2 Admirals, 9 Division I offers, 0 varsity snaps. Meet Gulfport’s rising stars
It’s hard to believe the team that defied that unwritten laws of Mississippi high school football by having the audacity to win a top-class state championship as a Gulf Coast school had athletes lurking on campus that could’ve been starters for the title-winning Gulfport Admirals had they been in uniform those Friday nights.
But Travor Frost was a basketball player and had been a one-sport athlete through his first two years of high school. Syniker Taylor Jr. was a freshman confined to the ninth grade team after transferring from West Harrison.
The Admirals’ championship was enough to convince Frost to return the gridiron as a junior two-way defensive lineman and tight end after last playing in middle school and Taylor is set to take on a prominent role at wide receiver.
But if anyone thought the pair could sneak up on Gulfport’s fall schedule, the SEC has already let the cat out of the bag. Despite neither seeing a single down of varsity football, both have been recipients of scholarship offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri.
“He’s a walking millionaire”
Frost’s arrival in the halls of Gulfport High coincided with that of Brian Butler’s takeover of the Admiral basketball program. Frost was an immediate focal point in the sharp and rapid turnaround the team experienced.
He dominated the frontcourt as a freshman and helped Gulfport more than triple its win total the year before. Frost enjoyed another strong season as a sophomore where he scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds a game.
But his mind never trailed far from football.
“Seeing them play last year really motivated me to come back,” Frost told the Sun Herald.
Frost stands 6-foot-7 and weighs in at 240 lbs. with an innate ability to be both physical and fluid in space. Those intangibles are enough for Gulfport coach Blake Pennock to know Frost is back where he belongs.
“Travor’s a football player, you know, and he’s huge,” Pennock said. “He’s a walking millionaire wherever he plays.”
Frost has the aforementioned offers plus more from Arkansas State, Louisiana and Texas State.
So far, schools don’t have a lock on which side of the ball they prefer Frost on. The junior sees himself as an all-around tight end and Pennock agrees, likening him to Evan McNally, who caught 31 passes as a senior tight end at Ocean Springs in 2022 under Pennock.
The coach says Frost is a dangerous presence off the edge of the defensive front, too. He has the athleticism to plug-and-play wherever needed.
“There are a lot of SEC schools that love him at defensive end,” Pennock said. “We’re going to put him in the right situations at defensive end. There’s a lot of projectibility there. I mean, you talk to the wrong or right person, put 50 pounds on him, and he’s probably a first-round offensive tackle.”
Gulfport royalty
If the Syniker Taylor name sounds familiar, it should. Taylor Sr. starred at Gulfport in the 1990s before becoming an All-SEC defensive back at Ole Miss.
But Taylor Jr is walking his own path as a wide receiver. At 6-foot-2 and a packed 200-lb. frame, Taylor is a physical mismatch for defenders.
Coaches see a lot AJ Brown in the 10th-grader. Taylor Jr points to another Mississippi receiver, DK Metcalf, as his personal player comp.
“I put my athleticism, my strength, and my size all on display,” Taylor Jr said. “I got good routes. I can go up and catch the ball every single time, no matter what.”
Pennock says this season will be the most challenging for the young receiver. It will be the first time the physical gap between Taylor Jr and his opponents won’t be as massive as it had been in years past.
Some of those frustrations began to show during the spring, according to Pennock, who showed his prodigy the stats produced by Brown when he was a sophomore at Starkville High School: He caught all of 18 passes.
Brown would catch 135 passes over the next two seasons before becoming a star at Ole Miss and an All-Pro in the NFL. Pennock sees a similar path possible for Taylor Jr.
“They’re very comparable,” Pennock said of Taylor Jr and Brown. “You’re going to see (Taylor Jr.) take a slant for 50, you know, he’ll break a tackle, he’s good with the ball in his hands, he can really play the fade ball very well, his hands are phenomenal.
“He would have been a great player for us last year had he been able to go. The natural mental maturation of being able to do all that, too. The sky’s the limit. The sky really is the limit.”
Taylor Jr. will fit into an offense that in many ways will look familiar, though in some will seem very new. Much of the skill position contributors from last year’s team are returning and are bolstered by Taylor Jr., Frost and Biloxi transfer JoJo Thomas.
The backfield is where the faces change. Amijai Frederick steps into the role of RB1 following the departure of Cooper Crosby to Mississippi State and heralded sophomore Jackson Wolverton will take over at quarterback.
Wolverton is a dual-threat type who Pennock says will also have the toughest season of his high school career in 2027. An experienced and talented group of receivers will help the development first-year starter.
“We have good players,” Taylor Jr. said. “Our quarterback is amazing. Our receiver group is amazing, also. I feel like we have the best receiver group in the state.”
Gulfport will host Oak Grove in a preseason jamboree game on Aug. 21 before beginning the new year at Picayune on Aug. 28. The Admirals will debut their new on-campus stadium on Sept. 11 against Laurel.
