'22 GRIDIRON PREVIEW: Harrison ready to lead Trojans
St. James’ Conner Harrison is following in the footsteps of his childhood heroes for the Trojans. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Cosner Harrison remembers the first time he was asked to play running back at St. James.
He had been a quarterback and outside linebacker in middle school and had been moved to wingback his freshman season as a wing-T blocker for the school’s featured back, Austin Gavin.
“My first time at running back, I had never played the position, I was just going in there blind,” Harrison recalled. “But we’ve had a great line and they’ve done most of the work.”
He grew up watching Frank Moody (2012-13), Jonathan Robinson (2014), Blake Underwood (2015-16), Tony Amerson (2017-18) and Gavin (2019) as the featured back in the St. James’ offense, but for the past two years it has been Harrison’s job to be the focal point of the Trojan offense.
“He had some pretty good mentors in front of him,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “We’ve had 11 1,000-yard rushers in 10 years. That’s hard to do. We’ve got a standard. We like to run the football. We like to put the game on the shoulders of our offensive line and hammer the football. And he can hammer the football. If you don’t believe it, ask the (Antonio) Kite kid that signed with Alabama. He ran over Kite and put him out of the ballgame. He can tote the mail.
“When people line up and say, ‘We’re going to run it right here no matter what you do’ and you can do it, that’s the number one demoralizer -- just punish people by running the football.”
Harrison never had a clue about his future, in part because his first year on the varsity was as a blocker in the wing-T offense. Since KJ Jackson earned the starting job at quarterback two years ago, however, the Trojans have relied less on the wing-T and more on a one-back spread attack.
“We were pretty much all wing-T, so there was a ton of blocking,” Harrison said, recalling his freshman year. “KJ opened up our offense because he’s able to throw, he’s amazing, so we’ve been able to run spread and empty sets.
“We have a pretty humble team so nobody cares how much they get the ball. But when the (opposing) defense has to worry about getting torn apart by the pass, they stop focusing on the run so much and that makes it easier to me.”
As a sophomore, with a young quarterback and a relatively inexperienced line, Harrison still rushed for 1,777 yards. Last season, he was a little better, rushing for 1,786 yards.
“He just runs so much harder than it seems,” center Jake Streeton said. “I’ve never seen him be tackled by the first tackler ever. It’s pretty easy to block for this guy.”
Now, as a senior, Harrison is just 1,422 yards from passing Amerson as the career rushing leader for the Trojans. Amerson became the only St. James’ back with more than 2,000 yards in a single season, rushing for 2,210 yards in 2018 to finish with 5,084 yards.
Moody. Robinson. Underwood. Amerson. Gavin. By the end of the year, Harrison can be at the top of that list.
“That would be great,” he said. “Even in middle school, I was watching Tony and Austin and all of them do all the rushing. I knew their (rushing) numbers because I had been paying attention to that and they’re pretty insane numbers, but I never thought I would have the chance.”
“That is a goal, but that’s not the main focus. The main focus is, of course, a state championship. But being No. 1 on the rushing yard list would be pretty nice, too.”