Buck's Ballpark: Duncanville implementing a "dawg mentality" to enhance repeat title chances

Judging from season-opening win, Panthers not satisfied with last season's success

DALLAS, Texas - Keelon Russell expected the question. 

Rather inevitable.

After all, if you’re the quarterback of a team that won state for the first time in a quarter of a century, it’s a pretty good bet the question is going to come up rather expeditiously.

So the Duncanville junior quarterback was ready to provide an answer rather swiftly himself. It came in the season opener for the defending Class 6A Division I state champs, a dominating 34-13 win against another defending champion, South Oak Cliff of 5A DII.

“Winning state, everyone was like, ‘Keelon, you won state, but can you do it again? Can you do it over again, can you do it over again?’” Russell said. “So I really feel like (the South Oak Cliff game) was really to prove something, that we can go deep in the playoffs and win state again, so I feel like beating (South Oak Cliff) just set our standards really high.”

Four long touchdown passes. 380 yards thrown by Russell on the campus of future Atlantic Coast Conference member Southern Methodist University, also a school that is high on Russell’s recruiting radar.

A clear indication that Russell wasn’t resting on his laurels all offseason. But fellow Panthers, while still basking in the glow of the title win at AT&T Stadium right before Christmas, are just as eager to do it again - and prove last year wasn’t a fluke.

For senior receiver and LSU commit Dakorien Moore, who caught three of Russell’s long TDs in the South Oak Cliff win (the shortest distance covering 71 yards), the Panthers are just as hungry as they were last season. To him, the offseason was all about establishing a “dawg mentality.”

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“(It was) just discipline and a dawg mentality,” Moore said. “We won state, but it really doesn’t mean anything to us; we’ve got to go win another one.

“So, we’ve just really come back with a harder mentality than we did the first time and we’re starting off good already.”

One game in the books for Duncanville. But the road back to “Jerry World” won’t be an easy one, especially for a team now being the hunted instead of being the hunters.

“It’s something that we’ve already been looking forward to,” Moore said. “I’ve had a lot of bombs and deep balls last year, and they know my speed and they know my athleticism, so I might be getting (double-teamed), I might be getting (blanketed) probably 10 yards, 20 yards back, but it’s not anything; I’m still going to play ball and have fun with it.”

Duncanville is full of experienced players, some set to attend major Division I programs. That also includes tailback Caden Durham, another LSU commit who got the Panther repeat party started with a flash, in the form of a 68-yard TD on the fourth play of the season opener.

Not to mention senior Colin Simmons, considered the top edge rusher in the nation and a Texas commit. Like Moore, it was all about maintaining a “dawg mentality” and not think at all about last year.

And from the way Simmons says it, if you thought the 2022 edition of the Duncanville Panthers was scary; well, you haven’t seen anything yet.

“Basically, it’s (utilizing) a better mindset than we did last year,” Simmons said. “We’re trying not to just do what we did last year, but we’re trying to dominate teams and get to state and do something we didn’t do over the past few years.

“It feels good. I feel like we’re setting new goals, and it just feels great to have the same players that we’ve (been teammates with) since our freshman year and still dominating at this high level in 6A football in Texas. … I think we’re going to make some history this year, honestly, we feel like we can make some history and I stand on that.”

The Panthers will be playing on Saturday night as they have their home opener, taking on Rockledge High School out of Florida.

Another chance to let their “dawg mentality” out. And continue to counter the questions about repeating with emphatic answers.