Frank Gore Jr. and his father wanted him to play for the Buffalo Bills

ORCHARD PARK – Frank Gore Jr. appreciated that on Friday afternoon, the first day of Buffalo Bills rookie camp, the weather – while not ideal – was not the same as last time that he was here.

It would have been late in the 2019 NFL season, when his father, Frank Sr., was finishing his one and only year with the Bills in which he shared playing time with rookie Devin Singletary.

“Oh, it was awesome,” Frank Jr. said Friday during the first day of the Bills’ rookie minicamp. “I came to love three games. It was cold when they played the Jets at the end of the season. But I loved this place – what do they say, “Hey, hey, hey, hey.” Yeah, I loved that. It’s like one of the most enthusiastic places I’ve ever been.

Sign up for the Bills Blast newsletterDelivered straight to your inbox, additional analysis of invoices, information, statistics, quotes and history from the Sal Maiorana team.

During this 2019 season, Frank Sr. rushed for 599 yards and helped the Bills return to the playoffs in Josh Allen’s second season as quarterback. Now his son, who signed with the Bills as an undrafted free agent, will attempt to follow in his famous father’s footsteps by finding a way to make the 2024 Bills.

“Coming into the draft, this was the place we wanted to be,” said Frank Jr. “My dad had nothing but good things to say about this organization, so I’m happy to be here. This is an excellent organization in every way.

And what’s interesting is that Gore Sr. – who ranks third in NFL history with 16,000 rushing yards and will likely one day be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame – now works at a advisory role with the 49ers on whom he spent the most. of her career. Yet when it came time for his son to decide where he should try his luck at NFL glory, Buffalo was the place he preferred.

“He said they’re great people here, he knows they’ll take care of me and he knows coach (Kelly Skipper) will push me to be the best I can be,” Frank Jr. said. “He just talks about the people in this organization and (GM Brandon) Beane and everyone around the organization.”

Shortly after his son was offered the chance to join the Bills after no team chose him in the draft, Frank Sr. happily told CBS Sports“Was good. We’re going to Buffalo to do our thing. Tell them they better be ready, believe me. I know what I’m raising. People slept on my son; they slept on me also. They will see. My bloodline is real. Our tests (pre-draft) were identical. All the scouts said this is the real deal. . We come to play.

Frank Jr. learned during his college football recruiting experience, and now again in the draft, that his name would only take him so far.

The year Frank Sr. was in Buffalo, Frank Jr. was in his senior year playing quarterback and running back and leading Miami Killian High School to the Florida 5A state playoffs where they ultimately lost against Miami Northwestern. He rushed for 1,111 yards, threw for 213 yards and had 15 total touchdowns, but likely due to his 5-foot-7, 198-pound frame, the only Power-5 school to extend a scholarship offer was Kentucky. He also received interest from Atlantic Florida and South Mississippi and ultimately chose Southern Miss.

In Conference USA, Gore made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting seven of the 10 games he played in and totaling 708 rushing yards, and he followed that up with an 801-yard sophomore season. But even though he did a good job, it didn’t seem like he would get the chance to realize his own NFL dream.

Things started to change in 2022, however. He rushed for 1,392 yards and nine touchdowns, caught 19 passes for 219 yards and totaled nine touchdowns, and after turning down offers from Power-5 schools now intrigued to throwing into the transfer portal, he stuck with Southern Miss and finished his career in 2023 rushing for 1,131 yards, catching 27 passes for 221 yards and scoring 13 touchdowns.

“I’m not one to chase everything the Power-5 schools offered me,” he said of his decision to stay out of the portal. “At Southern Miss, I had a great coach who prepared me to become the man I am today. Taught me a lot of things about life and I loved my teammates and it was an opportunity for me to continue growing as a person and as a player, without distractions, away from everything and ultimately it worked .

His strong senior season earned him an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas, and Gore won the Offensive MVP award by breaking for a 49-yard touchdown run and finishing with 87 yards to lead the West to a 26-11 victory. .

Gore, who ranks third on the Southern Miss all-time list with 4,022 rushing yards, was invited to the NFL scouting party, but the only exercise he participated in was the bench press. But at his pro day, he impressed scouts with his performance. He did 18 reps of the bench press (six more than he managed at the combine), ran a 4.58 in the 40-yard dash, which would have placed him 17th among running backs in the combine, and he achieved a vertical jump of 29 inches and a 9-foot broad jump of 3 inches.

He met with the Bills and several other teams at the combine, but none wanted to draft him. He said it was good because all he needed was a chance to prove himself and the Bills gave him that.

“It was so relieving to know that my dad wanted me here, I wanted to be here,” he said. “When me and Coach Skip met during the process, I felt like he was the type of coach I needed to get better. I feel like 257 people have never been better than me in this draft. But now that this process is over, I’m a Bill and I’m here to compete and I’m here to push my teammates and push the backs and try to get on special teams.

Sal Maiorana can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal’s newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link:https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

Related Posts

An air quality warning is in effect for Minnesota on Monday as temperatures cool to average

CDC and WebMD provide update on current bird flu outbreak: “Be alert, not alarmed”

Prosecutor: Top student in NYC intern at Citibank tried to rape woman after groping another the day before