Doane picking up speed for 2020 football season

CRETE, NE — The Doane football team is sprinting into the 2020 season.

The Tigers kickoff the campaign against rival Concordia Saturday night at Al Papik Field.  Doane is coming off a 4-7 season in which it scored just 14.5 points per game.  Senior Wide Receiver Izaiah Celestine says you can expect a faster offense this fall.

“People should watch out for the Doane offense because we’re coming a lot faster than we did last year," Celestine said. "(There’s) a lot of on-the-ball this year, not really going into the huddle as much. (We’re going to keep) the defenses guessing.”

Not only is the pace faster, third-year Head Coach Chris Bessler says the players have more speed.

“We have good speed," Bessler said. "I think we’re a fairly physical team on the defensive side.”

Celestine is the guy bringing the quicks on offense. The big play threat led the team in catches and yards last year while averaging an impressive 21 yards per grab. He also took a punt back for a touchdown.

“I wanted to get a little more weight when it came to this year," Celestine said. "I wanted to be faster, too, so I put on about 30 pounds to make sure that I was durable.”

He’ll be catching passes from second-year starter Drake Davidson. Doane also returns its top two running backs.

On defense, the Tigers bring back three starters on the line and an experienced secondary. Senior Wyatt Bodfield says it’s a balanced unit.

“We got a great secondary coming back, we’ve got a lot of talent on the defensive line, we’ve got some young guys coming in at linebacker and they all look great,” Bodfield said.

Bodfield is a Crete native. He says his senior season carries extra weight.

“It really means a lot when you see people who watched you grow up and play for the high school and now play for the college team in town, too," Bodfield said. "We really just take a lot of pride and try to do everything we can to make everybody proud.”

You can listen to all Doane football games on Ol' Red 99.5 FM and watch home games on News Channel Nebraska TV.