By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

It hasn’t taken long for former Picayune standout Dante Dowdell to make his mark at Nebraska.

After transferring to the Cornhuskers from Oregon, Dowdell has played in all four games this season with two starts and he leads Nebraska with 51 carries, 256 rushing yards and three touchdowns while averaging 5.0 yards per carry.

Dowdell carried eight times for 55 yards and one touchdown against UTEP. He then set career highs with 17 carries, 74 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in a win over Colorado. Dowdell started against Northern Iowa and had six carries for 55 yards with a career-long 38-yard run as the Cornhuskers got off to a 3-0 start and a Top 25 ranking.

In an overtime loss to Illinois last week, Dowdell had a career-high 20 carries, rushing for 72 yards. He also caught the first two passes of his career against the Illini.

After a star-studded career at Picayune, Dowdell signed with Oregon and played in six games as the number three tailback for the Ducks in 2023 and finished with 17 carries for 90 yards with a touchdown run against Portland State.

During his prep career, Dowdell rushed for 5,301 yards and 65 touchdowns, helping the Maron Tide to back-to-back MHSAA Class 5A state championships. He was at his best in the state playoffs, rushing for a combined 1,491 yards and 21 touchdowns in the postseason in his final two years. Dowdell was selected as the state championship game MVP both his junior and senior seasons.and finished his prep career with 21 straight games with a touchdown.

In his senior season, Dowdell rushed for 2,165 yards and 31 touchdowns, with an average of 8.4 yards per carry and 166.5 yards per game. He rushed for 100 yards 12 times and had four games with more than 200 rushing yards. Dowdell ran for 241 yards and a career-high five touchdowns in a playoff semifinal game.

As a senior, he was selected to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and was the MHSAA 5A Mr. Football. He was chosen by the Mississippi Association of Coaches as a first-team all-state honoree and was selected to the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game roster.

Dowdell was a consensus four-star recruit and a top 200 prospect by Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN. He was ranked among the nation’s top 10 running backs by Rivals, ESPN and 247Sports.

Dowdell rushed for 2,555 yards and 28 touchdowns as a junior and was named the MaxPreps Mississippi Player of the Year, helping Picayune to a 14-1 record and 5A state title. He averaged 203.3 rushing yards per game in the state playoffs and finished with five 200-yard rushing games and 13 games with more than 100 yards.

Injury Bug

The first four weeks of the prep football season in the “Southern Six” has been marred by injuries to several standout performers.

Poplarville tailback Tylan Keys was hampered with an arm issue just before the season-opener and has yet to take the field this year. His status is week-to-week.

In Gautier, senior tailback Solomon Baggett broke a bone in his foot in game one of the season against Harrison Central and has been out of the Gator line-up since. Gautier head coach Marc high indicated this week that he hoped to have Baggett back in two weeks when the Gators start Region 4-5A play.

George County lost two of its top players in back-to-back series against Biloxi in week three of the current campaign, when five start Notre Dame recruit Deuce Knight went down with a leg injury followed quickly by his back-up and versatile stand out wide out/defensive back Brenn Moody soon after. Both are said to be week-to-week.

And, in Pascagoula last week, Panther senior standout linebacker and Louisiana Tech commit Jaylon Parnell went down late in a 21-7 win over D’Iberville and is expected to miss most of the next four-to-six-weeks.

Whew…

“Super 7” in the “Southern 6”

Every Tuesday through the first week in December, we will publish our “Super 7 in the Southern 6” weekly poll involving all 24 prep football teams in our coverage area.

The weekly poll is the only one in the state that is voted on by a panel of veteran sportswriters, a few selected area coaches and other media members.

This week is the Week Five rankings for 2024.

“Super 7 in the Southern 6”

1. Gulfport
2. Poplarville
3. Gautier
4. Pascagoula
5. Picayune
6. Biloxi
7. George County

(Others receiving votes: West Harrison,Ocean Springs, D’Iberville, Vancleave, Pass Christian)