the recruit: Anthony Harris

Name: Anthony Harris
Position: CB/WR (?)
Hometown: Chesterfield
School: L.C. Bird
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 185

ESPN: 72; #186 ATH
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #50 ATH
Scout: three stars; #123 WR

Other offers: Maryland, West Virginia

Anthony Harris committed to UVA as part of the last large wave of verbals that swept over Mike London's program this summer. His was something of an anticlimactic recruitment; there were few other suitors, even fewer really serious ones, and Harris's commitment came roughly on the coincidence of a couple factors: an organized visit day at UVA, and the realization that his offer list wasn't going to grow by very much.

Like many "athlete" types who are in another league athletically from their high school teammates, Harris plays quarterback. His stats were decent as a junior but probably dropped as a senior, because Bird added a transfer player this year: Harris's main job as quarterback was handing off to junior squirtback Yahkee Johnson. Harris generally only ran or threw the ball himself 8-10 times a game.

But he also has plenty of experience on the defensive side of the ball at cornerback, and that's where he's likely ticketed. He's recruited as an "athlete", which means wide receiver is a possibility, but there's less of a learning curve in the defensive backfield, and less of a depth chart, too. If I were handicapping this I'd say 80/20 he ends up on defense. Corners and safeties tend to be pretty fluid as freshmen and redshirt freshmen, so no odds on that just yet.

If you believe ESPN, he's more of a safety. But the reliability of the prospect rating gurus is sometimes, uhm, flexible, and we're looking at quite a variance here. Rivals gives him a pretty enthusiastic thumbs-up, ESPN says, "Harris has some redeeming qualities, but we feel he may be a better fit for non-BCS level programs," and Scout is somewhere in the middle. I'll let my own excitement level fall with Scout here (though they, as usual, are the one service to rate him at the position he's least likely to play.) Harris did have offers from reputable BCS programs besides just UVA; it's not a case of London scraping the barrel just to get some numbers.

Still, Harris will have work to do to get on the field. At this point he's more of a depth recruit, more Mike Parker than Chase Minnifield. UVA already has Brandon Phelps in the fold and with any luck at all should have Demetrious Nicholson onboard soon enough. It's not that there aren't opportunities for playing time at corner, it's that London is recruiting over Harris's head, so to speak. Safety would be a quicker route to the field; there's still competition, but it's not all-star level stuff. And receiver can't be entirely ruled out. Similar to Kevin Green (if a little less definitely indefinite), we'll probably have to wait a few years to get a final answer.