by Jeff Schuler
Allentown Morning Call
September 3, 2010

When it's all said and done, Jeff Giglio is probably going to be able to look back on a pretty nice collegiate career.

Barring injury, and based on his numbers for the past two years, the fifth-year wide receiver, who will begin his final East Stroudsburg season at Pace Saturday afternoon, will end up with somewhere between 135 and 150 career pass receptions, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,300 career yards, and 20 touchdowns.

That's a pretty solid career. But the Freedom product set the bar pretty high when he first put on a Warrior uniform five years ago – former ESU All-American Evan Prall, who was a senior in Prall's true freshman season.

"He was my benchmark," Giglio said of Prall, who ranks among the NCAA Division II career leaders with 235 catches, 4,093 yards and 50 touchdown catches. "Obviously, I didn't reach the expectations I set for myself, so in all honesty, I'm probably disappointed and I think I've underachieved. With this being my last year I want to really try to hold nothing back and let everything out on the field."

Giglio may be the only one "disappointed" with career numbers that could place him among the top six in all three categories among the receivers in ESU's high-powered offensive history.

"When you start comparing yourself to the Evan Pralls and the Tim Strenfels, that's just not a fair comparison," ESU offensive coordinator Mike Terwilliger said.

Giglio enters his senior season with 96 career catches for 1,640 yards and 14 touchdowns, including 41 catches for 749 yards and 10 touchdowns two years ago as a sophomore. And were it not for a few injuries the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder's numbers might be even better.

Terwilliger said Giglio was ready to make an impact as a true freshman in 2006 when he suffered a broken clavicle during a scrimmage. Although he tried to return by midseason he ultimately received a medical redshirt.

"You can count on one hand the amount of young men who came in here at 18 years old and fresh out of high school ready to play, and he was one of them," Terwilliger said. "We had a bunch of receivers that year with some experience and when he walked onto the practice field he beat some of those guys out."

Then last year he had 35 catches for 576 yards and three scores in the first seven games when a knee injury forced him to miss three of the final five games and limited him to just three catches in the other two. He finished the year with 38 catches for 603 yards and three touchdowns.

"If anything has held him back it's been injuries, certainly not his performance," Terwilliger said.

What Giglio regrets most about his freshman injury is that it cost him a chance to play catch with Jimmy Terwilliger, Mike's record-breaking son who graduated as the most prolific passer in NCAA Division II history.

"That's the most frustrating part, that I would have been able to have a full year with him if I hadn't gotten hurt," he said. "Just working with him in preseason and later in the year in practice was just awesome."

Not that Giglio hasn't fit in well with Terwilliger's successors, Tim Roken and incumbent Matt Marshall.

"Matt can make any throw on the field and he's very knowledgeable," Giglio said of his fellow fifth-year senior, who despite limited playing time (he's made just 14 career starts so far) could finish just behind All-Americans Terwilliger and Damian Poalucci on most of the school's career passing lists. "The best part of his game is the mental aspect. He has a knack for seeing the coverages and checking into the right plays."

The connection between quarterback and receivers is always a key, but even more so in ESU's offense, the elder Terwilliger said.

"Once they get on the field they better be seeing the same thing," Terwilliger said. "That's the chemistry you work for, and every quarterback I've coached has been able to get it done. Marshall's a very special kid; he seems to know all the time what his receivers are thinking."

Giglio's knee injury limited him to one catch for seven yards in last year's playoff loss to Edinboro, and with 17 returning starters, including eight on offense, the Warriors are primed to return to the postseason. Despite those returners and its success the last two years (17 wins), ESU was slotted fifth in the PSAC East preseason poll.

Giglio claims he and his teammates aren't taking that a snub.

"We're disappointed to be ranked fifth, but three of the teams ahead of us beat us last year [Bloomsburg, C.W. Post, Shippensburg] and the other is West Chester," he said. "So it's probably fair. We just need to prove we're a better team than that. And if we can get to the postseason we expect big things this year."