‘Losing is always tough’: Frank Gore Jr. on his lackluster homecoming

Frank Gore Jr. came home to Miami to play the No. 15 Hurricanes Saturday for the first time in his college career. His father, Frank Gore Sr., won a national championship with Miami in 2001 and is a member of the UM Sports Hall of Fame.

But it wasn’t the explosive homecoming Gore Jr. and Co. may have hoped for.

The Hurricanes contained the sophomore Southern Miss running back, especially in the second half. The Miami Killian High School alumnus ran for just 10 yards and managed 13 yards receiving in front of an announced paid crowd of 46,421 fans in his team’s second loss of the season. But Gore didn’t seem fazed.

“The atmosphere wasn’t as great as I thought it would be,” he said. “It was a lot of empty seats, but it was great playing in front of my family and friends.”

Gore, a three-star recruit out of Miami-Dade, didn’t receive a lot of attention from Power Five schools and had less than half a dozen scholarship offers total. He has since spent his playing time attempting to show such schools, a group that includes the Hurricanes, the error in their overlooking him.

“All the people in the neighborhood, Coconut Grove — they get to see all the kids who wasn’t five-stars, all the kids who’s not four-stars, all the kids who was three-stars just like me and considered a small recruit, they have a chance and they can be special as long as they keep working and stick to the script,” Gore told the Miami Herald ahead of the game.

Heading into Saturday’s game, Gore led the nation in rushing yards per game, with 178 yards and two touchdowns in a quadruple overtime loss to Liberty the previous weekend. He tallied no such numbers against the Hurricanes.

Miami coach Mario Cristobal, another native son, recognized Gore’s elite play earlier this week. Cristobal just barely missed Gore Sr.’s tenure at Miami, having started his coaching career at UM as a graduate assistant coach from 1998-2000 and returning as an assistant coach from 2004-2006 after a stint at Rutgers in between.

“He’s a stud,” Cristobal said of Gore. “First guy rarely brings him down. Very versatile; obviously they use him in all kinds of stuff, back in the Wildcat, can chuck the ball around, he’s a good receiver as well. He’s a really dangerous football player, really good football player. We all know who he reminds us of.”

Gore jogged onto the field for Southern Miss’ first offensive possession, raising his arm and pointing a finger toward the sky. He helped the Golden Eagles muscle their way from third-and-1 to first-and-10 with his first touch, but the Hurricanes held him to just 9 yards in the first half.

His 18-yard reception on third-and-4 at the beginning of the second quarter brought Southern Miss to Miami’s 32-yard line, allowing quarterback Zach Wilcke to connect with Jason Brownlee for a touchdown to take the lead. Gore’s catch accounted for about a quarter of the Golden Eagles’ yards on that scoring drive.

As the Hurricanes offense surged in the third quarter, their defense shut Gore down. A few tackles for loss, one by five-star defensive lineman Leonard Taylor that brought the home crowd to its feet, pushed Gore’s statline back to 10 net yards rushing and two catches for 13 yards. He averaged nearly 67 rushing yards and about 13 yards receiving per game last season.

“Losing is always tough, but I feel like the week with all the media, that was the toughest thing,” Gore said when asked how it felt to come home and falter. “But no excuses. I mean, we lost that game fair and square. But we’ll be back. And for the rest of the season we have something to look forward for, so teams better be ready.”