We're still a few months away from the kickoff to the 2025 college football season, but with the spring phase of the football calendar completed, Doane University head football coach Jonathan Johnson checked in with NCN's Tim Hackett to discuss the Tigers' winter offseason, spring game spotlights, and summer plans.

Since the 2024 season concluded with the Tigers' thrilling last-second win at Mount Marty, Johnson and the coaching staff have been busy building the team up in advance of this upcoming campaign. Over the course of the semester, the football program executed a small team challenge, where players drafted their own teams and competed for the internal Tiger Cup championship - this year's winners received team gear and dinner with the coaches.

The team participated in a weekly leadership class, executed by Johnson, and have engaged in more than a dozen service projects in and around the Crete community, on top of their academic pursuits. 

"We want to develop more than just a football player here at Doane," Johnson said. "We want to develop them on the field but we’re going to develop them off the field as well and in the community. We want to teach them about life after football, and it’s going to end for all of us one day, and we’re going to be a part of a community. And we want to teach them what that looks like. I’m proud of the effort that’s been given to develop as leaders – these guys care for each other, and they’re playing for each other right now, and we’re excited now to get our freshmen and immerse them into that culture.” 

Speaking of those freshmen, Doane's 2025 recruiting class features 55 newcomers, mostly freshmen along with a couple of transfers. About half of that group hails from Nebraska, and a total of 12 states are represented among the crop of newcomers, a testament to Doane's desire to both tap into a strong pool of local talent while also expanding the Tigers' footprint nationally.

"This has been a really exciting recruiting class for us. The addition of another full-time coach [former Colorado-Mesa All-American wide receiver Virnel Moon], and the fact that we were able to have this whole offseason to recruit has been huge," Johnson said. "They come from great programs that are competitive, that have won championships, that know what it takes to win, and will continue to increase that competition piece, but also the academics - and we're excited about what they're going to bring to fit our culture, and academically here at Doane, and help us continue to grow."

At Doane's department-wide end-of-year Athletics awards ceremony on Wednesday, special teams ace Kelen Meyer was named Team MVP, and linebacker Tanner Simdorn was crowned Male Scholar Athlete. As the spring semester ends and the team transitions into the summer, Doane Football will be hosting its annual golf event on June 23 in Eagle, Nebraska, with other alumni events still in the works for the upcoming year. 

And that all leads into the start of the 2025 season, Johnson's second at the helm of the Tigers, which unofficially begins when players report at the start of August and then kicks off in earnest when Doane hosts Hastings under the lights at Al Papik Field in Crete for the first game of the 2025 campaign on August 30.