He’s arrived

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The hype began in the spring of 2008 when Randy Shannon hauled in ESPN’s #1 ranked recruiting class for football. Along with other top recruits, Jacory Harris was coming in as a guy who could run the spread offense and put up points for years to come for the Miami Hurricanes.

After winning the starting job following his freshman season, Harris showed promise with flashes of great play in his first full season starting as a sophomore. The only issue was his poor decision-making at times, which led to 17 interceptions that were often very costly.

With a full year of experience, though, he was bound to improve into a dependable starting quarterback as a junior, right? Not quite.

Despite whispers as Harris being a dark-horse preseason candidate for the Heisman Trophy, he struggled mightily in his junior season.  With a completion percentage under 55% and 15 interceptions to only 14 touchdowns, it seemed like Harris had lost it all when he went out with a concussion, and true freshman Stephen Morris stepped in and took his spot.

However, Coach Shannon decided to give him another chance in the Sun Bowl against Notre Dame. It did not go well for Harris, who completed 4 of 7 passes for 37 yards and 3 interceptions before being benched in favor of the freshman Morris.

After this debacle, fans wanted the starting job for 2011 in Morris’s hands and for Harris to never be seen on the field again. I became one of the biggest Harris haters and was all in favor of starting over with Morris at quarterback and a new coach coming in.

But the story of Jacory Harris took one more turn his senior year.

Following an uninspiring performance by Morris in the season opener, new coach Al Golden called Harris’ number, naming him the starter against Ohio State (following his 1-game suspension to start the season for NCAA infractions). And I can’t lie; I was still calling for his head following that game.

Although the Canes won, Harris had two interceptions that looked exactly like the poorly thrown balls that had killed him earlier in his career, along with a few other terrible passes that should have been picked off.

Nonetheless, Golden stuck with him, and Harris has been a different man since. He has thrown only one interception since that game, and his statistics for the last three games overall have been fantastic: 45 of 68 passes for 709 yards with 8 touchdowns and most importantly, zero interceptions.

As one of his many critics before the season, I am proud to admit I was wrong about him. I was sold on the fact that he didn’t have what it takes to improve, and I was wrong. I admit it. The only question is, what took so long for Jacory Harris to become the player everyone thought he could be?

No one knows, but as a student at the U, I’m just happy he’s finally arrived.

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