Harris Making Believers of Lions

[Blitz]

One of the best stories of this 2011 season has been the play of Andrew Harris. Our Leos season turned around offensively, personell wise, not only due to the addition of Arland Bruce but also because we inserted Andrew Harris at tailback for Jamal Robertson afer we began the season 1-6. We went on our long winning streak after that decison, as Wally changed the mix in desperate times.

We really should have gone into this season thinking that Harris and Messam should be our tailback tandem. Instead we made the decsion to go with Jamal Robertson again. It was a factor in deciding to say goodbye to Messam, who was considered more expendable because of the decision to go with an import tailback.

Wally also did not see Harris as a starting tailback coming into or out of training camp. The good news is that our Leos horrible start paved the way for Harris to get an opportunity and he more than ran with it.

Harris will not start at tailback tonight but the good news is that his injury is not serious and he may even get some reps tonite.

The Vancouver Sun article is copied below:


Harris making believers of Lions

By Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun columnist October 27, 2011 Comment 5 •Story•Photos ( 1 )•Video ( 1 )

Even after Andrew Harris won the Wally Buono Award as Canada’s junior football player of the year in 2009, following an eye-popping season as a running back with the Vancouver Island Raiders, the guy after whom the award was named kept looking for reasons not to believe in him.

Harris was a junior juggernaut, a whirlwind, routinely running for 200-plus, even 300-plus yards in games. In the 2008 playoffs, he had 370 rushing yards, caught passes for 40 more and scored three touchdowns on the road against the Saskatoon Hilltops in the national semifinal.

In the Canadian championship game against the Burlington Braves, he ran for 410 yards and four TDs. The Raiders won three national titles in his four seasons on the Island.

Yet even as a territorial protection of the B.C. Lions, Harris -- whose interviews en route to the Buono award had included extensive sessions with the Lions’ head coach and his daughter, discussing things like character and community service -- had to fight past the coach’s admittedly prejudiced views in order to make it as a running back with the Canadian Football League team.

“Sometimes you don’t want to believe it, OK?” Buono said Thursday, still tap-dancing around the question of whether Harris, who’s been the breakout player of the year for the Lions, is sufficiently recovered from an upper-back muscle injury suffered last weekend to be in the lineup for Saturday night’s first-place showdown with the Edmonton Eskimos.

“Unfortunately the label sometimes works against him.”

Label?

“Junior,” Buono said. “Canadian.”

But Buono is, himself, Canadian. Shouldn’t he, of all people, rejoice at seeing a protege show the potential to be a bona fide star at the tailback position?

“That’s just being honest,” Buono said. “You say, ‘ah, it’s just practice.’ You say, ‘ah, it’s pre-season.’ You say, ‘ah, it’s just lucky, it’s one game.’ But like [Lions’ director of player personnel Roy] Shivers said: ‘If that guy was an American, how would you see him?’”

The problem, Buono said, putting on his GM’s hat, was only partly that. A starting Canadian at a skill position needs to have at least one, and maybe two, capable backups, or else the coach has to be prepared to spend his season juggling the ratio of imports and non-imports at other positions.

“That’s why you’re sometimes reluctant, speaking for myself, to change the [formula] of where your starting positions [held by Canadians] are,” he said.

“To get three quality running backs, that’s a very difficult thing, and when the injury occurs, it really upsets your team. Upsets how your team is built.

“Starters are tough to replace. These are very, very skillful players. You can always get another non-import to fill the position, but we don’t get paid to play the game, we get paid to win the game. Some players you can win with, and some players you can’t.”

The Lions looked to have all those Canadian ducks in a row at running back with Harris, 24, the big and promising Jerome Messam, and Jamall Lee all under contract as they prepared for this season.

But Messam became persona non grata here and was dealt to Edmonton in June for reasons of character and discipline, and Lee -- drafted third overall in 2009 with a pretty impressive set of genes handed down from his dad, onetime CFL leading rusher Orville Lee -- has never grabbed the opportunities he’s been given.

In the bigger picture, the monster the Lions have helped create by finding and signing talented Canadian backs and receivers, is that when they develop to the point where they are impact players, an injury -- like the one to Harris, or wide receiver Akeem Foster, who won’t play Saturday, can cause some serious dislocation.

Luckily, receiver Shawn Gore is back this week from a concussion and can plug right into the roster spot vacated by Foster, but if Harris can’t go, even as a backup to veteran import Jamal Robertson, more juggling has to happen.

“It does feel good to be on a team that has that many Canadians who are vital parts, who help the team move,” said Gore. “When one goes down, it disrupts a lot with the ratio and getting someone else in that spot who can get the job done. But you do take some pride in that.”

“It took a number of us a while to get established [as starters], so when guys like us get nicked -- and not just one or two of us -- it definitely takes a toll,” said Harris. “But adapting is part of football, and you’ve got to be able to do it.

“I think Canadian talent on this team is really good, and you’re going to see it on Saturday with guys who have kind of been in the weeds like Marco Iannuzzi and even Paris Jackson, who haven’t played that much this year, you’re going to see us not really miss a beat.”

Buono said he knows he made life hard for Harris, in particular, at the beginning, when the Winnipeg native was apprenticing with the CFL club while also finishing his junior career.

“I brought him in as a receiver, brought him in as a running back, made a safety out of him, made him cover kicks, made him return kicks -- never once did I see him depressed, disgusted about it,” he said.

“Has his behaviour changed? No. He loves what he does. He’s hurt, he’s not all bummed out about it. He has a great game, it’s not, ‘You can’t talk to me.’”

“It’s just continuing to work hard and no matter what’s thrown your way, you’ve just got to brush it off and hold your head up,” said Harris, who admits he had no idea what to expect coming out of junior to the CFL.

“You always have an image of yourself playing a little bigger role than you actually will be. But I think it’s good to have those high [expectations] so that when it does happen, it’s not a shock to you,” he said.

“Football is football. When you can make big plays at any level, you feel you can do it. The fact that I’ve done it at this level now, and feel I can change a game at any time ... I’ve just got to play with that confidence, and feel that even being a little nicked up like I am now, I can still make a difference.”

In some ways, though the coach and GM always liked him, he was probably harder on Harris because of that Wally Buono Award, in the same way that a father is harder on his son.

But weeks like this, Harris said, that bond might not be a bad thing.

“He wanted to see me in action this week, because he knows that even though I’m dinged up, I’m going to give it my all. If he didn’t know me that well, I might be on the bench,” said Harris.

“It’s good to have that trust.”