A bigger, stronger, smarter, healthier J12

Bigger. Stronger. Faster. It’s been a mantra for the Miami Hurricanes for years, but was hard to live up to recently – due to poor recruiting and development of players. UM was no longer ‘reloading’; the program was officially ‘rebuilding’.

During the rebuilding process, kids are thrown into the fire early. They’re expected to perform – becoming boys to men overnight.

In a perfect college football world, where Miami is on top, we’d all just be getting to know Jacory Harris now.

Throw out the fact that the highly-touted local product led Northwestern to a ‘national championship’ – if No 12 came to Coral Gables when UM was on top, he’d have done what so many before him would’ve done; redshirted. Put on some man weight. Study film. Learn from an NFL-bound upperclassmen ahead of him on the depth chart.

Instead, Harris came to Miami in 2008 and was expected to play the role of savior, batting sophomore Robert Marve for the starting gig. Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith were also part of the same class has Harris, creating a log jam at the position – which is why all three eventually transferred when J12 earned the starting gig in 2009 and depth again quickly became an issue.

By 2011, Miami will be where it should be at quarterback – with depth from top to bottom. Harris will be a senior, A.J. Highsmith will be a junior, Stephen Morris will be a sophomore and if all goes according to plan, Northwestern’s Teddy Bridgewater will be a freshman. (Scout team quarterback Spencer Whipple will also be a senior and has displayed a vast knowledge of his father’s offense.)

Harris wasn’t afforded the luxury Highsmith and Morris have been given. Marve was unproven in ’08, opening the door for Harris to earn significant playing time. With a clear cut start in ’09 and now ’10, Miami’s back up quarterbacks have less pressure to perform and more opportunity to grow and learn at their own pace.

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman sat down with Harris at last week’s EA Sports Elite 11 QB Camp and the boy has become a man. Summer 2010 – this is when the college football world should’ve been formally introduced to J12. Just shy of 200 pounds (after arriving in Coral Gables barely 170 pounds soaking wet). Older. Wiser. Healthy. Ready.

Feldman’s article was a premium ESPN article, so it can’t be reprinted here. Those with Insider access, check it out. Those without, here’s the Cliff Notes version:

– Harris says the thumb is 100% healthy and has been since June.

– Regarding all the agent-related issues going on with players at other schools, Harris states that he’s looking out for himself and other players. He’s the type of kid to avoid trouble, he’s a worrier and he doesn’t want to get in trouble. “Don’t take anything that’s free” – his advice to other players out there.

– Having character and being a leader are two things Harris puts a premium on. “Character is everything. I can’t speak on what happens to other guys in the news. But you have to have character, ” said Harris. “You have to be a leader and can’t do the things that are wrong and going to get your team in trouble. Those actions reflect on the type of person you are. It’s selfish. It’s says you’re not caring about the team at that time.”

– Harris was very candid regarding some crushing losses last season. Regarding the 31-7 beating at Virginia Tech: “But that whole week coming into practice, we were celebrating like when we would score a touchdown. We were doing things that were so unlike us, things that we normally don’t do. Once I started seeing that, you could kinda see us losing our composure. And it showed on the field. We dropped 11 passes that game. We just weren’t ourselves.”

Regarding the loss to Wisconsin: “Execute the plays the right way and we’re going to come out with this victory.” But we didn’t do that. We were just like, ‘Wisconsin is sorry’ and then we get on the field and one drive go three-and-out. And we’re still like, ‘We’re gonna get it. It was easy scoring on ’em.’ We just kept saying it until it got to the fourth quarter and we’re like, ‘Wow, we really put ourselves in a hole. We need to crank it up.’ And then we crank it up, we score easily in like thirty-some seconds. We get the ball back on the onside kick, but then unfortunately we had a dropped pass happen on fourth down.”

“These are good teams we’re playing. We have to stop putting ourselves in situations where we have to make late comebacks. It’s a scared feeling. I’ve been through five of them in my first two years. You don’t want to have to do that week in and week out. We’ll score at will, but then once we’d have them down, we let up. Our coaches have this cliché: Kill a mosquito with an axe. And you have to do that. We may be the better opponent, but we don’t always show it.”

– Harris knows that being a local Miami talent means that football is a “Product Of The Ghetto” and much is expected. He knows UM fans expect him to be the savior, bringing the program “back” and he’s doing his best to get the program there. He says it’s a unique feeling, that he’s doing it for his city and that the “U” logo is everywhere around town, serving as a reminder.

– Harris says he’s learned from Randy Shannon that the team has to be connected to the community and that players have to give back. He spoke of the community service projects Shannon has the Canes doing every day during summer and on weekends. Come back home and giving back to the community, Harris “gets it”.

– On Shannon not being as uptight entering year four: “He loosened up a lot, especially since that 7-6 year [2008]. I believe when we all came from Northwestern, we loosened up everybody in the program: Coach Shannon, strength coach Andreu Swasey. We have fun, but we still get our work in. Now workouts are fun. My freshman year everything was serious. “Why y’all laughing?” Now we’re loosened up. Why can’t we laugh and joke as long as we’re paying attention and not messing up and working hard?”

– Harris isn’t consumed with putting on more weight, but wants to get mentally stronger. Dissect a defense. Make the right reads. Throw to the right person. Overcome your deficiencies.

– Harris says the secret to a big year and winning the ACC — treat the season as a process and take it a game at a time. Stay focused.

Spoken like the mature junior he is, big things are expected from J12 this year. After hitting the ground running, Harris can finally breathe and slow things down to a normal pace.

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