SE Athletics
Matt Thomas
DURANT – Southeastern football heads into the 2025 season picked to finish fifth in the Great American Conference Preseason Poll released on Tuesday afternoon.
The poll, voted on by the league’s coaches, saw the Savage Storm pick up 72 points in the voting, finishing four points ahead of East Central in sixth.
Harding was the preseason top pick with nine of the 12 possible first-place votes, followed by Ouachita Baptist in second with the remaining three first-place nods, followed by Southern Arkansas in third place.
Henderson State was fourth just ahead of the Storm, while Arkansas Tech checked in seventh, followed by Southwestern Oklahoma State and Arkansas-Monticello in eighth and ninth, respectively.
Southern Nazarene, Oklahoma Baptist, and Northwestern Oklahoma State would round out the poll in order.
SE returns 10 players who picked up All-GAC honors last season, six on the offensive side of the ball and four on defense.
DJ Brown led the Storm rushing attack with 784 yards on the ground, averaging 4.5 yards per carry with three touchdowns.
SE returns its top seven receivers from a season ago, led by all-conference picks Kobe Jennings, Victor Taylor Jr., and Andre Williams.
Jennings led the way with 30 catches for 518 yards and five touchdowns.
Gabe Corona, Matthew Nunez, Brown, and Jax Sternberger join the All-GAC selections returning at the wide receiver position.
Wrigley Kennedy and Dorian Maple also return on the offense line.
On defense, SE welcomes back four all-conference picks, led by top tackler Braeden Winters who racked up team-high 76 tackles with 8.5 for a loss and three sacks.
He is joined by Dylan Sebock who collected a team-best 45 sacks last season, as well as Jordan Hood and D’Teaurean Johnson.
Southeastern opens the 2025 season on Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. versus Arkansas-Monticello at Paul Laird Field at Spend Life Wisely Stadium.