‘They wanted me’: Mizzou football pledge BJ Harris talks about why he chose Columbia
BJ Harris came out of the locker room for the second half with a renewed mindset.
While still a freshman in high school, Harris found himself in a precarious spot: All three running backs ahead of him on the depth chart had gone down with injuries. Ralph Potter, his coach at McCallie, an all-boys Tennessee prep school, told him to get ready, because they were going to hand him the ball.
The rest of the game was a blur, Harris said, but he remembers vividly his third carry. He saw an opening and the next thing he realized he was trotting into the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown.
“Everything happened so fast,” Harris told The Star. “It was weird. But, like, freshman year, everything was off instinct. … One thing led to another and the hole just opened.”
Harris said he plans to bring at least a few more such touchdowns to Mizzou, having committed to Eliah Drinkwitz’s Tigers on June 25. Harris, listed as a three-star running back, is ranked as the No. 739 prospect in the nation, according to 247Sports.
The 5-foot-10 Chatanooga, Tenn., native said his stellar relationship with Mizzou’s coaches had a lot to do with his commitment — especially MU running backs coach Curtis Luper. Harris said he awakens early for workouts, and Luper gets up early, too, to ride his bike.
Once they’re both done working out, Harris said, they call each other to catch up.
“I chose them because of the coaching staff,” said Harris, MU’s second running back pledge of its 2021 class. “It seemed like they had a strong support system. They wanted me.”
Bernard Harris, BJ’s father, said his son started playing football at age 4. Bernard wanted to get his son out of the house and make sure he didn’t sit at home playing video games all day.
Bernard said he instilled his background in the Marines into BJ’s football training. After BJ started taking football seriously, the offers started pouring in. BJ earned his first scholarship offer from South Carolina during his freshman year; in-state Tennessee followed soon after.
Bernard, a first-generation college graduate, said he wanted to help his son if he had any questions, but the final decision was all BJ. At one point, Bernard found a sample of a football player’s schedule on Twitter and showed it to his son to illustrate the rigorous daily schedule he’d be facing.
All-in, BJ ultimately chose the Tigers, which Bernard said he supported. From talking scheme with Drinkwitz to being reassured that BJ’s classroom education was going to be taken seriously, Bernard liked what he heard from the Tigers’ coaching staff.
“I can just tell they’re not stargazing,” Bernard said of MU. “They’re really trying to find football players. I told BJ that’s a big deal. It’s a big deal when somebody picks you as a three-star running back and says that you’re better (than a three-star). Then you get a chance to prove it.”
While BJ hasn’t visited Columbia yet, he said he plans to do so in the near future. The NCAA has shut down all such visits through at least Aug. 31 because of the pandemic. BJ said he’s taken a virtual tour of campus, adding he “loved” how the football facilities looked.
While the upcoming fall season of football at McCallie is shrouded in uncertainty because of the pandemic — much like every other sport — BJ’s looking forward to getting on campus at Mizzou.
“His best quality as a running back is his eyes,” said Potter, the coach at McCallie. “His ability to see the whole field. His ability to make it to the second level. He’s got good speed. He’s a big, strong guy. He has really come light years in terms of his maturity and work ethic.”