Freddie Retter, Shawn Collins Among Best Defensive Players In D2 Football

Here’s a look ahead at five of the best defensive players to watch in D2 football going into the 2025 college football season.

Jul 14, 2025 by Briar Napier

Freddie Retter, Shawn Collins Among Best Defensive Players In D2 Football

In less than two months, college football will return to our screens once again.

And after a busy offseason with plenty of transfer portal moves, program shakeups, and more, the best teams of NCAA Division II football are beginning to gear up for the 2025 campaign.

Some of the most productive offenses at any level of college football call D-II home, which means that defenses will need to be primed and ready for the amount of weaponry they’ll have to go up against on a weekly basis.

Some players returning to D-II ball this fall have already proven they can do that at an elite level, however, and five in particular stand out above the rest going into this season.

Here’s a look ahead at five of the best defensive players to watch in D-II football going into the 2025 season, part of FloCollege’s extended coverage in the leadup to kickoff:

Ricky Freymond, DL, Western Colorado

With another fall of Freymond, the Mountaineers have something that’s quickly becoming a rarity in college football, especially below the D-I level – returning star power.

The only Cliff Harris Award finalist from last year to come back to D-II football, Freymond, already WCU’s all-time sacks leader, will once again be a force in the trenches in Gunnison and enters the fall as the preseason favorite to earn the highest honor for defensive players in D-II.

The massive 6-foot-5, 265-pound California native had a monster season a year ago as he romped to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year while garnering multiple first team All-America honors, tallying a career high 12 sacks, 24.5 tackles for loss and 69 total tackles along with a pair of forced fumbles and kick blocks apiece. F

reymond’s choice to stay with the Mountaineers, especially considering he likely would’ve gained significant interest had he decided to test the transfer portal, is massive for a WCU team that went 11-2 overall and made the playoffs last season, and a Mountaineer defense that led the country in tackles for loss (117) a year ago now gets to retain its biggest disruptor up front.

Freddie Retter, DL, Kutztown

Kutztown’s reigning Male Athlete of the Year as a dual-sport star — earning national accolades in both football and wrestling last year — Retter is a busy man with a lot to juggle, but he’s got plenty of time left on his hands for terrorizing opposing offensive lines.

Stuffing the stat sheet as he led the Golden Bears to an undefeated regular season, Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title and trip to the second round of the playoffs, Retter finished his breakout season with 43 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, three blocked kicks and two forced fumbles in his redshirt sophomore campaign, winning the PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year and D2CCA Super Region 1 Defensive Player of the Year awards in the process.

Back for more on the gridiron after a successful side quest in the winter as an All-American heavyweight for the Golden Bears’ wrestling team, the 6-3 Retter should be spotlighted as one of the country’s top interior linemen this upcoming year as KU pushes for what could be a fourth season of 11 wins or more in five tries — and to be in the running for its first-ever national championship.

Clark Griffin, LB, Harding

Harding may be most well-known for its flexbone option offense that propelled the Bisons to a national championship in 2023, but the program wouldn’t be among today’s blue-bloods of D-II football if it didn’t also have an elite defense year after year.

Enter Griffin, the returning anchor of a Harding defense that was D-II’s stingiest in 2024 (national-low 200.6 yards per game allowed) and likely the best linebacker in the division going into the fall.

A former walk-on at Alabama before transferring to Harding ahead of the 2022 season, Griffin has twice since been named to the All-Great American Conference first team and earned an AP All-America first team nod this past season after 110 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. A reliable play stopper and big-game performer, Griffin acquired at least 10 tackles in five different games a season ago, also reaching double digits in the Bisons’ national quarterfinal loss to eventual national champion Ferris State.

Expect familiar sights out of Harding football this season with Griffin leading the charge on defense and another unforgiving rushing attack, both of which will be pivotal in the Bisons’ hunt for a second national title in three years.

Anthony Cardamone, LB, Grand Valley State

Few (if any) D-II football programs churn out talent like Grand Valley State, and the next potential NFL Draft prospect to come out of the Lakers’ vaunted setup might be waiting in the wings. Already a two-time All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference First Team selection, Cardamone will step into the fold this fall as GVSU’s leader on defense following the graduation of defensive back Ian Kennelly (who was signed as an undrafted free agent by the NFL’s Detroit Lions), looking to finish off his career by helping lead the Lakers to their first national championship since 2006.

Still, Cardamone had a great 2024 regardless, as he finished fourth in the GLIAC in tackles (80) — a total of 26 of which came in the Lakers’ two playoff games against Indianapolis and Harding — along with 8.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks at season’s end. Cardamone was also integral to GVSU having the third-best pass defense (121.6 yards allowed per game) in the country last season, and if recent history is any indication, the Lakers should be battling among the nation’s top teams once again as Cardamone aims to rise up as their skilled veteran playmaker.

Shawn Collins, DB, Emory & Henry

The joint-team leader in interceptions for a Wasps squad that led the country in interceptions (27) is back in the secondary for an E&H program with a ton of momentum following its best season since 1998. One of the main catalysts behind the Wasps’ surprise surge to a 9-2 record in 2024 (including a perfect 6-0 mark at home), Collins had a breakout campaign a year ago with six interceptions, eight pass breakups, 38 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, all career highs as he staked his claim as the best ball-hawk in the South Atlantic Conference.

Collins was picked as an All-SAC Mountain Division selection — named alongside the other three starters in the E&H secondary — and also picked up an honorable mention nod on the Don Hansen All-America team for his efforts, and comes into 2025 as one of the most proven defensive backs in D-II after many similar-caliber players in his position graduated or transferred in the offseason.

The Wasps haven’t made the playoffs since making the leap from D-III in 2022, but with weapons like Collins in the fold, there’s a serious chance of E&H making some history this season.

When Do The 2025 NCAA Division II College Football Playoffs Start?

The first round of the 2025 NCAA Division II Playoffs will be Nov. 22.

The 2025 Division II Football Championship title game will be played Dec. 20, 2025, at McKinney ISD Stadium in McKinney, Texas

College Football Rankings 2024 – Final AFCA Division II Coaches Poll

End Of 2024 Season

Ferris St. (Mich.) (27) 14-1
Valdosta St. (Ga.) 13-1
Slippery Rock (Pa.) 12-2
Harding (Ark.) 12-2
Kutztown (Pa.) 11-1
Grand Valley St. (Mich.) 11-2
Minnesota St. 11-4
Colorado St.-Pueblo 10-2
Central Oklahoma 11-2
Western Colorado 11-2
Virginia Union 10-4
California (Pa.) 10-3
Bemidji St. (Minn.) 10-4
Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) 10-2
Charleston (W.Va.) 11-1
Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) 10-3
Pittsburg St. (Kan.) 8-3
West Alabama 9-2
Indianapolis (Ind.) 10-2
Angelo St. (Tex.) 9-3
Wingate (N.C.) 9-2
Miles (Ala.) 10-3
Ashland (Ohio) 9-4
Central Washington 8-4
Augustana (S.D.) 8-4

Others Receiving Votes: Colorado School of Mines, 56; Carson-Newman (Tenn.), 47; East Stroudsburg (Pa.), 38; Central Missouri, 35; West Florida, 20; Southern Arkansas, 16; Fort Hays St. (Kan.), 14; New Haven (Conn.), 1; Truman St. (Mo.), 1.

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