Stunned, dazed and confused, Xzavier Gaines walked off the field last spring following his first day at a position he never played before and may never play again.

That was his first practice as a wide receiver. The problem: Gaines, who had just one year of high school experience, plays quarterback.

“Quarterback is where I want to be,” Gaines said. “That’s where my heart is. That’s where I feel like I belong.”

Prior to spring practice, though, Syracuse moved Gaines to wide receiver, figuring it might allow him to play sooner. But when quarterback Cecil Howard transferred in August, the coaching staff switched Gaines back to quarterback, where he played briefly Sept. 14 against Rhode Island.

And perhaps, this time, that’s where Gaines will stay.

Still, the switch cost Gaines. The redshirt freshman missed a spring’s worth of repetitions at quarterback, which he needed badly. For all the 6-foot-3, 189-pound Gaines possesses in speed and agility — he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds — he lacks in experience.

“It set him back,” Syracuse offensive coordinator George DeLeone said. “We (moved him) in the interest of the team and in the interest of getting him on the field faster. The question is not where he was, it’s where he’s going. And he’s got to catch up.”

He’s done it before. Gaines thought of himself strictly as a basketball player at Dallas Carter High School in Dallas before his family moved to Houston prior to his senior season.

In Houston, Westfield High School football coach Ron Lynch talked Gaines into playing quarterback for a struggling team. Lynch had just taken over a team that went 0-10 in 1999.

So on the first day of practice for the 2000 season, the savior of Westfield football walked onto the practice field — stunned, dazed and confused.

“I wish you could have seen him the first day,” Lynch said. “He couldn’t throw a spiral ball five yards. But then he improved 180 degrees in three days.”

In one year, the Westfield football team went from 0-10 to 6-5, thanks in large part to Gaines’ 76-of-126 passing, 846 yards and seven touchdowns. He rushed 74 times for 523 yards and nine touchdowns as Westfield advanced to the state playoffs.

In the process, Gaines drew attention from across the state and around the country. Texas A&M and Oregon State entered the recruiting mix. But Lynch provided the Syracuse connection — DeLeone.

“I’ve known George for about 100 years,” Lynch said. “We just happened to be talking. I said, ‘I think I”ve got a quarterback that fits your system. Let me know what you think.’ “

DeLeone thought he found the perfect complement to Howard, a SuperPrep All-American who had already committed to Syracuse.

The match seemed ideal. Westfield ran an option offense similar to SU’s, and Gaines threw 15 to 20 passes a game.

But in the summer of 2001, when Gaines arrived at Syracuse, Howard was being hyped as the second coming of Donovan McNabb. Gaines was already the forgotten quarterback behind R.J. Anderson, Troy Nunes and Howard.

A year later, little has changed.

Try as he may, Gaines can’t push the thought out of his mind. He was a two-sport athlete in high school. He wants to do it again.

“Obviously, basketball, that’s my No. 1 love,” Gaines said. “It’s always part of me. I’m not ready to give that up yet. If opportunities popped up for me to play basketball here, I’d definitely look into that.”

And he has, at least unofficially. Gaines plays on an intramural team with several football players in the offseason and scrimmages with the men’s basketball team whenever he can.

“I held my own out there,” Gaines said. “I got my game going. I got to make sure I’ve still got it.”

He catches a few basketball games at the Carrier Dome and wonders what it would be like to play shooting guard for the Orangemen.

That’s the position Gaines played at Westfield, where he averaged 25 points and shot better than 40 percent from behind the three-point line.

“I thought I was going to get a basketball scholarship, that’s all I was hearing all through high school,” Gaines said. “Football just came out of nowhere.”

Gaines redshirted his freshman season and he prefers not to sit out another.

So when coaches approached him about moving to wide receiver for spring practice, Gaines acquiesced, no doubt flashing the smile that never seems to leave his face.

He laughs when he remembers that first practice, and his teammates laugh with him. In theory, the tall, athletic Gaines, whose hands made him an excellent rebounder in high school, should’ve been an ideal wide receiver. But he progressed slowly.

“I don’t know if he’s as natural a wide receiver as he was a quarterback,” DeLeone said. “Eventually, he would have made some progress there, but he could progress faster as a quarterback.”

“(Gaines’ first practice) was funny,” said Jared Jones, an SU quarterback turned wide receiver who lives with Gaines. “The concepts of practice he was good at. It was just doing the drills and stuff. The DBs, they were killing him at first.”

But not for long. When Howard transferred before the season, the door swung open for Gaines to return to quarterback. Now that he’s back at his old position, Gaines hopes to make up lost ground and find his identity.

The situation looks similar to when he first arrived. Firmly ahead of Gaines are starter Anderson and fifth-year captain Nunes. Next to him stands hyped freshman Perry Patterson, who will likely redshirt this year.

“In the back of your mind, you have to face facts with dreams and the ability to pursue your goals,” Jones said. “I know he wants to play. I know he loves to play. At the same time, he knows the two people in front of him are the two better people for the position.”

But that doesn’t deter Gaines. His journey has already led him through two sports and two positions, and he sees more stops ahead.

He plans to step onto the Dome turf as the Orangemen’s top signal-caller, looking nothing like the confused kid who, not long ago, couldn’t catch a pass or throw a football five yards.

“It’s going to take some time,” Gaines said. “But I’m going to get it.”

Published on September 24, 2002 at 12:00 pm