Harper Woods' Dakota Guerrant is the state's top receiver — and he's headed west

You can spot Dakota Guerrant walking around Harper Woods High School football practices with a T-Shirt that reads: DAGOATA.

He might be right.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound senior wide receiver is the team's best playmaker. He's arguably the team's best kicker, punt returner, kickoff returner, defensive back and played quarterback in the team's opening-season loss at Chelsea.

Since then, the Pioneers have outscored opponents 251-31 with Guerrant scoring on punt and receiving TDs.

In a dominating performance against Waterford Mott he had 102 yards receiving, 95 yards rushing and 60 yards passing, accounting for three touchdowns.

“It's us, not the opponent,” said Guerrant. “We're playing well. One of our quarterbacks is down, but we have guys who can make plays.”

He's already left a legacy.

As a freshman MaxPreps named him freshman All-American after catching 49 passes for 1,100 yards and 15 touchdowns.

“My first game I had three touchdowns and 200 yards,” he said. “I knew there wasn't much of a difference. I'm still better than these guys. I knew from there I'd be straight as far as this being my financial future.”

MaxPreps and 24/7 sports ranked him as the top player in the state of Michigan and the No. 4 receiver in the country.

His second favorite nickname is Mr. Football, an honor he covets.

Guerrant, 17, runs an 11.84 100-meter dash and accounted for 1,600 all-purpose yards as a sophomore and caught 55 passes for 1,074 yards, intercepted three passes with 40 tackles and scored three special teams' touchdowns as a junior, racking up 26 touchdowns.

He helped lead the Pioneers to its first and only Division 3 championship with a 33-27 win at Ford Field over Grand Rapids South Christian in 2023.

“I knew my freshman season I could be good at this,” said Guerrant. “I missed the first couple of games because I was injured. My first game I score three touchdowns. We had a bunch of seniors, so I didn't say much unlike now. I listened and learned. I'm definitely more vocal now that I'm a senior. As a freshman I was around a bunch of seniors, but I was producing. I wasn't as confident that year. I was just making my plays. I wasn't asking for the ball, but when I got it, I made the most of my opportunities.”

Guerrant had 50 scholarship offers, and despite a hard push from Michigan he committed to Oregon and will be graduating in December to make the trek out west.

“Oregon was my dream school growing up,” he said. “I always wanted to play there. Once they offered me that was it. They did the best job recruiting me.”

Dante Moore helped. The Oregon quarterback and former Detroit Martin Luther King star already had a relationship with Guerrant.

“He helped me through the process being out there,” said Guerrant. “He knows what I went through. He's going to be a first-round draft pick.”

Rod Oden is Guerrant's coach and godfather. He was a ballboy when Oden coached at Detroit Crockett and East English Village. Some of his former players, including Super Bowl champion Brandon Graham, made it to the National Football League.

Godson ranks near the top of players he's coached.

“He's at the top of the list,” said Oden. “He checks all the boxes. There's not very much that he can't do. When it comes to measuring him against all the other greats I've had he's in the top 3.”

Guerrant would agree.

“You don't have to ask him anything. He's very confident in himself,” said Oden. “I also knew in the ninth grade he could do this. As a coach's kid, watching him grow up under us and being in this system since my days at Crockett and East English when he was the ball boy. We're running the same offense. He's playing the game in slow motion. I always tell him he has to be a multiplier. He has to make the guys around him better. They should get better by just being on the field with you, and that's what he's doing. He has (Deandre) Bidden and (A.J.) Henley and (James) Jefferson coming with him. He gets it. He had to develop a relationship with those guys.”

The word perfection gets tossed around when discussing Guerrant, but it just doesn't apply to football.

“I have a 3.8 grade-point average,” said Guerrant. “Grades are important.”

That's because he comes from an academic family.

“He had no choice,” said Oden. “He could be a 4.0 kid, but I don't think he wants the pressure of being perfect. His dad is a math teacher, his grandmother, who is my godmother, was a science teacher, so he comes from a family of educators.”

What he learned was how to run the route tree, a staple all great receivers do.

“I'm a big fan of Davante Adams and Ja'Marr Chase,” said Guerrant. “You have to know the game. You have to think like a quarterback. Being a receiver isn't just saying I'm always open. You have to learn the defenses. Pay attention to coverages, understand route concepts and coverages. Know what you're going against and how to run certain routes.”