Tulsa Washington RB Michael Harris

[arklahoman36]

Pat Jones on an Oklahoma sports talk radio show said he was told Harris' grades were improving, and the prospect of him being eligible next season is much greater than it was.

[Space Man]

Pat Jones on an Oklahoma sports talk radio show said he was told Harris' grades were improving, and the prospect of him being eligible next season is much greater than it was.

He is much better than I expected.  OK is not just blowing smoke on this kid. 

[Tomhog™]

Seems like several of our key commits are going to have some work to do to become eligible...

[orgkeith]

That is the general theme with most of the good talent we sign out of state.  The instate schools take the sure things and we take the gambles.  We recruit well when we make the right gambles.

[jackflash]

Do other schools have to take as many gambles as we do.  :razorback: :razorback: :razorback: :razorback:

[arklahoman36]

That is the general theme with most of the good talent we sign out of state.  The instate schools take the sure things and we take the gambles.  We recruit well when we make the right gambles.

He probably would have been more highly recruited if there weren't concerns about him qualifying.
OSU did look at him, but then backed off.

[orgkeith]

Atleast we did well enough by winning 10 games that we didn't take our usual gambles on damaged goods (bad knees) like we have in the past.  Those kids rarely if ever pan out.  If the right 4 or 5 dont get into school the heat will be amped up.

[IcEwalker]

harris will probably redshirt anyways

[ErieHog]

Do other schools have to take as many gambles as we do.  :razorback: :razorback: :razorback: :razorback:

Yep.   A lot of recruiting boils down to guesswork; for every hit, there's always 3 misses.  Now, the quality of those hits varies, and so does the quality of those misses-- the guy you saw as a 4 year starter if he qualified academically, becomes the 4 year backup, when he doesn't adjust to the speed of the game.   It happens to the best of teams, and the best of players.

[arklahoman36]

harris will probably redshirt anyways

Even without Jones and McFadden he would need to redshirt. He's good, not the God that some people were making him out to be, certainly not a project, but still needs to develop.

[CarolinaHog1176]

harris will probably redshirt anyways

Even without Jones and McFadden he would need to redshirt. He's good, not the God that some people were making him out to be, certainly not a project, but still needs to develop.

so his high school coach thinking that he's better than felix jones was in high school is "some people making him out to be better than he really is?"  I understand what you're saying but did you go to his high school games?  I'm not trying to be an ass, I'm just curious because I see roughly 0% of our recruits in person

[Tomhog™]

Unless he or one of the other RB recruits prove to by dynamite, they should all be redshirted.  No sense in wasting a year on mopup duty.  We are very loaded at RB already...

EDIT - I can't believe I spelled sense as 'since'.  That's like saying I have a car for 'sell'....

[501Ben]

great news +1

[arklahoman36]

harris will probably redshirt anyways

Even without Jones and McFadden he would need to redshirt. He's good, not the God that some people were making him out to be, certainly not a project, but still needs to develop.

so his high school coach thinking that he's better than felix jones was in high school is "some people making him out to be better than he really is?"  I understand what you're saying but did you go to his high school games?  I'm not trying to be an ass, I'm just curious because I see roughly 0% of our recruits in person

I only saw him a few times, but one game was when he played the best run defense -- fastest and strongest -- he faced all year (Muskogee). He still ran for like 125 on 30+ carries, but between 1 good early run and one good run late when defense was in prevent, he had trouble with the speed of the defense and was bottled up.

In the couple other games I saw, and in the highlights, once the O-line opened holes for him, the teams didn't have the speed at LB to keep him from getting into the secondary. So he would regularly pop 10+ yard runs.

He's not going to see the gaping hopes created by the O-line with the same regularity in college as in high school, and he's not going to play a 10 game schedule with only one team on that schedule with the speed at LB to keep up.

Not saying the guy isn't a heckuva prospect, not saying he can't develop into something special, just think he will need time in practice to adjust to the speed of the college game, especially conference play.

Never saw Felix in high school, had friends who saw both he and Harris. They all seem to agree that if Jones wasn't as talented as Harris, he was at least better prepared to go play as a freshman somewhere.

[darazorback]

Seems like several of our key commits are going to have some work to do to become eligible...

That's probably why they were willing to commit to us. Because, all the other major colleges saw their grades and backed off their recruiting attempts on the kids!