Kenneth Harris admits the bar was set pretty high.
On his first play from scrimmage for the Georgia Bulldogs, Harris caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from D.J. Shockley during a 48-13 rout of Boise State to open the 2005 season.
“I was shocked,” Harris said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I was just out there for my first play of my first game in front of 93,000 people. To go out there on my first play and score a touchdown, I would have told you I would have many more to come.”
That hasn’t been the case.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound split end from Cherryville, N.C., will enter his senior season still clinging to that lone touchdown reception. He has 30 career catches for 573 yards, but only four of those receptions came in a disappointing 2007 season.
“I kind of let myself slip last year,” he said. “There were a lot of things mentally and physically that I wasn’t doing. Coming into this year, I’ve got myself to where I’m pushing through things. If I don’t feel like going out there, I push through it and work hard. It all comes back to your work ethic.”
When the Bulldogs held their first meeting after the Sugar Bowl and the new seniors occupied the seats up front, the realization of this being his last chance hit.
Harris entered this spring as the No. 2 split end behind Kris Durham of Calhoun, but he is now working as the starter. In last Saturday’s first spring scrimmage, he caught two touchdown passes from Matthew Stafford.
“He’s a big, tall guy who can run a lot better than people give him credit for,” Stafford said. “He’s an old basketball player who can go up and get it. He can do a lot of things and is getting better every day. I’m expecting a lot out of him.”
Said Harris: “To go this long without a touchdown or a big play like that is disappointing. Hopefully this year, my senior year, I can go out there, make some plays, and return to the end zone a couple of times.”
Richt to Middle East
Georgia’s Mark Richt will be among several college football coaches who will visit Kuwait on a tour sponsored by the NCAA and Armed Forces Entertainment. The trip will be May 20-26, and Richt will be joined by Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, Miami’s Randy Shannon, Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and Yale’s Jack Siedlecki.
“We love the soldiers and their willingness to sacrifice for our country,” Richt said. “We want to support them not only in prayer but also in person. I look forward to meeting as many of our men and women in the armed forces as possible during the visit.”
The coaches will meet and greet soldiers at various bases and will coach flag football teams comprised of servicemen and women. Richt’s father-in-law was a Green Beret, and he has one brother-in-law who was an Air Force colonel and another who was a Marine.
“In football, you play home and away,” he said. “You don’t want a home game in the military.”
Odds and ends
The Bulldogs held their 10th spring practice Wednesday, and Richt said the defense remains ahead of the offense “by a good margin.” ... Richt also said his Bulldogs are further behind up front offensively than they were at this time last year. ... Backup tailback Caleb King sat out Wednesday’s workout with a sore knee suffered in last Saturday’s scrimmage.
David Paschall is a sports writer for the Times Free Press. He started at the Chattanooga Free Press in 1990 and was part of the Times Free Press when the paper started in 1999. David covers University of Georgia football, as well as SEC football recruiting, SEC basketball, Chattanooga Lookouts baseball and other sports stories. He is a Chattanooga native and graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received numerous honors for ...
