I've been unable to update this thread, but I've been to his games, and I've become aware of experiencing something... something strangely nostalgic. Couldn't figure it out, since I neither played for McCallie, nor remember ever playing against them. It took me awhile to identify it. When a pass starts toward Gaillardetz, there's this sanguine, inner expectation of how--never if--he's going to catch this one.
Ahhh, yes. The last time I experienced that kind of anticipation was during the playing days of Larry Seivers.
When it's a 50/50 ball, and Xavier's well-covered... I actually experience a bit of sympathy for the defender. He's done everything right, he's in position, he goes up to high point the ball... but I know he's not coming down with it. I know it. The McCallie sideline knows it. Gaillardetz knows it, because he wills it. I've never seen such consistent, competitive focus from a high school player before. (Well, except for watching Peyton at Newman HS in NOLA--but you expect unrelenting focus from a QB, who's touching the ball on every play.)
There's a similar expectation when Gaillardetz is receiving a kickoff or a punt. It's the same anticipation I felt when Cordarrelle Patterson pulled in a kickoff, or when Bobby Majors returned a punt. Experience tells you that this one could easily go to the house.
He's good after the catch, too. Last week in a playoff game, he caught a 5 yard quick out near the sideline. The corner had him pinned against the sideline, totally textbook, and the safety was coming up fast to take away any reversing field move. He was isolated, so there were no potential blockers coming into the picture, only a laterally charging LB.
Xavier gave the corner... something--something imperceptible from where I was seated, not far away with an unobstructed view--and... he was gone. Up the sideline for a touchdown.
Still, the most impressive catch I've seen from Gaillardetz was on a simple play, early in the season, but on a catch I always thought was the hardest to make in football.
It was a simple 10-and-out route. He made a great cut, at speed, so the defender was still recovering 5 yards downfield and irrelevant as the pass was on the way. There was only the ball and the sideline. But, unusually for a Riddle pass, the ball started dying before it got there. Undefended, Xavier was moving toward the sideline with a slight downfield angle and leaning away from the ball, expecting to maximize yardage on the play. So he was falling away from the pass just as the pass was beginning to unexpectedly drop.
As a receiver in this situation, you just don't have any way to adjust and recover. All you can do is reach out and down as far as you can, and hope there's enough inertia to get the ball to your hands. But it usually falls to the ground after grazing the tips of your two middle fingers. To control a pass with just those two fingers requires you to catch it with those fingers exactly opposite of each other on the axis of the ball. (Think of grasping a yardstick with two hands using just your middle fingers--if they aren't exactly opposite of each other, you flip the yardstick.) To execute this with a spinning, prolate spheroid shaped object, which is in a dying trajectory, while you are moving diagonally away from it, combines a computer-full of angles and variables with about a second to decipher and respond. It has to be the hardest catch in football.
But Xavier caught it. He kept his focus and pulled that ball in with 2 pairs of fingertips, and no bobble. He made it look like Fred Biletnikoff with Stick-em.
I know he is outclassing his competition weekly, and will be playing for the state title in Chattanooga's Finley Stadium Dec. 2 against MBA. But how good does he project at the next level? I'd love to have seen Brandon Stokely in high school, to compare. Their games are similar, as they are in size and strength (though I doubt Stokely was as physically developed at this age as Gaillardetz is). How does Xavier compare in speed and quickness?
I'd love to hear what experienced scouts say. All I can say for certain is that he has dominated the field in every game I've seen, live or on video.
