If there’s one lesson Daniel Harris learned this year as a key member of Georgia’s secondary, it’s not to rest on your laurels.
If you do, somebody just might be gaining on you.
Position coach Donte Williams explained.
“All these guys, they're great high school players and great high school athletes, and you get here, you realize that everybody's a great athlete, and everybody can run,” Williams said. “So, it goes about what's the little bit of extra I'm going to do on a daily basis to continue to stay ahead of others?”
That’s the lesson Williams said Harris needed to learn.
Like many young players who have always been the best athletes on their team, sometimes it takes getting humbled on the field to make you realize the effort it takes to realize your full potential ultimately.
Harris acknowledges it’s been a process.
“It's been up and down,” Harris said. “But everything's been going good, and it's getting better daily.”
Despite some coverage issues, Williams feels Harris’ best football lie ahead.
Williams said his pupil is doing all the right things to make that happen.
“If I do only the lift that (Scott) Sinclair asked me or only the film session that Coach Williams asked me, and I only do what's required, people start catching up because maybe that other person's doing a little bit extra,” Williams said. “Daniel is a person that I think is learning, and which I know. He's learned how to work here, right? Instead of just being, like, a gifted 6-foot-2 1⁄2, 6-3 corner that can run, he's learned how to work to all of a sudden make the other things mature in his game. I think that's what you see out of him.”
Harris is happy he stuck around.
The Miami native placed his name into the transfer portal a year ago, before deciding to return.
“The main reason was I wanted to be developed, and I wanted to be coached by Kirby (Smart), and the best. I wanted to play against the best,” Harris said. “It’s Georgia, so that's why I stayed.”
But Harris knows there’s still work to do.
Once spring practice kicks off, there will be no guarantees.
Although he started the last four games opposite Daylen Everette, second-year players Demello Jones and Ellis Robinson IV will be gunning for playing time.
But Harris said he’s ready to show he’s the man for the job.
“It's been different now, because I've been starting, not rotating,” Harris said. “But I feel like I've been getting way more reps, and just learning more, and like more, I've been getting way more reps, learning the playbook and stuff like that.”
Hopefully, he’ll be a better player for it next fall.
“I feel like we all on the same page now, knowing we have two corners just playing,” Harris said. “I don't have to worry about nothing really happening, for real. I feel like everybody's on the same page and comfortable with us playing.”
