Damien Harris Has Quietly Become One of the Best Players in College Football

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The Alabama Crimson Tide stockpiles talent in all phases of the game. When you look around the landscape of college football for individual awards, such as the Heisman Trophy, it’s hard to pin down a Tide player for these honors. There’s so much talent that none of the guys really have eye-popping stats. Plus, Alabama pulls the starts when they’re blowing out their opponent. So, no one mentions some of the great Tide players in conversations about these awards. Some guys slip through the cracks on a national scale because they don’t have these gaudy stats. Case in point: junior running back Damien Harris. Last year, he rushed for over a thousand yards and no one even blinked.

In 2017, Harris has 81 carries on the season that have amassed 697 yards on the ground and 10 touchdowns. He also has six catches for 46 yards on the season. You look around the Heisman hunt, and those numbers don’t distinguish Harris too much from what guys like Saquon Barkley and Bryce Love are posting. But, he’s done it all on much fewer carries than they have. His 8.6 yards-per-carry average is 6th in the nation. If he had as many carries as love had, he would have 1,161 yards on the season. That would be 2nd in college football.

Plus, it’s the things that don’t show up in the stats that sets Harris apart from every other back in the country. He’s a true jack of all trades – a good blocker, excellent field vision, and possesses phenomenal patience. But, as long as he’s on a team that features four backs who would be #1 rushers at any other school in the country, he probably won’t have enough to get the respect and generate the buzz he deserves.

The more touches Joshua Jacobs and Bo Scarbrough get, the less opportunity Harris has to post the otherworldly numbers it takes to win the Heisman. But, by my estimation, he’s definitely one of the five best players in the country this season.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley@WrestlingNewsCo

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