Colts 2022 Draft Interviews: Kevin Harris, RB, South Carolina

Meet South Carolina running back Kevin Harris. We talked about his career-best season in 2020, his favorite runs as a running back, and what he'll bring to a NFL team.

Kevin Harris is a former three star recruit out of Bradwell Institute in Hinesville, Georgia. He committed to South Carolina University out of high school and went on to appear in 28 games for the Gamecocks.

I asked Harris how he ended up committing to South Carolina:

When I was younger, I always wanted to play for the Florida Gators. When I saw Will Muschamp with South Carolina, I figured it was the next best thing (laughs).

He was great, though. There was this one time during spring ball my freshman year where I fumbled the ball and he told me, "If you ever do that again, you ain't ever gonna see the field." He was a great coach though and I always held on to the ball after that (laughs).

Harris saw the field in six games as a freshman before taking over as the main ball carrier the next season. As a sophomore, he led the SEC with 113 rushing yards per game and totaled 1,138 yards on the season. For his breakout season, Harris was named as a First Team All-SEC selection in just his second season of collegiate play.

I asked Harris what led to this historic second season:

Basically, it was just time to grow up. My first game that I felt good was the game against Florida. I was a fan of Florida growing up, so having my first 100 yard game that year against them was special. I was running and that is where I really felt like this isn't that hard. It all went up from there.

Harris would take a slight step back as a junior, as he had offseason back surgery prior to his final season. Once he got his feet under him he returned to his dominant play, rushing for 182 yards against North Carolina in his final game.

I asked Harris if it was tough going from his success as a sophomore to having to having to deal with injuries in his final year:

I mean, not really. It was tough in terms of not producing how I wanted to, but at the same time, I was just blessed to be that guy again. I had a long journey with my back injury and I wasn't there the whole summer. Guys take your spot when you aren't lifting or practicing, so I was just blessed to be back out there.  

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Film Talk

This interview is set up a little bit different from my other ones, as we mostly discussed aspects of his play on the field. For this interview, I have parts of our film conversation/breakdown listed below:

Speed

Harris is a bigger back (listed at 5'10" 220 pounds) but he is deceptively fast in the open field. He has a nice second-gear that allows him to turn five yard runs into big chunk plays of 20+ yards.

He may not test out of this world at the Combine, but you have to have some speed to run for 1,100 yards in the SEC. LSU found out first hand what that was like when they faced off against the talented back in 2020.

This was just one of many big runs on the day for Harris, as he rumbled for 126 yards on just 12 carries. He had a great quote when talking about his underrated speed:

People have been telling me my whole college career that I wasn't fast enough. I just had to go out there and prove them wrong. And you know what, I did it (laughs).

Running Hard

With his size and power, Harris is a tough running back to tackle in the open field. He will punish defenders, especially defensive backs, in the open field if they try to bring him down.

This was one of my favorite clips to watch on film, as Harris is able to crush the defensive back on his way to the sideline. He is a back that is overly physical and invites defenders to try to attack him:

I always had the mindset that I'm not going to get bullied by the other guys on that field. You either run hard or you get tackled hard so it was an easy decision for me in what I was going to do.

Setting Defenders Up

Running backs are not going to have success in college, or in the NFL, if they can't set up blocks. Harris always did an excellent job of pressing the hole in order to give himself extra space to run in South Carolina's offense.

This play against Tennessee is a good example. He presses to the interior before bouncing the run to the open lane behind the left tackle. By pressing the inside, Harris gets the middle linebackers to crash inside.

That's very big because if a linebacker is coming free, it is your job to make him miss in some way. I press the line to make the linebacker attack a different way than where I want to go.

Counter/Duo

All running backs have a favorite run call or design that they feel most comfortable in. I asked Harris about his preference:

I like a good counter play or a duo play. I like being able to press the line and find that crease.

It is easy to see why he prefers these runs. He had a ton of success in South Carolina's run scheme with these exact calls. If a NFL team likes to run duo/counter concepts, Harris is the guy to target on day three of this draft.

NFL Outlook

Kevin Harris is a talented back that had a ton of success rushing in the SEC in his collegiate career. When I asked him what a NFL team is going to get when they draft him, he had a quick and succinct answer for me:

The team is really getting a hard worker. A guy that is going to put in the work everyday and never complain.

Harris is a guy that I really like on day three of this draft. If he can find the magic that he ran with in 2020, a team is getting a real steal with him late.

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