Frank Gore Jr. loves Bills fans, coaches and the 'Shout' song: Why he signed with Buffalo
ORCHARD PARK - Frank Gore Jr. appreciated the fact that Friday afternoon, on the first day of Buffalo Bills rookie camp, the weather - while not ideal - wasn’t the same as it was the last time he was here.
That would have been late in the 2019 NFL season when his father, Frank Sr., was winding down his one and only year with the Bills during which he shared playing time with rookie Devin Singletary.
“Oh, it was great,” Frank Jr. said Friday on the first day of the Bills' rookie mini camp. “I came to like three games. It was cold when they played the Jets at the end of season. But I loved it here - what do they say, ‘Hey, hey, hey hey.’ Yeah, I loved that. This is like one of the most enthusiastic places I’ve ever been.”
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During that 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 try 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 that we wanted to be,” Frank Jr. said. “My dad had nothing but good things to say about this organization so I’m happy to be here. It’s a great organization all around.”
And what’s interesting about that is Gore Sr. - who ranks third in NFL history with 16,000 rushing yards and will probably one day be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame - is now working in an advisory role with the 49ers for whom he spent most of his career. Yet when it came time for his son to decide where he should take his shot at NFL glory, Buffalo was the place he preferred.
“He said it’s great people here, he knows they’ll take care of me and he knows that coach (Kelly Skipper) will push me to become my best,” Frank Jr. said. “He just talks about the people in this organization and about (GM Brandon) Beane and everyone around the organization.”
Shortly after his son was offered the chance to join the Bills after no team picked him in the draft, Frank Sr. happily told CBS Sports, “We’re good. We’re going to Buffalo to do our thing. Tell them they better be ready, trust me. I know what I’m raising. Folks slept on my son; they slept on me, too. They’ll see. My bloodline is for real. Our (pre-draft) testing was identical. All the scouts were like you can tell that’s my son. He’s the real deal. I’m happy to get my son to this point. We’re coming to play.”
Frank Jr. learned during his experience going through the college football recruiting process, and now again in the draft, that his name would only carry him so far.
The year that Frank Sr. was in Buffalo, Frank Jr. was in his senior year playing quarterback and running back and leading Miami Killian High School into the Florida 5A state playoffs where they eventually lost to Miami Northwestern. He rushed for 1,111 yards, threw for 213 yards and produced 15 total touchdowns, but likely due to his 5-foot-7, 198-pound frame, the only Power-5 school that extended a scholarship offer was Kentucky. He also drew interest from Florida Atlantic and Southern Mississippi, and in the end he chose Southern Miss.
In Conference USA, Gore made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting seven of the 10 games he played and rushing for 708 yards, and he followed that with an 801-yard sophomore season. But while he did some nice work, it wasn’t looking like he was going to get the chance to follow his own NFL dream.
Things began to change in 2022, though. He rushed for 1,392 yards and nine TDs, caught 19 passes for 219 yards and totaled nine TDs, and after turning down offers from now intrigued Power-5 schools to jump into the transfer portal, he stayed true to Southern Miss and finished his career in 2023 by rushing for 1,131 yards, catching 27 passes for 221 yards, and scoring 13 TDs.
“I’m not that type of person to chase whatever it was that the Power-5 schools were offering me,” he said of his decision to stay out of the portal. “At Southern Miss I had a great coach who groomed me into this man that I am today. Taught me a lot about life and I loved my teammates and that was an opportunity for me to just continue to grow as a person and a player, no distractions, away from everything and ultimately it worked.”
His fine senior season led to an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas and Gore won the offensive MVP award as he broke a 49-yard touchdown run and finished with 87 yards to lead the West to a 26-11 victory.
Gore, who ranks third on the Southern Miss all-time rushing list with 4,022 yards, was invited to the NFL scouting combine but the only drill he participated in was the bench press. But at his pro day, he impressed scouts with his performance. He did 18 bench press reps (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 at the combine, and he had a 29-inch vertical leap and 9-foot, 3-inch broad jump.
He met with the Bills and several other teams at the combine, but none wanted to spend a draft pick on him. He said that was fine because all he needs is a chance to prove himself and the Bills have given him that.
“It was so relieving, knowing that my dad wanted me here, I wanted to be here,” he said. “When me and coach Skip met over the process, I just got the vibe that he’s the type of coach that I need to get better. I feel like there’s no way 257 people were better than me in this draft. But now that that process is over, I’m a Bill and I’m here to compete and I’m here to push my teammates and push the running back room and try to get on special teams.”
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. 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
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Frank Gore Jr. and his dad wanted him to play for Buffalo Bills
