A Look Back:  David Harris

A Look Back: David Harris


June 1, 2017

(image via Mike DeSimone)

(image via NY Daily News)

This week I get to write about my all-time favorite Wolverine defensive player.  Depending on which recruiting site you trust, Ottawa Hills (Grand Rapids) linebacker David Harris was considered a high-2 or low-3 star prospect.  Harris defied the odds and was picked in the second round of the NFL draft.  To my knowledge, Harris was the only 2-star recruit ever drafted from Michigan until Jeremy Clark was picked this year.  His career arc is one that shows what consistent work ethic and resilience can produce. 

 

Coming out of Ottawa Hills, Harris did not have a prodigious scholarship offer sheet.  He did have offers from every D1 school in Michigan (Eastern, Western, Central, and State), and Purdue.  There were no other schools knocking on Harris’s door.  Nothing about this list screamed “can’t miss” prospect, and after some research, it is a bit unclear as to why Harris wasn’t more highly recruited.  He did gain some regional accolades.  The Detroit Free Press named Harris to its all-state team as a senior, one year after he set a school record with 158 tackles.  He was ranked the #13 prospect in the state and the #35 in the midwest.   One source I found questioned his speed, but went on to list his 40-time at 4.7, which is at least respectable for a fullback/linebacker in high school in 2002.  Furthermore, he was on the track team, which makes me think that speed wasn’t the issue.  Regardless, he never garnered much hype on the recruiting trail, and didn’t feature any blue chip offers other than that from Lloyd Carr.  

Harris’s college career got off to an inauspicious start.  While he saw some early playing time as a true freshman, a severe ACL tear led to a redshirt.  He faced a few setbacks in his recovery, and it took him almost two full years to get back onto the field.  Harris bounced back and had a strong junior year in 2005 (a team-leading 88 tackles), and won the Roger Zatkoff Award for Michigan’s best linebacker.  This all set the stage for his breakout senior season.

David Harris’s senior year was arguably one of the best by a Michigan linebacker since Lloyd Carr took over the program.  He led the ferocious 2006 defense, which only gave up 43 rushing yards per game.  He shared the coveted Bo Schembechler Team MVP award with Mike Hart, and tallied another 96 tackles.  He was a second team All-American, and first team All-Big 10.  Harris was selected with the 15th pick in the 2nd round by the New York Jets and has enjoyed a 10-year career with the team, which is set to continue this fall.  The Jets had to give up a small bounty of draft picks to move up and select Harris, but that appears to have been worth it.  In his first two starts, Harris was a monster, recording a total of 41 tackles.  He’d finish his rookie year with a whopping 127 tackles.  In 2014, then-Head Coach Rex Ryan told the New York Daily News that Harris is “the most underrated player in the league.”

Why is Harris my favorite defensive player of all time?  I think a lot of it has to do with his work ethic.  It would have been easy for a relatively unheralded and often injured recruit to stray from the game of football.  I like to think that something unique about Michigan helped mold Harris into the professional he became.  Maybe Harris would have enjoyed a decade long NFL career if he had gone to Purdue.  Or maybe Harris heard the phrase, “those who stay will be champions” so many times that he started to live it.

One comment

  1. Comments: 36
    Joined: 11/17/2015
    funkywolve
    Jun 02, 2017 at 4:22 PM

    Nice write up. Loved watching him play too. Never realized his recruiting rankings were so low.

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