Small School Diamonds: Mark Gronowski Highlights | South Dakota State QB

South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski is one of the best small-school football players in the country. The Jackrabbits leader has an amazing arm talent and can crush you with his legs.

As a senior in high school, Gronowski completed 132 of 194 pass attempts for 1,663 yards with 15 touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 846 yards and 12 touchdowns. Gronowski committed to play college football at South Dakota State, which was his only Division I scholarship offer, over offers from Butler and Valparaiso, which play in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, and from Division II Quincy and Bemidji State.

Gronowski won the Walter Payton award as a junior, which is the Heisman in FCS. South Dakota State repeated as FCS national champions and he repeated as the Most Valuable Player of the FCS Championship Game after completing 13-of-21 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown with an interception and rushing eight times for 62 yards and one touchdown in a 23-3 win against Montana.

His accolades do all the talking:

• 2× FCS national champion (2022, 2023)
• 2× FCS Championship Game MVP (2023, 2024)
• Walter Payton Award (2023)
• First-team FCS All-American (2023)
• 2× MVFC Offensive Player of the Year (2020, 2023)
• MVFC Freshman of the Year (2020)
• 2× First-team All-MVFC (2020, 2023)
• Second-team All-MVFC (2022)