth quarter.
With as flat as 'Jimmy G' played in this game, it was ultimately the Panthers defense which allowed the most damage for Eastern Illinois. They gave up 434-yards of rushing and five rushing touchdowns in the game – 297 of those ground yards came from then future NFL running back Zach Zenner. He was also responsible for three of the rushing scores.
For as poor as Garoppolo’s junior season finished, he rebounded in 2013 by throwing for 5,050 yards, 53 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a 66% completion percentage. He also had four rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown in his senior campaign as well. His overall performance in his fourth year with Eastern Illinois won him the Walter Payton award, which goes to the top offensive player in all of FCS football.
The rest of the story is known. Garoppolo was drafted in the 2nd round of the NFL draft to New England in the spring of 2014, a place he called home until the midpoint of the 2017 season. The Patriots had traded Garoppolo, Tom Brady’s backup, to San Francisco.
Today, Jimmy Garoppolo is the 49ers starting quarterback, and on Sunday he’ll have the opportunity to play for the Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl. But let’s not forget where Garoppolo came from...
In the fall of 2012, he came to the state of South Dakota to play a playoff college football game. And it was a game in which Garoppolo and the Eastern Illinois Panthers got manhandled by SDSU.
