Chris Harper is many things to many people. In August, he was a quarterback; in September, he was an experimental running back. In October, he became a wide receiver. For many, he’s Oregon’s true wunderkind, the type of player who has five highlight videos of himself on YouTube – only three of which involve football.
The problem? Harper, a true freshman from Wichita, Kan., who turned 19 years old just 51 days ago, has triple the expectations on his shoulders. That’s why the true freshman is finding out that sticking to one thing might be the key to his success.
“Just give me the ball; I can do something with it,” said Harper, clad in a white practice jersey for only the second week all season after wearing the red quarterbacks’ shell for the first two months.
“I came in to play quarterback,” he said. “Coaches are going to put (me) where I can help the offense best.”
That’s not entirely true. It was actually Harper who approached the coaches about trying out receiver, after completing none of his three passes with two interceptions against Boise State in mid-September. Playing with an injury to his throwing shoulder that he aggravated at the beginning of fall camp and had subsequently never gotten better, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Harper knew his chance to get on the field this season probably wouldn’t be behind center.
Of course, running the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds – one of the fastest times on the team – doesn’t hurt your chances, either.
“I have experience catching the ball (in high school) but that was more, ‘I’m going to run past you, just give me the ball,’” Harper said.
Last weekend against Arizona State, it must have felt like high school all over again. Late in the fourth quarter, Justin Roper found Harper on the right side of the field at the line of scrimmage, then Harper bolted 62 yards through a half dozen defenders for the Ducks’ final score of their 54-20 win.
“I didn’t even run the route the right way,” he said. “Roper just read it, threw it to me, Rory (Cavaille) made a great block and Jamere (Holland) ran his man out.”
At the college level, though, he’s finding out the devil is in the details, especially running correct routes.
“You go back to the real basic fundamentals,” wide receivers coach Robin Pflugrad said. “Starts, stances, getting off the line of scrimmage. Whether he played in high school, you still become rusty.
“I really am pleased with how he’s catching the ball, now it’s refining all the route work.”
For not playing the position for half the season, Harper has put up solid numbers, catching seven passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. His 62-yard score and 15.7 yards per catch average are team bests for anyone with two or more catches.
Against UCLA, he caught a critical 24-yard diving touchdown from Jeremiah Masoli right before halftime to increase the Ducks’ lead to 14-0.
Running the ball, he’s fifth on the team with 137 yards and two touchdowns.
His athleticism led him to be ranked the 14th-best “athlete” in the nation by one recruiting service last year, and gave him a four-star ranking. His senior year, Harper threw for 761 yards and eight scores while running for 506 yards and 10 more touchdowns at Wichita’s Northwest High. As a freshman at Collegiate High, Harper ran for more than 1,000 yards as a running back. In the weight room, he is reported to have personal bests of 320 for the bench press and 450 in the squat.
As a basketball player, he led Northwest to the Class 6A title as a sophomore.
Junior cornerback Jairus Byrd said Harper’s boggling blend of speed and size make him a “hybrid” player to defend.
“You have to treat him like a tight end a little bit, but he also has receiver speed,” Byrd said. “He presents a big problem.”
Harper still attends quarterbacks meetings only, although Pflugrad said he will eventually report with the receivers as well. His background and meetings as a quarterback give Harper an advantage reading defensive coverages, Byrd and Pflugrad said. “He kind of knows the ins and outs, where to sit, where they’re looking to hit the receivers,” Byrd said.
He also has his freshman mistakes. After a practice this week, Pflugrad took Harper aside for punishment for forgetting “to turn some stuff in,” the coach said. Within a minute, he was rolling the length of the field, hands holding his facemask as he went. Slowly.
“He’s the worst roller we got,” Pflugrad said, shaking his head.
Harper professes that he wants to give quarterback another shot once the season is over. If he can sustain performances like against Arizona State, however, he’d consider switching full-time, he said.
“Say I had six more games like I had on Saturday, I might not come back to be playing quarterback again,” Harper said. “But it depends who’s coming back, what the coaches feel. I still feel like when I get my strength back I can still throw the ball.”
His teammates just want the ball in his capable hands, no matter how it gets there.
“Every game we gotta find a way to get the ball into his hands,” offensive tackle Fenuki Tupou said. “It’s good for us.”
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