By Billy Watkins
OXFORD — At Ole Miss’ first preseason practice, I saw a pass that was crisp but looked to be out of reach of the receiver running a slant route.
Then I saw a leg go one way, the other leg fly another way and suddenly two hands snatched the ball out of the air. It looked like a catch only Marvel’s Rubber Man could’ve made.
I knew before checking the jersey number who caught it: Tre Harris, one of the nation’s top returning wideouts and a preseason first-team All-SEC member as voted by the media.
“Tre is a monster,” quarterback Jaxson Dart said at SEC Media Days last month. “I’m a little biased but I think he’s the best receiver in the country. Just the plays that he makes … there is nobody else like him.”
Ask LSU. He caught eight passes for 153 yards against the Tigers a year ago, including the game-winner with 39 seconds left.
His most eye-popping catch-and-run that day occurred with 7 minutes left and Ole Miss trailing 49-40. His 35-yard reception on third-and-11 set up a Rebel touchdown and featured a broken tackle and faking another defender to the ground.
Ask Penn State. He caught seven passes for 134 yards and put the Nittany Lions’ secondary on their heels early and often in the 38-25 Peach Bowl victory.
He finished fourth in the SEC in TD receptions (8) and yards per catch (18.2) and fifth in yards receiving (985). And when digesting those statistics, consider that the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Harris suffered a knee injury early in the Tulane game, missed the next week’s battle with Georgia Tech and played only five snaps against Alabama.
The scary part for opponents is that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said at a press conference recently that Harris is the most improved player on the team.
His assessment was shocking at first, considering Harris’ level of play a year ago. But when you hear Harris talk about his background and the way he was raised by Cleveland Jr. and Delana Harris, it all makes sense.
“I got my work ethic from both my parents,” says Harris, the second-youngest of four who grew up in Lafayette, La.. “My dad is a blue-collar worker who has been at it in the oil fields for 25 years. I’ve watched the amount of work he’s put in to put a roof over my head and my family’s head all these years.
“One thing he instilled in me is to be dominant in everything I do. I didn’t want to be a dominant receiver, I wanted to be a dominant player. It’s not something I had to think about. That’s what I live by.
“Ever since high school, it’s been important to me to play hard and represent my family’s name the right way.”
His mom taught him how to adapt to any situation. “My dad could be in the oil fields for two or three months at a time, and my mom was there by herself with three girls and a boy,” says Harris, who earned his degree in general business last May. “I’ve never seen her with her head down or complaining. She was always in the stands when me and my sisters played sports.
“I’m super thankful for both my parents. I couldn’t do any of this without them.”
His dad has missed a couple of games because of his work schedule. “But because he’s been in he business so long now, he gets a lot of time off and they understand ‘Hey, it’s important he goes to see his son play collegiate ball’ so it’s worked out,” he says.
His mom has never missed a home game. Harris doesn’t have to scan the stands to know she’s there.
“I can hear her screaming my name,” he says, laughing. “She’s up there with my dad, my sisters, my nieces and my brother-in-law.”
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Harris wasted no time last season entering Ole Miss’ record book. In his first game after transferring from Louisiana Tech, he caught three touchdowns in the first 3 minutes and 15 seconds of a season-opening victory over Mercer. He set a school record with four TD receptions that day.
“Glad I was able to come onto the scene like that,” he says with a smile. “But I really had to take a moment when it happened and thank God. I was really happy to be part of Ole Miss’ history, but I was also super, super thankful.”
The mystery surrounding Harris has always been that he wasn’t highly recruited out of Comeaux High School.
But his team needed him at quarterback. And while his receiving skills might have been hidden away, his athleticism was not. In one game he was 11-for 11 passing for 262 yards and two scores while also rushing for 119 yards and two TDs.
He signed with Louisiana Tech and in two seasons (plus a redshirt year) caught 106 passes for 1,517 yards and 14 touchdowns.
He decided to transfer after his sophomore year and was rated one of the top receivers in the portal.
He always felt more at home at receiver.
“I can remember being five years old and always on my dad … ‘Come throw it to me.’ And he did. So I guess I’ve always been a pass catcher. It’s been in me. It just took me some time to get back to it.”
And now he is one of the key players on a team ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press preseason poll.
His work ethic, his raising, his approach to life won’t allow him to look too far past the season opener against Furman on Aug. 31.
Wins will have to be earned week by week. Unexpected challenges will arise. They always do. Some will doubt Ole Miss’ chances to make the new 12-team playoff. Many of those doubted the Rebels’ chances against Penn State in the bowl game.
Harris remembers.
“I kept hearing how many good players Penn State had,” he says. “To be honest, I thought we were overlooked going into that game.
“We were motivated knowing we could etch our name in school history (as the first team to win 11 games.) And I was super excited to go out there and show that Ole Miss is nothing to be played with.
“We go against great teams in the SEC, so going against a good Big Ten team was nothing shocking to us.”
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