Cliff Harris, channeling greatness and new-found maturity

Bob Rickert wrote a story just this Wednesday for his Oregonian blog, and it reflects the growing maturity of Cliff Harris, the Ducks mercurial and uber-talented shutdown corner.


Turns out Harris, Darron Thomas and Dion Jordan spent part of their spring vacation visiting an elementary school in Fresno.  Here's an excerpt from Rickert's account of their visit:

Their overall message was that you need to study and listen and work hard and you can get to college too. Isaak in my class said, Cliff is a nice guy. I asked him what it was like to be a famous football player and he said, "Man I'm not famous, I'm like you. You stay in school and do what you're supposed to do and you can be whatever you want someday."

That's not the lock-shit-down Harris talking.  He's still confident and original, but there's a focus, a directedness in Kash's approach this spring that wasn't apparent when he was a brash freshman.  Tom Osborne told oregonlive.com's Molly Blue that the junior All-American is "a different guy" than he was a year or two ago in the program:

The Oregonian is wall-to-wall Harris love today.  In yet another big-O article secondary coach John Neal reveals he's experimented in practice with working his star defensive back at safety.  With Harris' instincts and closing speed, that's an intriguing possibility.  Think back to this play in the National Championship Game:



We've run this before in another context, but watch how Harris breaks on the ball on this play.  It has a Willie Mays other-world awareness about it--he leaves his man in the middle of the play like he knows what's going to happen.  Imagine him in the deep middle, free to read the quarterback's eyes and freelance.

Oregon depends on the safeties too much for run support for him to play there extensively, but particularly in passing situations, nickel packages and such, Harris with the freedom to roam and improvise could be a devastating weapon.  A coverage rotation that disguised his role as the free defender would really overmatch the quarterback.  Last year he picked Andrew Luck twice in the biggest game of the regular season.