Fargo
The timing of North Dakota State’s new pregame introduction may need to be refined, but let’s not be too hard on the Bisons’ marketing people. Change is hard when you’re doing the same thing year after year, and it’s good for them to try something new.
At least Theo, a young man who threw the game ball before the coin toss, got people in the mood by raising his arms in the air after handing the ball to the umpire in the middle of the field. John Gores, not much taller than Theo, took over from there and provided some good-natured antics.
When Gores first joined the team in 2022 from Fargo Shanley, he was simply hoping to be a part of the program in some capacity. The kind of guys that leave head coach Tim Polasek speechless, if that’s possible.
After the game, he was able to do so. He balanced the emotional ups and downs when asked about the 5’6″ Gores.
“Football is a beautiful game,” Polasek said after a pause, his eyes filling with tears. “Guys that show up and work and work and work and keep going, and the world tells them they’re too small. I said he was too small, and sometimes it doesn’t matter.”
At practice in August, Polasek called it a “great story” just because the Determination Machine was working with the first team offense. Against Tennessee State, the great story got even greater.
Gores returned a punt 67 yards for a touchdown and later scored the first of his career, a 12-yard out punt that saw him break a tackle and dive into the corner of the end zone. It was part of a great first half that the Bison turned into a 52-3 victory at Gate City Bank Field in the Fargodome.
“You saw how the guys reacted,” Polasek said. “That says a lot about the way a player works. We have to be resilient and John Gores is resilient. He has some playmaking qualities, he will do his best and we can count on him.”
Gores traveled to Colorado last week but didn’t play. That all changed Saturday, partly because of his speed and partly because of a sports hernia affecting senior RaJa Nelson and the fact that Polasek didn’t want to put returner Braylon Henderson in danger.
So Gores became the primary punt returner, a position he filled regularly with the No. 1 special unit in fall training camp and was an immediate difference-maker in the first half against Tennessee State. His big return of a 51-yard punt by Mark Shenouda of the Tigers started off suspiciously.
Gores dropped the ball at first, but pulled himself together, picked it up and then found some space on the right side.
“It was definitely an oh-no moment,” he said.
He evaded several tackles, made a hesitation move that froze another defender, and nearly scored a point down the right sideline. Running back Marty Brown scored four plays later and the Bison led 21-0.
“When I made that one cut and saw all the green grass, I thought, oh wow, this could be something special here,” Gores said. He also had a welcome-to-college moment late in the second quarter when TSU’s DuJuan Sharp caught Gores before he had a chance to catch a high punt. The 15-yard personal foul put the Bison in position to score with the ball at their own 40-yard line before halftime.
Eight plays later, quarterback Cam Miller hit Bryce Lance on a fade in the end zone and the Bison led 35-0 with 16 seconds left before halftime. Miller and Lance were the main players, with Miller completing 14 of 18 passes for 181 yards and three touchdowns and Lance catching seven passes and two touchdowns. The defense was tall and in control, showing its depth and dominance against an Ohio Valley Conference opponent that will pose no playoff threat this season.
Gores was the great feel-good story.
At the end of the week he learned that he would be in charge of the punt return.
“I lost a few hours of sleep, but nothing serious,” he said. “I was just excited.”
Gores finished the game with three returns, averaging 28 yards per attempt. In a game with big players, his size and rock-solid power are an advantage, especially in open space. It’s hard for guys to get their hands on him. Think of Ryan Smith from a few years ago, who looked similar while also having great speed.
“John Gores is the pride of the Bisons,” Miller said. “You talk about a local kid, walk-on, the kid is maybe 5-foot-10, and to see a kid like him understand his role and get so good at it. John Gores has been making good plays in practice the last two years and it was a matter of time before that would show up in a game and that’s what happened today.”
That capped off a glorious opening day for Polasek that began with the “Stampede March,” in which the team marched through fans packed together on the west side of the dome. Miller said he enjoyed the interaction with the fans, though he joked, “It was a pretty long walk, though.”
“It was great,” Polasek said. “It was a pretty big feeling. That’s how I felt when I was in Iowa.”
It must have been the same feeling Gores felt when he left the Fargodome on Saturday.
“When I was growing up, going to the Bison games on Saturdays and making plays out there on the field was awesome,” he said.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
Jeff would like to dispel the notion that he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he has been a reporter for Forum Communications for three decades. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked for the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” from April through August.
