Xavier Legette Added to Biletnikoff Watch List

COLUMBIA, S.C. (October 5, 2023) – University of South Carolina standout wide receiver Xavier Legette has been added to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, the Tallahassee Quarterback Club (TQC) Foundation, Inc. announced today.

The Biletnikoff Award annually recognizes the college football season’s outstanding FBS receiver. Any player, regardless of position (wide receiver, tight end, slot back, and running back) who catches a pass is eligible for the award. As such, the Biletnikoff Award recognizes college football’s outstanding receiver, not merely college football’s outstanding wide receiver.

Legette, a 6-3, 217-pound “Super” senior from Mullins, S.C., has been one of the nation’s top receivers through the early part of the 2023 campaign. Legette ranks third in the SEC and fifth in the country in receiving yards per game at 121.2, with 32 receptions for 606 yards through five contests. He is fourth in the league and tied for 19th in the nation with 6.40 catches per game, and ranks third in the conference and tied for 39th in the land in yards per catch at 18.94. He had a five-catch, 189-yard, two touchdown performance against Mississippi State, a game in which he became the first player in school history to be on the receiving end of a pair of 75+-yard completions. He also had a nine-catch, 178-yard performance against North Carolina and a six-catch, 118-yard effort versus Furman.

The semifinalists, finalists, and award recipient are selected by the highly distinguished Biletnikoff Award National Selection Committee, a group of 650 prominent college football journalists, commentators, announcers, Biletnikoff Award winners, and other former receivers. Foundation trustees do not vote and have never voted. For a list of voters, please see BiletnikoffAward.com/voters.

The 2023 Biletnikoff Award winner will be presented the Biletnikoff Award trophy by TQC Founding Trustee and Chairman Walter Manley II, Fred Biletnikoff, and the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Danny Wuerffel, keynote speaker, at the black-tie Biletnikoff Award Banquet & Celebration at the Dunlap Champions Club, at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee on Saturday, March 9, 2024. The banquet was hailed by 2014 keynote speaker Dick Vermeil, as well as by 2013 keynoter Larry Csonka, as “the best banquet in college sports.”

The name Biletnikoff is synonymous with the term receiver. Fred Biletnikoff, a member of the pro and college football halls of fame, was a consensus All-America receiver at Florida State University and an All-Pro receiver for the Oakland Raiders. He caught 589 passes for 8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns in his 14-year Raiders career from 1965 through 1978. Fred was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XI