Gore Team Preview
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Stay tuned to Prep Redzone Oklahoma every day as we release more individual team previews as we get closer to the start of the 2021 football season. In case you missed it, you can check out our Preseason Rankings RIGHT HERE.
Overview (Class A Preseason Ranking: #4)
The 2020 football season didn’t go quite like the Gore Pirates envisioned when they began. Just like every other team in the state, the Pirates had to deal with the Covid pandemic that caused several interruptions throughout the season. Some teams got off lucky and had only minimal or no interruptions while other teams would go weeks without taking the field. Unfortunately, the Pirates fit in the last column and had three regular season games that were cancelled, they got a bye week in the first round of the playoffs instead of playing and ended up playing just nine games. Gore wouldn’t even start their season until week three, when they beat Panama by 22 points. The following week they opened district play and had their closest call of the regular season against Warner. The rest of the regular season was smooth sailing, until week ten when their regular season finale was cancelled. The Pirates would go two weeks before they got on the field again and opened the playoffs with a win over Allen before being beaten by Woodland in the third round. The Pirates are ready to put the 2020 season in their rear view and focus only on the present. And the present is bright for the Pirates as they come in as our #4 team in the Class A preseason rankings and return all 22 starters from last year’s team. Yes. 11 starters on offense and 11 starters on defense all return and the Pirates are set up for a bit of a run as they still don’t have very many seniors on this fall’s club. Class A was dominated by eventual champion Cashion and offensive juggernaut Pawhuska last season and those two teams remain at the top of the Class A rankings. However, Gore could end up being a team that plays spoiler and makes a deep run and maybe even make a trip to Wantland Stadium in December.
2020 Results (8-1 Record – Lost In Class A 3rd Round)
Sept. 18 – Beat Panama 34-12
Sept. 25 – Beat Warner 7-6
Oct. 2 – Beat Central Sallisaw 47-26
Oct. 9 – Beat Colcord 39-15
Oct. 15 – Beat Porter 34-12
Oct. 23 – Beat Hulbert 49-6
Oct. 30 – Beat Canadian 47-8
Nov. 6 – Game VS Talihina Cancelled
1st Round – Bye Week
2nd Round – Beat Allen 37-6
3rd Round – Lost To Woodland 38-18
Players To Watch
Dayne Perryman – 2023 Linebacker
We’re about to put a spotlight on Gore’s dynamic backfield but they have some weapons returning on the defensive side of the ball and leading the way is junior linebacker Dayne Perryman. Joining Perryman is Jackson Duke, a standout athlete that led the team with 7 interceptions. Perryman was a tackling machine for the Pirates last fall. He was second on the team in total tackles but ran away with the lead when it came to tackles for loss with over 20. Perryman made an absolute living in opposing backfields and will look to set the tone for this Gore defense that could end up being one of the better units in the state.
Gunner Dozier – 2023 Running Back
The first of two 1,000 yard rushers returning to the Gore offense is junior running back Gunner Dozier. The Pirate standout was the leading rusher and had some really dominating games for the Pirates. The majority of his sophomore season saw Dozier running for north of 100 yards and multiple touchdowns as he hit pay dirt 18 times in his breakout season. He’ll be joining his quarterback Zane Craighead in the backfield and these two will make up a deadly combo for opposing defenses to slow down. However, Dozier is just a junior this fall and will have the ability to carry the rock in this Pirate offense for two more seasons.
Zane Craighead – 2022 Quarterback
We mentioned Craighead above with Dozier and the Gore quarterback is the other player who ran for over 1,000 yards last year. Craighead will be a senior this fall and on a team that returns literally every starter, you would expect them to be absolutely full of seniors but Craighead is the only impact player that is a 2022 prospect. He’s certainly a run-first quarterback as he finished last year with just 682 yards passing, compared to finishing with over 1,000 yards on the ground. The most attempts he had in a game was 14 and only had two games of over 100 yards passing. Meanwhile, he had four games of over 100 yards rushing.
More Names
Gabe Dozier – 2023 Offensive/Defensive Lineman
Garrett Douthit – 2023 Offensive/Defensive Lineman
Jackson Duke – 2023 Athlete
Notable
Head coach Brandon Tyler stunned a lot of people back in 2016 when he left a Vian program that was thriving to become an assistant coach at Van Buren over in Arkansas. Maybe the same people were just as surprised the following year when he returned to Oklahoma to take over as head coach of his alma mater Gore. I’ll throw my hand up and say I was surprised. What isn’t surprising is the turnaround of this Pirate program under Tyler. In the four seasons before Tyler took over, from 2013-2016, Gore went a combined 5-35 with a pair of winless seasons in there as well. Since Tyler took over, the record is nearly identical, only the other way around. The Pirates are 35-8 in the last four seasons under their new head coach. And in his first three seasons, the win total continued to get higher. 8 wins in 2017, 9 wins in 2018 and a 10 win season in 2019. However, because of Covid, Gore only played 9 games total in 2020, otherwise that trend might have continued. Now the mission is simple for the Pirates as they enter year five under Tyler, go further. Gore has yet to make a semifinal appearance in school history and they certainly have the talent and experience to make a run this fall. Leading his alma mater to a championship this fall would be the cherry on top of this cake that has been the turnaround of the Gore program.
2021 Schedule/Game To Watch
Sept. 3 – AT Keys
Sept. 10 – AT Mounds
Sept. 17 – Panama
Sept. 24 – Warner
– We wrote something similar in the Pawhuska Preview and the same thing can be written right here. No disrespect intended to Gore’s 2021 opponents but the schedule is not exactly a gauntlet. Gore dominated their way to an undefeated regular season in 2020 and the same might happen again in 2021. The Pirates don’t have a team on their schedule that is currently ranked. That might not be the case later this year, but the toughest game might be in the district opener when they host Warner. The Pirates won all of their games by at least 20 points last year and the one exception was Warner. They were able to prevail with a 7-6 victory.
Oct. 1 – Central Sallisaw
Oct. 8 – AT Colcord
Oct. 14 – AT Porter
Oct. 22 – Hulbert
Oct. 29 – AT Canadian
Nov. 5 – Talihina
Championship History
0 State Championships