DII Report™️: Harding football preview

With all the returning talent, Harding may be the team to beat in DII football.

It’s July, and the DII football season is roughly a month-and-a-half away. Now is a good time to begin breaking down some of the contenders for the coming 2025 season.

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While Ferris State is my incoming No. 1, Harding may be its biggest threat to repeating, especially now that they are in different Super Regions. Of course, the Bisons have been a strong contender for the past five years, having won the national championship in record-setting fashion just two years ago. In an era where returning, championship-experienced talent is a rarity, the Harding roster is loaded with veteran experience. This makes the Bisons a team to reckon with and one of my top picks to win it all in 2025.

Harding, a breakdown

Head coach Paul Simmons came to Harding in 2017 and has gone 77-15 during that span. The Bisons have missed the playoffs just once during his tenure, and they still finished 9-2 that season. In fact, Harding has finished no worse than six games over .500 since Simmons took the helm.

Of course, a large reason for this is Simmons’ seemingly unstoppable offense: the flexbone. The run-heavy, option-based offense uses a speedy quarterback and two or three running backs ready to run amok when, and if, the quarterback pitches them the ball. Quarterback Cole Keylon has orchestarted this offense as close to flawlessly as a quarterback can in his three years as the full-time quarterback, and with him back under center, the Bisons should run up big numbers again. Since Keylon has taken over under center in 2022, the Bisons have run for 3,809 yards in 2022, a college football record 6,160 yards in 2023, and 5,795 yards last year.

A stampede: The top Bisons’ returners

The offense is in prime shape. Not only is Keylon back, but running backs Andrew Miller and Braden Jay return as well. Miller and Jay were 18th and 19th in DII in rushing last year, respectively, with Miller turning in 1,086 yards and 16 touchdowns and Jay piling up 1,080 yards and 13 touchdowns. I have Jay pegged as the 2025 MVP due to his pass catching and return game capabilities. The key to all of this though is that three offensive linemen — Jake Mitchell (6-foot-2, 265 pounds), Cobe Williams (6-foot, 310 pounds), and Dylan Darling (6-foot-4, 300 pounds) — are all returning after all three were All-GAC last season. Knowing the intricacies of this offense and being able to move is a tremendous asset.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Defensively, Ty Dugger — who was First Team All-GAC a year ago — and D2 Football Elite 100 linebacker Clark Griffin are back to lead an offense that has some familiar faces as well. That’s trouble for opponents considering Harding posted the No. 1 total defense (200.6 yards per game) and No. 2 scoring defense (11.79 points per game) in 2024.

Newbies

There are two freshmen running backs that automatically become players to watch in this rushing attack. Ben Boehm redshirted last year. He is listed at 6-foot and 215 pounds and totaled 1,500 yards in his First Team All-State senior season in Michigan. Bo Williams is also a redshirt freshman, listed at 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds that is his Arkansas high school’s career rushing and rushing touchdown leader.

Harding looks to be bulking up that defense with some impact transfers. Lineback Luke Janack is coming in from Limestone where he had a monster season racking up 117 tackles (leading the SAC in tackles per game), nine tackles for a loss, two sacks, one interception and four passes defended. He could become a superstar in this defense. Jo Mahop is a 6-foot defensive back that spent time at Butte College and then Roosevelt last year. Chase Gratt is a big, 6-foot-3, 270-pound defensive lineman that recorded 17 tackles and four tackles for a loss for Bakersfield College last season.

"I really love this version of the Bisons, especially from a standpoint of all of the crucial intangibles,” Simmons said via email. “When it comes to work ethic, accountability and having a real desire to be an awesome teammate, this group is as good as we have ever had here at Harding, and that is saying a lot.

“When you are around this team, it is immediately obvious that these guys really love each other and have a strong desire to come through for one another. When that is the foundation of your team, good things usually happen. I really can't wait to see what these guys will do together this fall."