Jaelen Gill recorded 58.2% of his receiving output in the back half of the 2020 season. The Boston College wide receiver is hoping for another strong finish this fall.
Especially because, this time, he missed the first three games of the year with an injury.
Gill suffered a stress fracture right before fall camp. He told reporters Tuesday that, after a team run, he was doing drills, and he rolled over his foot. It cracked.
The Ohio State transfer, who Hafley said was “one of the biggest stories of the spring” back in April, had to work his way back to the field, returning for the Missouri game.
He’s grabbed two catches in each of the last two games for a total of 64 yards. Last year, he ranked fourth on the team with 435 receiving yards and 29 receptions.
Coming off the bye week, the redshirt junior says his foot “feels really good.”
“Obviously coming back, I had to get my stamina and everything back up, but I feel like I'm in a really good place right now,” Gill said.
Gill said that he expects his snap count to continue to rise. It tripled from seven versus Missouri to 21 at Clemson, where he registered a 74.6 Pro Football Focus offensive grade.
Gill hauled in a slant pass from BC quarterback Dennis Grosel for a 25-yard pickup midway through the fourth quarter in Death Valley. It was perfectly timed and hit Gill in stride.
“He has a lot of versatility,” Grosel said Tuesday. “We put him in the slot, we put him outside. He lets us do a lot with him in the game. We’re really happy to have him back. He’s looking great.”
So far this season, Gill has lined up in the slot for 11 of his 28 snaps, or 39.3% of the time, per PFF.
Like the rest of the receivers, Gill is working to enhance his rapport with Grosel. He and the offense have full confidence in their redshirt senior gunslinger.
“We’re rocking with six,” Gill said. “We all have faith in six. As you guys have seen, six is a really good quarterback as well. So he spreads it out, too, just like Phil [Jurkovec]. … He makes a lot of guys happy.”
