Xzavier Gaines seems to take everything in stride – the type of stride that only a lanky, 6-foot-3 athlete possesses.

So when head coach Paul Pasqualoni pulled Gaines aside and asked the freshman quarterback to change positions to wide receiver, he didn’t argue or wonder about his coach’s wisdom.

After all, it’s a wonder Gaines is on scholarship at all.

Gaines is from Houston, where Friday-night football is a statewide celebration, but he didn’t play organized football until seventh grade. In his freshman year at Dallas Carter High School, he stopped.

Gaines picked up the sport again after transferring to Westfield High School in Texas. But it was his senior year and nearly too late.

‘I really didn’t know I was going to get any kind of football scholarship,’ Gaines said. ‘My high school coach pulled me aside one day and said, ‘Xzavier, we’ve got schools offering you football scholarships, would you be interested?’ I was like, ‘psh, yeah.’ I wasn’t ready to give it up yet.’

Gaines finished his lone season of high school football completing 76 of 126 passes for seven touchdowns and running for 523 yards and nine scores. But it could easily have been his performances in other sports that attracted the eye of Syracuse offensive coordinator George DeLeone.

A four-year starter in basketball and a two-time state championship qualifier in the triple jump, Gaines was brought in as an athlete to be developed into a player.

‘They just like my athleticism and want to see what I can do at wideout,’ said Gaines, who redshirted last season.

During the winter, Pasqualoni and DeLeone decided the best chance to transform Gaines’ flashes of potential into on-field electricity was at wide receiver. Buried beneath a load of quarterbacks, including starter R.J. Anderson, senior Troy Nunes, much-hyped Cecil Howard and incoming freshman Perry Patterson on the depth chart, Gaines’ chances to get playing time were slim.

Now Gaines’ hopes to rise to a starting position depend on his ability to rise high. The Orangemen lose 6-foot-3 receiver Malik Campbell from last season.

Though Gaines has just begun to adjust, DeLeone’s offense featured six receivers last year, and the coach insists his newest wideout could earn playing time as early as next season.

‘He’s a natural athlete,’ DeLeone said. ‘There’s a lot of potential there. We feel there’s a lot of potential at quarterback too, and that’s our quandary. He realizes he’ll have a better chance to get on the field next year.’

Injured Orange

Senior Clifton Smith, out with a torn pectoral muscle, patrolled the middle of the field at practice yesterday just as he did last year when he finished second on the Orangemen with 92 tackles.

Instead of tackling opponents, however, Smith tackled a new task – coaching.

‘I’m just trying to help the younger guys a little bit,’ Smith said. ‘Some of them still don’t fully understand the defense.’

Sporting a gray, long-sleeved T-shirt embroidered with a No. 9, black cargo pants and a glimmering gold chain, Smith stood at the center of the 20-yard line as teammates ran plays from the 5.

‘It’s a little different perspective,’ Smith said. ‘I feel like I want to be out there. Even today I tried to do some of the drills.’

Doctors say Smith will be full speed by May. He is allowed to participate in certain non-contact drills.

Contrasting Smith’s gold chains, Troy Nunes spent yesterday’s practice with his arm wrapped in white bandages.

Nunes had surgery during the offseason to repair a left wrist injury he sustained in the second game of last season against Tennessee. DeLeone didn’t know exactly what the injury was but said Nunes was hindered by it all year. The pain was not severe enough to force him to miss any playing or practice time, but doctors wanted to treat it before it got worse.

Three’s No Longer A Crowd

Red usually means stop and green usually means go, but at spring practice either color is fair game.

While the majority of SU players wear red (defense) and green (offense) jerseys at practice, meaning they are susceptible to blocks, tackles and hits, quarterbacks Anderson and Howard sport clean, white shirts.

With Gaines changing positions and Nunes watching the spring session from the sideline, Anderson takes all the snaps with the first team, while Howard, a freshman, huddles with the second team.

‘This is a big spring for R.J. and Cecil,’ DeLeone said. ‘We’re going to see if we can get through the spring with two healthy quarterbacks. If we can it’ll be good.’

The situation starkly contrasts with last year, when Nunes and Anderson split the majority of time under center and Howard got lost in a four-man quarterback shuffle and a complicated college playbook.

‘I’d say I know three times as much now as I did last year,’ Howard said. ‘It’s been a long, hard learning experience.’

This and that

Due to space constraints, or maybe just restlessness, kickers Collin Barber and Mike Shafer found a new way to practice yesterday. Barber made his way into the upper deck of the Carrier Dome where Shafer boomed punts into his hands. … National signing day was more than a month ago, but that hasn’t stopped SU from continuing its recruiting effort. Last week the Orangemen signed fullback Steve McDonald from Deer Park, Texas. The 6-foot-1, 245-pounder played tight end for three seasons at Deer Park High School before earning first-team All-State recognition in the backfield this past season. … Someone must have left the Carrier Dome doors open. The gray skies and cold weather made the Dome an icehouse. Some players resorted to gray sweatpants rather than their customary orange shorts.

Published on April 1, 2002 at 12:00 pm