It's Been a Happy Return for Harris
Va. Tech CB Savoring Senior Season

By Zach Berman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 5, 2008

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- On a Monday morning earlier this season, Virginia Tech cornerback Macho Harris was supposed to wake up at 6:45. Around 3:40 a.m., Harris received a call from former teammate and Kansas City Chiefs rookie Brandon Flowers, a cornerback who skipped his senior season to enter the NFL draft. Flowers called from a nightclub with a message for the groggy Harris.

"I'm loving this life!" Flowers told Harris.

"I bet you are," Harris responded. "But I got meetings in the morning!"

Only in those fleeting moments does Harris even allow himself to think about next season, or what could have been had he kept his name in the draft instead of pulling out to return to Virginia Tech for his senior year.

"Man, I'll probably be a millionaire," Harris said. "But then I'll be like: 'Man, get that out of your head. Focus. Focus on what you need to do.' Because I don't want to think about that stuff and let little opportunities slip away at Virginia Tech."

One of those opportunities is Virginia Tech's second consecutive ACC title, which is at stake Saturday when the Hokies play Boston College in the ACC championship game.

Harris experienced one of his more uneven games of the season in a 28-23 loss to the Eagles on Oct. 18. He basked in the triumph of an interception returned for a touchdown but also suffered the embarrassment of getting burned down the sideline for a score. Harris tried to forget about allowing the touchdown. He said if he were to focus on his miscues, it would create a lack of confidence.

"And I ain't lacking confidence," Harris said, which is no surprise to anyone who witnesses the bravado of a player who takes the field on offense, defense and special teams.

Harris's swagger made his return to Blacksburg for his senior season so revealing. Scouts, agents and coaches told him he was good enough for the NFL but that he needed to prove he could become more physical.

The Hokies moved Harris to boundary-side cornerback, a position in defensive coordinator Bud Foster's scheme that requires a significant amount of man-to-man coverage and calls for the cornerback to defend the run. Defensive backfield coach Torrian Gray, who thought Harris could benefit from one more year in college, has seen the progress.

"Hopefully, he makes himself a lot of money," Gray said. "You can't teach some of the things he does in terms of having great ball skills, being a tough guy. . . . I think he's really helped himself from a draft standpoint."

With two games to play, Harris has six interceptions, including two that he returned for touchdowns, and 42 tackles, good enough to earn first-team all-ACC honors for the second consecutive season. He also has eight catches for 63 yards and ranks second in the ACC in punt return average (10.4 yards per return).

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.