Tom Pugh started chuckling as he reminisced about Devon Cajuste, a laugh that brought back fond memories, of his former pupil catching touchdown passes and turning high school football fields into personal highlight reels.
“He could jump over guys, he was a high jumper,” the Holy Cross High School football coach recalled. “He would run down the field and jump over people. Phenomenal athlete.”
That spellbinding athleticism is back, after a lost year and a season of development, and fifth-ranked Stanford is the beneficiary.
Cajuste, a 6-foot-4, 228-pound receiver, returns home this weekend as a starting receiver for the Cardinal, who visit Army at West Point on Saturday afternoon, coming off his breakout, three-reception, 62-yard, one-TD performance in a season-opening rout of San Jose State.
Cajuste’s father, Greg, attended last weekend’s game in Palo Alto, Calif., and said he gets goosebumps thinking about his son’s 40-yard touchdown reception. He said they are expecting 120 family members and friends to be in attendance at Blaik Field at Michie Stadium.
“We’re looking forward to it,” the elder Cajuste said. “It’s a big day. We’ve been talking on the phone every day since the last game. He’s very, very psyched and very, very prepared.”
The Seaford, L.I., product, who commuted to Queens to star for Holy Cross, said he picked Stanford as a junior because the Pac-12 program was not recruiting him as a tight end. Notre Dame wanted him, but as a linebacker.
“I don’t care how great Notre Dame is, I’m not going,” Greg recalled Devon saying.
On Devon’s visit to Stanford, when head coach David Shaw said he didn’t envision a position change, Cajuste committed on the spot.
“I guess it was just like, ‘Give me a shot. Don’t shoot someone down before they have the opportunity,’ ” the redshirt sophomore said. “The glory of the big catch is really more applied to the receiver. And being my size, a tight end would make me an even match. It’s such a huge advantage being on the outside at my size.”
Cajuste was honored just to be part of the football program at Stanford, describing it as an accomplishment in itself. After a medical redshirt his freshman year following a torn ACL — “the worst year of his life because he wasn’t a part of something he was expected to be,” Greg said — he set a modest goal last season of getting in on just one play.
“When I started on scout team, I wanted to be scout player of the week. So when I got that, it was, ‘All right, what’s the next goal?’ ” Cajuste said. “I want to go up to the team. I don’t want to be on the scout field anymore. And then after that it’s like, ‘All right, I want playing time. I just want one play.’ ”
He got more than that, becoming a regular in Stanford’s power running packages by midseason, even starting in the Rose Bowl, though he made just a single reception last season. He has tripled that total already.
“He’s huge, he’s physical and he’s got deceiving speed,” quarterback Kevin Hogan told reporters this week.
Cajuste had a memorable career at Holy Cross as a dominant wide receiver, linebacker and safety. He led the CHSFL with 47 catches for 864 yards and nine touchdowns his senior year, and he usually did it despite double and triple coverage.
“He was one of the best physical players to come through our league,” Pugh, the Holy Cross coach, said of Cajuste, who also was an accomplished track star in high school, as well as a swimmer and musician. “He had 35 offers. He visited Notre Dame, Army, he was an Ivy League kid. He had it all.”
Pugh said Cajuste is “right there” with Buccaneers wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, a Virginia graduate, as the top players he has coached in 40 seasons at Holy Cross. Pugh, who at one time worked in the pro personnel department with the Jets, thinks Cajuste can play on Sundays.
“Devon’s got all the tools,” he said. “Devon’s got more of an upside [than Kevin] because of his height, obviously.”