How Frank Gore starting for the Jets against the 49ers was 12 years in the making
Long before he would join the NFL’s all-time leading rushers, Frank Gore in 2008 was putting together his third season as the 49ers’ starting running back.
He had taken over the top spot of San Francisco’s depth chart two years earlier and was putting together his third consecutive 1,000-yard season. The 49ers’ head coach that year, of course, was Mike Nolan, and the offensive coordinator was Mike Martz.
Martz had an offensive assistant on that staff named Adam Gase, who watched Gore behind the scenes and became familiar with his work ethic, ferociousness on the field and competitiveness that has become legend during Gore’s Hall of Fame career.
“He was always spending extra time trying to make sure that he knew everything that was going so when Sunday came, no one ever was saying, ‘Oh, if Frank would have done this,’” Gase said in a conference call with Bay Area reporters Wednesday. “He just would not allow that to happen. He wanted to be the guy that we relied on when it got really tough, he wanted to make sure that the ball was coming to him.”
Gase is now the head coach of Sunday’s 49ers opponent, the New York Jets, and Gore will be his starting tailback, 12 years after they first met. Gase announced Wednesday it’ll be Gore on the field with the offense first because Le’Veon Bell went on injured reserve this week with a hamstring injury.
Gore, the 49ers’ all-time leading rusher, enters Sunday’s game third on the NFL’s all-time rushing list with 15,371 yards. At 37, he signed with the Jets this offseason to continued his remarkable career highlighted by longevity and a slew of great seasons in red and gold.
Gore played under Gase with the Miami Dolphins in 2018, when he broke the record for most consecutive seasons with at least 500 yards rushing, at 14, surpassing all-time greats Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton, the two players ahead of him on the all-time rushing list.
Gase that season entered the year saying Gore and Kenyan Drake would split carries. But Gore wound up as the team’s leading rusher despite being a low-cost free agent addition while Drake was a third-round pick out of Alabama two years earlier.
“When we were in Miami, he’d just keep working,” Gase said when asked about what led to Gore’s productive campaign at age 35. “He never really said anything, he just kept grinding. And then when he got his opportunities, he made the most of them.”
Gase brought Gore to the Jets to provide an example for a young, rebuilding team. Gore, of course, might be the most beloved 49ers player of the last generation and will likely retire with San Francisco if he ever hangs up his cleats. The admiration for Gore felt by 49ers fans and members of the organization is still prevalent, and it was felt by Kyle Shanahan long before he became San Francisco’s head coach in 2017.
“I love Frank Gore. I think he’s one of the best running backs to ever play,” Shanahan said Wednesday. “I think he’s one of the more underrated running backs to ever play. His longevity and his numbers now have finally given him a little bit more attention that is past due.”
Gore was someone Shanahan studied early in his NFL career. Shanahan was in his second season as a quality control coach on Jon Gruden’s staff with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Gore was coming out of the University of Miami in 2005.
“I loved him then, I loved him every year,” Shanahan said. “He runs so hard. The guys that run that hard very rarely can play to his age, which just shows how dedicated he is, how much of a football player he is and obviously extremely talented, but he’s a special dude.”
Said Gase: “He looks the same. It’s unreal to watch. This is my third stint with him. He’s the same Frank. He just shows up, works hard, practices hard, you can tell he just loves the game so much.”