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It's Been a Happy Return for Harris
Cornerback Macho Harris spurned the NFL to return to Virginia Tech, a decision he doesn't regret. He again was named to the all-ACC first team.
(By Steve Helber -- Associated Press)
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Harris also needed to embrace his role as a leader on a defense that replaced seven starters. When Coach Frank Beamer assessed what Harris accomplished by returning this season, he raved about Harris's influence in keeping the team together. Foster called on Harris to take responsibility for the freshmen and sophomores who were thrust into major playing time.
Harris now emphasizes the relationship he developed with the team's younger players and their meals together -- when he instructs them to enjoy the college experience beyond football -- as part of the benefit of his final year in Blacksburg.
When Harris was their age, he was a heralded recruit trying to move on from his mother's death from a brain aneurysm on Christmas of his senior year in high school.
On the night that she died, Harris dreamed he was facing the woods when a woman emerged from the trees. The woman told Harris in the dream that she was sending a message from Harris's mother.
"She was saying that my mother was proud of me, that she loved me and no matter what, don't worry about nothing at Virginia Tech. You'll do great at Tech," Harris said.
When he came out of the Lane Stadium tunnel against Virginia in his final home game on Saturday -- a moment that never would have happened had Harris left school a year ago -- he thought of the four years that forced him to grow up. He remembered the shootings on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007 and the shots fired at his apartment later that year while he watched television with two of his teammates.
Harris emerged onto the field just hours before his team clinched a spot in its third ACC championship game in four years, and just months before he potentially could become a millionaire. Right then, he thought about the dream.
"She was right," Harris said.
