Bailey Gaither is fast.
He runs fast. He talks fast. One cut, one wiggle and he's a blur down the field.
The slow slog of injury rehab, however, made him appreciate that speed even more.
Last year as a junior, Gaither was off to a quick start, with six catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns against UC Davis. He had two more catches against Washington State and grabbed six balls for 90 yards at Oregon. In the Mountain West opener against Hawaii, Gaither had already made a 42 yard catch in the first quarter. Then, in the second, the Paso Robles, Calif., native took a Josh Love pass 55 yards to the house for a touchdown. It was his last play of the season.
"I was running and a guy clipped the back of my foot and I landed funny," Gaither said. "I had to hop in to the endzone. That was that."
Gaither tore his Achilles tendon on the play. Just as he was starting to take off as the Spartans' go-to deep threat, Gaither faced surgery and a long rehabilitation process.
Almost every day for seven months, Gaither got up in the morning and headed to the training room in the Simpkins Stadium Center. He'd do exercises to strengthen his repaired Achilles. Exercises to get the range of motion and flexibility back. It was a lot of heat and ice and work.
With all that, Gaither still thinks the mental part of rehab was the most difficult.
"Trusting myself, telling myself that I'm going to be okay, that I'll get through it," Gaither said. "Dealing with myself mentally."
The mental side of rehab for Gaither included dealing with the false alarms. A string of good days would be spoiled by a painful morning. But that's all part of the process.
"It's such a tedious injury," Gaither said. "It's hard to tell people that you feel better one day and then worse the next. I didn't like having to tell people that I was hurting, I wanted to be better. But I needed to be honest with myself. You push it one day and the next day it hurts. Sometimes if you went too easy it would hurt the next day. Rehab is a jagged line, it's not smooth."
Eventually the zigs and zags of rehab started to level out. Seven months after surgery, Gaither was able to do the thing he does so well. Run.
He wasn't able to cut yet, but the straight-line speed that has made him a weapon for the Spartans was still there. Gaither could still get up and go.
"That was definitely the worst injury I've had in my life," Gaither said. "I had my family supporting me through it and all my close friends. The rehab was tough, but it made me stronger."
Gaither's family includes his mom, dad and younger brother. Growing up, Gaither used his speed to become a multi-sport star at Paso Robles High School. The 6-foot-1 wide receiver racked up 3,277 yards receiving and 41 touchdowns over three varsity seasons. He was also the San Luis Obispo Country Player of the Year as a shortstop, hitting .500 his junior year with 32 stolen bases. With colleges calling with offers for both sports, Gaither decided to follow his friend and high school football teammate, Josh Oliver, to San Jose State.
After a redshirt season and limited playing time as a freshman and sophomore, Gaither was enjoying his breakout junior year until going down against Hawaii. The adversity has made his standout senior season even sweeter.
Heading into Saturday's showdown with No. 21 Boise State, Gaither has been on the receiving end of 27 passes from fellow fifth-year senior quarterback Josh Love for 491 yards and four touchdowns. Love has experienced his own sets of ups and downs during his career, something the pair has bonded over.
"Me and Josh have been friends through this whole process," Gaither said. "Both a little overlooked when we first got here. Not really in the picture. Kudos to him, he worked really hard for this. He deserves this. A bunch of different coaches and staffs, we've been through it all together. New beginnings have been good to us."
Throughout Gaither's rehab process, one goal he had was to get back to where he left off. Not only figuratively – starting a season strong and becoming a go-to target – but literally as well. He wanted to get back into the endzone, the place where we was helped off the field a year earlier.
It took a little while, until the Spartans' fifth game of the season. Against New Mexico on Oct. 4, Gaither showed off his trademark speed with an 80-yard touchdown bomb from Love. Crossing the goal line, Gaither couldn't help but soak in the moment.
"It just felt so good," Gaither said. "It felt so good, like this is where I'm supposed to be."
Back to blazing down the field. Back in the end zone. It took a long time to get back to that place, but Gaither has made quick work of reclaiming his role as the Spartans' deep threat.
