August 15, 2007

Harris hangs at the corner
Kansas freshman is winning the competition for the right cornerback spot opposite veteran Aqib Talib.

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

LAWRENCE | Chris Harris is a freshman cornerback. He has been practicing with Kansas for about two weeks now and insists he's just trying to get better each day.

Aqib Talib is an All-America candidate. He has started for two years and wholly believes he's going to win the Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the nation's best defensive back.

At Monday afternoon's open practice, Harris and Talib were paired together in a one-on-one drill. Just plain cruel, right? A little freshman orientation, maybe? Far from it. Harris' task was to play bump-and-run coverage and stuff Talib, playing the role of receiver, at the line of scrimmage.

Talib started the duel by calling Harris scared. Then he hit the true freshman with a quick inside move and cut outside, leaving Harris grasping for Talib's shirt.

"Fade route!" Talib taunted.

The next time up, Harris showed why he's winning the competition to start at right cornerback. He got his hands on Talib and disrupted his route. In response, all Talib could do was offer the excuse, "I would have knocked your hand off." This pleased first-year cornerbacks coach Je'Ney Jackson.

"That's it!" Jackson said. "He's going to get you one time. That's all!"

Temperatures were in the triple-digits on Monday, and nobody on the KU roster should be feeling the heat more than Harris. After going against Talib, he was forced to cover senior receiver Marcus Herford in individual drills. Herford got him two times in a row for touchdown catches, prompting more direction from Jackson.

"Get your shoulders into his chest!" Jackson yelled.

On the third try, Herford beat Harris again.

"Chris, you might have to dive on that!" Jackson said.

Not exactly the words Kansas fans want to hear. Too many times last season, KU defensive backs were diving and flailing and coming up with nothing, leading to the nation's worst pass defense (269.1 yards per game).

This year, things were expected to improve with the addition of junior transfer Kendrick Harper, who won the spot opposite Talib in the spring. But an undisclosed injury will sideline Harper for four to six weeks, keeping him out possibly until Big 12 play. Now, Harris is one of several cornerbacks with a legitimate shot of winning a starting job. On Monday, he played most of the snaps with the first-team defense.

"I feel like I belong," said Harris, from Bixby, Okla., a suburb of Tulsa. "I feel like that's my spot."

He doesn't lack confidence. But he needs even more. That's why Jackson, who played cornerback at Wyoming, is attaching Harris to Talib's hip.

"I want him to see how Aqib does it," Jackson said. "How he works, how quick his feet are, how he moves."

Let's not forget how Talib talks.

"He's saying you gotta open your mouth, stop being shy," Harris said. "You gotta speak loud when you're playing in front of thousands of people."

Harris was originally projected as a receiver for the Jayhawks, but when they signed receiver Rell Lewis, they were able to move Harris to corner, his most natural position. Harris said he originally thought he could work his way into the nickel or dime sets, but after Harper went down, he changed his focus to winning the starting job. The best competition should come from sophomore Anthony Webb, who has starting experience.

Kansas coach Mark Mangino said Harris has done a "remarkable" job for a player in his first camp and says he hasn't hit the usual freshman wall. Harris will have every opportunity in the coming weeks to start the opener Sept. 1 against Central Michigan.

"Really, he just needs to continue to get his confidence up," Jackson said. "The biggest thing is, it's different out here on the practice field than it is when we get in front of 50, 60, 70 thousand people. The one thing that we can't give him is the big thing that he needs."

To reach J. Brady McCollough, Kansas reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4363 or send e-mail to jmccollough@kcstar.com

J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell)