Harris had to sit out the biggest game of the year, the opener vs LSU, the one everyone was watching. Not having his experience returning kicks was a factor in the loss. He never earned his starting job back the entire season. This as a returning consensus AA, and a projected high NFL pick, if you believe what people were writing last summer, before he smoked it all.
The penultimate infraction -- caught DWS without a seat belt -- was seen by some as a piddling technicality. Kelly banned Harris from all football activities at that point and put him on notice: Get it together or you're gone. (A coach like Urb would have made him stay after school or something.)
CH13's problem wasn't that the coaching staff was coddling him. He never did believe the rules really *did* apply to him, and couldn't adapt when everyone (including teammates) got tired of his games. You aren't hearing a lot of griping about the discipline taken from the Oregon players. Or the fans. And believe me, we really could have used him on the field, especailly against bloody USC.
Duck fans tend to be frustrated at what they call a lack of transparency regarding player discipline. Nobody really knew what was going on with Harris, other than he wasn't listed on the usual two-deep, and when he was only seeing intermittent PT, fans couldn't understand why. Guess we know now; he's just a bit of a knucklehead who hadn't earned his way back, and blew his last chance.
It is oddly fitting that the last time Harris touched the ball in an Oregon uniform, the 2010 AA punt returner caught a punt on the 2, ran backwards and was tackled for a safety in a 45-2 win at Colorado.
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Harris had to sit out the biggest game of the year, the opener vs LSU, the one everyone was watching. Not having his experience returning kicks was a factor in the loss. He never earned his starting job back the entire season. This as a returning consensus AA, and a projected high NFL pick, if you believe what people were writing last summer, before he smoked it all.
The penultimate infraction -- caught DWS without a seat belt -- was seen by some as a piddling technicality. Kelly banned Harris from all football activities at that point and put him on notice: Get it together or you're gone. (A coach like Urb would have made him stay after school or something.)
CH13's problem wasn't that the coaching staff was coddling him. He never did believe the rules really *did* apply to him, and couldn't adapt when everyone (including teammates) got tired of his games. You aren't hearing a lot of griping about the discipline taken from the Oregon players. Or the fans. And believe me, we really could have used him on the field, especailly against bloody USC.
Duck fans tend to be frustrated at what they call a lack of transparency regarding player discipline. Nobody really knew what was going on with Harris, other than he wasn't listed on the usual two-deep, and when he was only seeing intermittent PT, fans couldn't understand why. Guess we know now; he's just a bit of a knucklehead who hadn't earned his way back, and blew his last chance.
It is oddly fitting that the last time Harris touched the ball in an Oregon uniform, the 2010 AA punt returner caught a punt on the 2, ran backwards and was tackled for a safety in a 45-2 win at Colorado.