Coming off a 47-10 loss to Coe, the Simpson College football team concluded their 2024 season at Bill Buxton Stadium against the Luther Norse, hoping to keep their perfect-at-home-record alive. The Storm capitalized on the hope with a 29-15 victory.
“It’s a great feeling in a lot of ways,” head coach Reed Hoskins said on going 5-0 at home. “Especially when you turn back a year ago, and we were 0-5 at home. So, that was a big first goal for our team, to win our first home game and celebrate in our locker room. And to be able to do that all five times this year was something pretty special for our seniors, that’s for sure.”

Over twenty seniors suited up and played their last snaps as members of the Simpson Storm football team on their home turf.
“There’s a lot of buildup to it and kind of the long goodbye, you know, to the end of the season and their careers,” Hoskins said. “It’s their last opportunity to put on a helmet and play the game they love with a bunch of their best friends when it comes down to it.”
Hoskins told the senior class before they took the field, “More than anything else, enjoy it and not take it for granted.”
One of those seniors included starting quarterback J Jensen III. As a sophomore, Jensen became the starting quarterback for the Storm and completed 202 of 361 passes for 2,365 yards and had 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. The following year, Jensen played in every game and threw for 2,904 yards, becoming the fifth quarterback in program history to surpass 5,000 career passing yards.
“He earned his starting spot again right when our staff got here and continued to work to improve all the way through, even just this last week,” Hoskins said. “That work ethic and passion for the game are things that will stay in motion here because of J.”
This year, Jensen surpassed 8,000 career passing yards against Buena Vista, becoming the second quarterback to reach the milestone. In the second game of the season against Crown, Jensen threw a 97-yard touchdown pass to first-year Noah Cracraft, which is now the longest offensive play in program history.
“I don’t know how I could forget it [the 97-yard touchdown pass]. It was just great,” Cracraft said. “As soon as we called the play, I knew that it was going to be successful either for me or Cole. . . . I saw J running down to me, and I knew it was a special play.”
During the game against Luther, Jensen’s first of three scores put his name down in the record books. Jensen broke the school record for career passing touchdowns with 78. He previously tied Taylor Nelson’s record (77) in the game against Coe. Jensen ends his career with 8,562 passing yards (2nd all-time) and 80 passing touchdowns. After Jensen broke the record, Hoskins told him, “Congrats. Let’s get back to work.”
“It [breaking the record] felt awesome. But, I was more happy that we got the win than me having the record,” Jensen said.
Jensen plans on still having football as a part of his life after graduating and wants to be a scout in the NFL or help with recruiting in the NCAA. Jensen stated that if none of that worked, he would return back to his home state of Texas and coach high school football.
Cracraft stated that being able to help contribute to Jensen’s broken record felt great. “When I came here on my official visit, he was one of the first guys to talk to me. He said he had heard a lot about me, so hearing that come from the starting quarterback, and I wasn’t even attending Simpson yet, meant a lot to me,” Cracraft said. “I worked with him over the summer quite a bit. He’s one of my really good friends. And it’s really sad to see him leave this year, but his legacy at Simpson will always be remembered, and I’m thankful that I got to play with him.”
Cracraft’s three touchdowns from Jensen put his season total to 14 receiving touchdowns in a single season, the most by a rookie in program history, and tied for the third-highest single-season total overall.
Cracraft accomplished one of his goals (scoring ten touchdowns) that he had set for himself going into the season. He hopes to receive an All-Conference recognition. He has already set his goals for next season, wanting to break Reed Worth’s 22 receiving touchdowns record and Dustin Kane’s receiving yards record in a single season.
Senior Joe Bream helped secure the Storm’s win against Luther with a five-yard touchdown run after a 10-play, 79-yard drive, and the Storm tied the bow on the victory with a two-point play.
“That [Bream scoring] was fun,” Hoskins said. “Joe is such an unbelievable football player. He’s been such a great leader, and it’s been fun to be able to use him in different ways and certainly have him carry the ball across the goal line for the last time. That was pretty awesome.”
Despite turning over the ball on downs in the first half multiple times, the Storm held the Norse to negative five rushing yards, which hasn’t happened in nearly two decades. The Storm also broke the drought of 21 years of not having an undefeated home schedule and finished the season 5-5 overall and 4-4 in conference play. They are now looking towards the future.
“We have a lot of development to do. The bar has been raised for our program and those expectations,” Hoskins said. “We’ve got a really young group after graduating all those seniors. There’s a lot of guys that are going to step into new roles so we’re really excited about it. A handful of guys have already been out there playing as freshmen and sophomores, and certainly, a lot of guys need to step up. We’re really excited about this group forming their own identity here, moving forward for sure.”
Hoskins thanked the community and students for their support, “It was a fun year, and I’m very thankful for the atmosphere every Saturday. It meant a lot and really added to it, so certainly very thankful to the fan base and specifically our students, faculty, and staff here on campus.”