Grand View football hasn't lost a regular-season game since 2018, shows no sign of slowing

Grand View University football coach Joe Woodley sits in a chair in his office on an October afternoon before practice and reminisces about his team's most recent regular-season loss.

It was back on Nov. 3, 2018, against Benedictine College. Five years ago. Woodley can remember many of the details of the contest.

Woodley, the team’s offensive coordinator at the time, recalls a fourth-quarter situation in which the Vikings had an opportunity to take the lead. Grand View was around the Benedictine 5-yard line, knocking on the end zone, when the Vikings decided to call a sneak play that backfired.

“We fumble and they pick it up and go 95 yards,” Woodley says, shaking his head. “They pick the fumble up and score 95 yards.”

That was the last time the Vikings experienced heartbreak during the regular season. Woodley’s Grand View team has since rattled off 48 straight regular-season victories and has a chance to add to that total Saturday when the Vikings play at William Penn on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“The standard was set by guys from Day 1 when this program started and it’s continued to rise,” said Grand View offensive coordinator Derek Fulton.

The Vikings have been a dominant NAIA football program almost every season since their first campaign in 2008. Grand View, first under the helm of Woodley’s dad Mike, won a national title in 2013 and became nearly unbeatable during his tenure. When Woodley stepped down following the 2018 season, Joe, an assistant on the team, took over.

Grand View hasn’t missed a beat. The Vikings won 13 games during Joe Woodley’s first season in 2019 and advanced to the championship game during a 14-win campaign in 2021. They’ve rolled to undefeated regular seasons in each of Woodley’s first four full seasons and have carried that over into his fifth season with an 8-0 start this year.

A win over William Penn on Saturday would give the Vikings 49 straight victories outside of postseason play. They could make it an even 50 by following that up with a victory over Clarke to wrap up the regular season. NAIA officials don’t keep track of winning streak records. But getting to 50 would certainly be another marquee moment for the Des Moines program.

“It’s been an incredible run,” Woodley said.

As exciting as the success has been, there have also been some close calls along the way. The Vikings survived vs. Evangel in 2019 when they overcame a 14-point deficit late in the fourth quarter. The game ended with quarterback Johnny Sullivan firing a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ben Rooney with just 1 minute 8 seconds remaining. And last season, the Vikings needed a 52-yard field goal as time expired to beat Benedictine.

“It's been nuts,” Woodley said with a smile.

The success shows no signs of slowing down. The Vikings have been able to not only land some top talent but keep the bulk of their coaching staff to create a solid sense of continuity.

It hasn’t always been an easy task for the program that shares a football field with Des Moines East High School and had look for unique ways to land talent. But Woodley has figured it out.

The Vikings have focused the majority of their recruiting around Iowa and the Midwest. But Woodley has used connections his dad helped make coaching high school football in Texas to land players there. Woodley brought in Dallis Flowers, a cornerback from Chicago who played for the Vikings from 2016-20 before transferring to Pittsburgh State. Flowers is now with the Indianapolis Colts. The Vikings also utilized the transfer portal. They landed wide receiver Brandon Martin, a highly sought-after recruit who transferred from Arkansas.

Grand View’s current quarterback, Jackson Waring, was a coveted recruit at Des Moines Christian who began his college career at Illinois State. When things didn’t work out there, Waring came home. He’s been a big reason for the Vikings’ strong start this season, throwing for 1,953 yards and 25 touchdowns through the first eight games. Waring, who had a long list of suitors after him when he decided to transfer, understood how important winning was at Grand View after seeing the success of the Vikings.

“I think it’s just a culmination of what the coaches expect from the players and how well the players execute on the field,” Waring said.

The staff itself has been crucial, too. Continuity has been a staple, with Mike Woodley passing on the reins to his son. Most of the assistants have long ties to the program. Fulton was the quarterback on the national title team. Defensive coordinator E.J. Peterson was an All-American in 2010 for the Vikings. Jordan Knock, the team’s passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks and wide receivers coach, was a two-time Heart of America Offensive Player of the Year at Grand View.

Joe Woodley was a part of the program from its inception, helping create the team’s uniforms with his father before the first season. The success he’s had, first working under his dad and now as a head coach, hasn’t gone unnoticed. Woodley admits other coaching opportunities have come up. But he’s stayed at Grand View because it’s home to him and his family.

“I’m getting to coach football and kind of live where I want to live and my kids have been able to stay in one school,” Woodley said. “Not many guys in this profession are able to do that.”

Not many are able to have the success that Woodley has had, either. The Vikings, ranked No. 2 in the nation (behind Northwestern College of Orange City, Iowa), is poised to make another run at a national championship this season. And there are even brighter days down the road, said Woodley, who hopes the program one day has its own stadium on land the school purchased north of campus.

A new facility could give Grand View's recruiting efforts a boost. But winning does that, too. Woodley's formula has proven to work. Over and over again.

“It's been fun to be a part of,” he said.

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Grand View football hasn't lost a regular-season game in five years