Duncan Demons OK 2024 Team Preview

Get 25% Off Your Subscription By Entering Knight25 In The Coupon Code Area. Enjoy!   It's the month of August and we're continuing our preview series! Throughout the month of July and now into August, we are publishing well over 100 of the most in-depth team previews that you'll find anywhere to get you completely ready for the 2024 football season. This is something that began for us at PRZ-Oklahoma in 2021 and it continues to get bigger and better every single year. We're looking forward to diving deep into the top teams across the state in every class. From defending champions, to the top contenders and plenty of dark horses and other teams to know, we'll have complete coverage every single day. There will be multiple previews dropping every single day! In this post, we take a look at the Duncan Demons!   Duncan Demons   Preseason Prep Redzone Ranking: UR In Class 5A Preseason Coaches Ranking: UR In Class 5A   Head Coach: Matt Terry - 2nd Season - 1-9 Record At Duncan   2023 RESULTS (1-9 Record - Missed Playoffs)   Sept. 1st - Lost To Lawton 32-26 (OT) Sept. 8th - Lost To Guthrie 65-0 Sept. 15th - Lost To Piedmont 54-3 Sept. 22nd - Lost To Lawton MacArthur 59-28 Sept. 29th - Lost To Midwest City 48-17 Oct. 6th - Lost To Noble 41-31 Oct. 12th - Lost To Altus 33-14 Oct. 20th - Lost To Elgin 48-7 Oct. 27th - Lost To El Reno 42-28 Nov. 3rd - Beat Ardmore 28-27   2023 Offensive Scoring Average: 18.1 Points Per Game 2023 Defensive Scoring Average: 44.9 Points Per Game   About 18 months ago, Matt Terry was named head coach of the Duncan Demons and he returned to a program where he started his coaching career under Jim Holloway. He has had stints at other programs as an assistant and as head coach and in 2023, he returned to Duncan, looking to turn this program around. The first season was full of growing pains. They would finish the year with a 1-9 record as they started a lot of young faces. In a sense, it looks like they would tear this thing down to the foundation to start building it up again in 2024 and beyond. The season began with a tough loss in overtime to Lawton. And that would be the start of nine straight losses for the Demons. There were some close calls in there but they entered the final week of the regular season with an 0-9 record. They were playing Ardmore, who was also struggling as they transitioned back into the flexbone offense. Duncan would beat the Tigers 28-27 and avoid the winless season. There aren't many silver linings in a 1-9 season but not going 0-10 is definitely one of them. And like we mentioned, this was a team that was incredibly young and needed to learn how to compete and win games. This season, they have the potential to bounce back in a major way. There might be some more growing pains in 2024 but we believe they will take a step in the right direction this season.    2024 OUTLOOK   The Demons will look to bounce back in 2024 and they have about half of their starters returning from last season but the strength of the squad could come on the offensive side of the ball. Six starters return on offense and it's going to be led by the quarterback position. The Demons will have a junior quarterback that has the tools to be one of the better signal callers in Class 5A this season. And with the majority of his skill players returning this season, he should have a big year in terms of production and this offense should improve from what we saw in 2023. Defensively, the Demons will bring back four starters on that side of the ball and that's where the additional growing pains could come into play. They'll be young on defense and in some areas, they'll be inexperienced. But we like how the schedule sets up for Duncan this season to play competitive football early, take their lumps and then go into district play ready to make some noise. And we'll dive into this further later on in the preview but the district is going to be competitive but it's not an impossible road. It does feature three of the top six teams in our 5A preseason rankings but after that, there are several programs that think they could be that next team in the mix for a playoff spot. The Demons aren't that far removed from winning seasons and playoff appearances. 2024 could be the year that things turn around in a big way.    PLAYERS TO WATCH    Duncan has quite a few juniors to keep an eye on this season but we start with [player_tooltip player_id='1361501' first='Jayzen' last='Kortemeier'] and don't be surprised if he ends up standing out on both sides of the ball. Last season, Kortemeier emerged as one of Duncan's best defenders and coming into this season, he's the leading tackler that returns from 2023. He finished with nearly 100 tackles last season from the linebacker position and he was also productive and more importantly, versatile on offense. Kortemeier produced in the running game and in the passing game as a receiver in 2023. Coming into this season, we're fired up to see what he's able to do for an encore on both sides of the ball.     We mentioned earlier in the preview how the Demons could have an offense that takes a major jump and that's because of the return of their quarterback. Junior signal caller [player_tooltip player_id='437049' first='Sawyer' last='Rice'] is back after he had a roller coaster of a sophomore season. On one hand, he went through the growing pains of a 1-9 season. But on the other side of that, you have a quarterback that has a lot of talent and is quickly figuring things out when he's out on the field. The ceiling is incredibly high with him coming into this fall and beyond. Rice threw for nearly 1,400 yards and also added nearly 400 yards on the ground. He also played defense but for Duncan to compete, they need Rice to shine at quarterback.     Senior [player_tooltip player_id='1361502' first='Sincere' last='Young'] returns as a wide receiver and a potential ball hawk in the secondary on defense. Young is going to be right there at the top of the list for two-way players to watch out for with this Duncan roster. He had a strong junior season and he's one of the seniors that we have circled as a name you need to know heading into this season. Last year, Young would finish with a little over 300 yards on just 22 catches. We think that production from the receiver position gets a major upgrade in 2024. Then he turned around and was productive as a defensive back with nearly 40 tackles and a handful of pass breakups. Duncan has a few two-way players to watch out for but Young could be the best.    MORE NAMES TO KNOW   [player_tooltip player_id='1758067' first='Boston' last='White'] - 2026 Wide Receiver/Defensive Back Corbin Waid - 2026 Offensive/Defensive Lineman Garrett Henry - 2025 Offensive/Defensive Lineman Jacob Conn - 2026 Offensive/Defensive Lineman [player_tooltip player_id='1160828' first='Tavion' last='Holland'] - 2026 Running Back/Defensive Back   2024 SCHEDULE/GAMES TO CIRCLE   Aug. 30th - Bridge Creek Sept. 6th - AT Cache Sept. 13th - Guthrie - We mentioned earlier in the preview that the start of Duncan's schedule would challenge them and this week two clash with Guthrie is the ultimate measuring stick game to know exactly where they stand in Class 5A. The Blue Jays dominated this match-up a year ago but they were also hit hard by graduation. This is going to be a new look Guthrie team coming to town and if the Demons pulled off the upset here, they would take a ton of momentum into the rest of September. It would also be their first win over Guthrie since 2015. Sept. 20th - AT Shawnee Sept. 27th - AT Newcastle - District play is going to open up in week four and for the Demons, they find themselves in a district with only seven schools so they have to make the most of their six district contests. And it starts right here on the road when they face a Newcastle team that was bumped up to Class 5A back in April during the emergency redistricting shuffle. The Racers have a terrific running back but they come into this year after getting hit hard by graduation. The winner of this game will be in a good position while the loser will have an uphill battle. Oct. 4th - Southeast Oct. 11th - AT Lawton MacArthur Oct. 17th - Bishop McGuinness Nov. 1st - AT Classen SAS Nov. 8th - Midwest City - By the time week ten rolls around, Duncan is going to know exactly where they stand in terms of making it to the playoffs or if they'll just be playing spoiler for someone else. They'll host Midwest City and this will be the third straight year they've met in district play. Both of the last two meetings have been won by Midwest City and neither have been particularly close. But by the time week ten rolls around, we could see the Demons playing their best brand of football. And if they get a win here in the final week, they should be in the playoffs.   NOTABLE   We've published over 100 team previews since the start of July and the emergency redistricting shuffle in April has been a consistent topic. While there were a lot of programs that were put in worse positions because of it, Duncan is one of the programs that you could make the argument that they are in better shape now after the redistricting shuffle.They were going to be competing in a district that was headlined with heavy hitters like Del City, Elgin, Lawton MacArthur and Midwest City. Three of those four are in the top six of our 5A preseason rankings and if Elgin was still in Class 5A, they would be right there as well. It would have been a district with arguably four of the top six schools in the class. And now, they still have Lawton MacArthur and Midwest City on the slate in addition to Bishop McGuinness and Newcastle, but it definitely doesn't feel as daunting as it was prior to April.    LAST FIVE SEASONS   2023 - 1-9 - Missed Playoffs 2022 - 3-7 - Missed Playoffs 2021 - 4-6 - Missed Playoffs 2020 - 5-4 - Lost In Class 5A 2nd Round 2019 - 6-4 - Lost In Class 5A 1st Round   CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY   4 State Championships   1984 - Beat Bishop Kelley 10-7 1983 - Beat Broken Bow 21-0 1978 - Beat Jenks 32-13 1977 - Beat Stillwater 19-6

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