Auburn Commitment Profile: Safety Kaleb Harris

Thompson High School's Kaleb Harris brings all-around skills to the Auburn Tigers

Time to break down Auburn’s newest safety commitment. This all-around talent can be utilized in many different ways. It’s always good to see the Tigers bringing in more and more talent from inside the state of Alabama borders, too.

Kaleb Harris

Size

: 6-foot-1, 190 pounds

Position

: Safety

High School

: Alabaster (Ala.) Thompson

Recruiting: Auburn finds a talented safety from perennial in-state power Thompson; no surprise about the high school. It is great that Auburn is being more successful in recruiting Birmingham and its top prep programs.

Some of his other offers include Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Arkansas, Missouri, UCF, Penn State, Georgia Tech and Maryland.

Frame: Harris just looks like a safety. Rangy, muscular, and tall enough to impact a game from a physical standpoint. He should top out at just over 200 pounds. He possesses the brawn to play early, which is a good sign for Auburn.

Athleticism: Changes direction well, showcases good open-field speed, and uses good knee bend to get low when he’s striking a ball carrier. Harris does his best work, athletically speaking, when he plants his foot in the ground and plays downhill with all-out speed.

Vision: From the backend of the defense, Harris diagnoses plays quickly. Not easily fooled, Harris rarely allows the football to get behind him. That natural football IQ is going to be an asset in the always-difficult SEC.

Polish: Point blank, signing players from perennial prep powers like Thompson matters. That’s a football factory and its players come out with more finetuning than the vast majority of other high school programs around the nation. Harris is a good example.

Harris looks smooth as he moves toward the football; he does not take awkward angles to the ball carrier. It’s also refreshing to see him wrap up a ball carrier instead of just knocking an opposing player with his shoulder.

Fitting Into Auburn’s Defense: It’s obvious that Harris loves physicality. He’s a striker, and Harris plays just as well in the box as he does as a single-high safety away from other players during a Cover-1 play call.

With modern college football, seeing versatile safeties make an impact in the passing game is common. Finding safeties like Harris, however, that also display the wherewithal to be good tacklers in the box, is unique. Most safeties are good at slowing down the pass or the run, not both.

Look for the Auburn staff to find a niche for Harris during the first couple of years he’s on the Plains. His role will expand over time. For now, the best bet sees Harris in the nickel and dime formation packages as a safety who’s capable of playing near the line of scrimmage and causing havoc.

The Auburn Tigers continue to build their defense for the future. Harris will certainly be a part of that process.

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