His junior season on the gridiron may not have gone the way he had hoped, but
the tools and work ethic that Sherrod Harris possess have him at the forefront
of the minds of college recruiters across the nation. The last time we
checked with the Arlington (Tex.) Bowie High School standout, he knew of two
offers communicated directly to him. Oklahoma State took the first plunge
last summer after his sophomore year when the Cowboys were enthralled with him
at their camp. Last month, former famed Texas slinger and current Syracuse
quarterbacks coach Major Applewhite extended an offer for the Orangemen.
Two more offers have rolled in for the 6'3" 195-pound dual-threat
quarterback. LSU has jumped into the Harris sweepstakes - a move we had
been expecting. The Tigers have Les Miles as their new head coach,
following his four years in Stillwater. Miles was still the head man at
Oklahoma State last summer when Harris was at their camp, and the desire for the
Texas slinger is evidently as strong now as it was then.
Interestingly, however, Harris does not list the Tigers right now in his top
seven. He tells The Bootleg that he currently favors Stanford,
Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Michigan, Florida State and Syracuse.
The quarterback recruit estimates that LSU is approximately ninth in his mind
right now.
"They're floating around there and are definitely a school I'm looking at,"
he adds. "I like Coach Miles."
The offer that hit the other weekend with a bigger impact came when Harris
and his mother made the drive down I-35 to Austin to the see the University of
Texas for their Junior Day. Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach
Greg Davis spent time with the visitors from Arlington, as did assistant head
coach and recruiting coordinator Bruce Chambers.
"My mother wasn't feeling well, so we didn't have the chance to talk with
Coach [Mack] Brown," Harris explains. "They unofficially offered me while I was
there, but it wasn't official until I called Coach Brown. He officially
offered me when I called to touch base with him."
"There was a great group of guys there. Jevan Snead from Stephenville
and Mitch Mustain from Arkansas were both there, and Coach Davis told us that
all three were offered. He said that they will offer Matthew Stafford, but
he was out and about couldn't make it for the Junior Day."
This was not the first trip for Harris to the Austin campus, but he was able
to gain a greater familiarity with the people and program through the day's
events.
"It helped me get more comfortable with where it is," he comments. "I
have two teammates at Texas, and they told me it's really cool. Just a
great environment."
"I can't call them my favorite because I don't have one favorite right now,
but Texas is somewhere at the top of my list," Harris allows.
Though she was ailing on the day, Harris' mother was the one with less of an
understanding of the campus and surroundings, making this visit more important
for her. She may have taken a headache home to Arlington, but she also
took favorable impressions away from the visit.
"My mother did enjoy Texas," the son proclaims. "Her head was hurting
real bad, but that didn't take away from her experience. I had seen the
facilities before, but this visit let my mother see them, and that definitely
helped their chances."
While we know of four firm offers that have come Harris' way, they are
apparently just the tip of the iceberg. His head coach at Bowie High
School tells him that 39 offers have come to the school for the athletic
quarterback, but acting as a gatekeeper, he has not filtered them all down to
Harris yet. The elite student-athlete, who carries a 1310 SAT and a
perfect 4.0 GPA, does not know if Stanford is one of those numerous offers or
not. He is just as anxious as we are to find out, and all we know at this
time is that there is still a mountain of recruiting news waiting to be
unearthed for Sherrod Harris. Stay tuned.
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