With Jace Whatley missing Ozark’s home-opener last week due to a knee injury, Nick Guse stepped forth as a viable receiving option for the Tigers.
Guse caught two passes for 31 yards. He has three catches for 38 yards on the season.
Both the 6-foot-5 Whatley and 6-4 Guse are unique as tall targets for quarterback Peyton Russell. Ideally, coach Jeremy Cordell would like for Whatley to be lined up at tight end and Guse as a back-side receiver.
Whether they play together again remains to be seen. Whatley and Guse also are due to be part of the same front line in the winter for Ozark’s basketball team.
Guse is a basketball lifer, but this is his first go-around on the gridiron.
“I love it. It's exciting,” he said. “Halfway through last school year, I knew I wanted to try something new. Once coach moved down here, we did morning practices and I just popped out to one of them.”
Guse knew he wanted to try out as a receiver.
“I played in the back yard, that was really it,” he said of his prior football experience. “But I’ve always known I've got good hands.”
Guse has made a favorable impression on Cordell.
"Football is a complex game when you've never played it before,” Cordell said. “We can tell you a formation, but what does that look like and how do you want to manipulate that? For someone getting their first taste of it, there's a learning curve. Nick's played basketball his whole life and has come out here and learned the game. For him to do what he's done, I'm proud of him.
“I really like Nick,” he added. “He’s an all-in, ‘Yes sir,’ ‘No sir’ kid.”
Guse already has become engrossed enough with football that the taste of defeat against Republic didn’t sit well with him.
“How bad it felt losing on our home field,” he said when asked about his strongest memory of playing at home for the first time. “I want to take that energy and put it into next week against Joplin. With this being my first year, I'm trying to give it my all.”
