One Gamecock freshman can ‘take the top off the defense.’ What it took to get there
Coming off the last year, a long and transformational process, Northwestern High School football coach Page Wofford admitted there was a measure of satisfaction in seeing how far Ger-Cari Caldwell had come.
“To stay the course, you tell the kids all the time: Just keep doing the right things and good things will happen,” Wofford said. “He is a perfect example of that.”
Caldwell went from a player who caught 28 passes in a deep receiving group as a sophomore to one who caught only 13 passes as a junior, a critical year to set up the recruiting process. Now he’s a freshman at SEC school South Carolina, ready to contend for playing time.
It’s the final step of a year that started with him having few offers at all, committing to East Carolina and eventually seeing his offer sheet grow before finally finding his spot with the Gamecocks.
“In the end, he ended up where he would have ended up,” Wofford said, “where he should have ended up in the first place, which is a Division-I school, football program, and that is going to hopefully showcase his talents.”
But it wasn’t a simple road.
Wofford said he’s not sure exactly what happened in Caldwell’s junior year. The coach had left the Rock Hill powerhouse for a one-year stint as offensive coordinator at Daniel High, before he was called back to be the Trojans’ head coach.
But the coach already felt Caldwell had SEC-caliber talent. He simply pointed out that Northwestern always has good receivers, so playing as early as he did meant something.
So did showing up all summer in 2019, getting to just about every workout, every 7-on-7 session and every practice.
What was lacking was ironclad proof on the field. And that came quickly last fall.
“Once people saw his tape and it really happened his senior year when he was a focal point of our offense early on,” Wofford said. “And once that tape got out, it was pretty obvious he was really good.”
The 6-foot-4, 195-pounder caught five passes in his first game, four in his second, six in his third. The Trojan offense used him in a variety of ways, letting him be a yards-after-catch threat as well as an option deep.
By the end of the season he had 51 catches, more than 750 yards and offers from Tennessee and Baylor in addition to the Gamecocks.
The stepbrother of NFL player Anthony Johnson, a product of rival South Pointe, Caldwell could add a range of skills when he gets a chance on the field in college.
“I see him as a long, speed guy who could definitely take the top off the defense and create some space behind it,” Wofford said, “while being able to make the tough catches. He doesn’t believe there’s any such thing as a 50-50 ball. Good receivers know that there’s no such thing as a 50-50 ball. When the ball is in the air, it belongs to them.”
South Carolina has questions about whether it will play games at all, given the coronavirus pandemic, and the team overall has questions at wide receiver. Shi Smith has 117 career catches. The pair of OrTre Smith and Josh Vann have 79 catches across four-plus seasons. No other receiver has more than nine career catches.
Incoming offensive coordinator Mike Bobo even spoke publicly about looking forward to getting Caldwell and fellow freshman Rico Powers on campus this summer.
“I knew about him at Colorado State,” Bobo said of Caldwell. “He kind of burst on the scene his senior year and we thought we’d have a shot at it because really nobody was on him at the time, and then he kind of blew up late in recruiting. But he’s a 6-4 kid that can jump and can run. I think he’s another long kid that’ll give us an opportunity to bring depth to that room because we need some depth at receiver.”
Caldwell has been on campus for a few weeks now. Players have been in workouts and some player-run practices. If the sports world doesn’t come to a halt, the team is starting walk-throughs with coaches ahead of practice.
This time last summer, Caldwell didn’t appear to be in position to find himself with a power conference program. But some of the things he showed his coach that summer got him here, and likely will carry him forward.
“I knew what kind of guy he was,” Wofford said. “He’s a great young man. He’s hardworking, honest. He’s going to try to please. He’s gonna try to do what he’s supposed to do. He’s going to try to be where he’s supposed to be when he’s supposed to be there.”
