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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

Freshman receiver climbs to top of Hoosier depth chart

Freshman wideout J-Shun Harris reaches for a catch against Indiana State. Harris has quickly climbed up the IU depth chart in the opening weeks of the season.

J-Shun Harris II’s college football career didn’t exactly start as planned.

The freshman wide receiver started the season lining up as a punt returner Aug. 30 against Indiana State.

In his first touch in game action, Harris lost sight of the ball as it soared through an overcast sky.

By the time he gathered himself, he was out of position. He had misjudged the trajectory and fumbled the ball on his first touch.

Not exactly the ideal start for a freshman looking to prove himself in front of teammates and a home crowd.

“I misjudged it, honestly,” Harris said. “My coaches and everybody, they really helped me out as soon as I got back to the sideline. As soon as it happened, they picked me up and said ‘Go on to the next play.’”

Harris can laugh about the muffed punt now.

He caught seven passes for 68 yards, highlighted by a 22-yard touchdown grab, in last week’s 45-42 loss at Bowling Green.

Nearly three weeks removed from his less-than-ideal debut, Harris has quickly moved up to the top of the IU slot-receiver depth chart.

That means come Saturday against Missouri, Harris will likely be starting alongside senior wideout Shane Wynn.

It’s only appropriate, considering it was Wynn who helped inspire Harris to come to Bloomington in the first place.

Harris thinks it’s funny. The 5-foot-8-inch, 162-pound Fishers, Ind., native is built nearly identically to the 5-foot-7-inch, 167-pound Wynn.

Standing together on the sidelines, it’s hard to tell the two apart if not for their jersey numbers.

“It’s really weird how we’re like the same height, same size, same weight,” Harris said. “He really paved the way for me knowing as a little guy that I can compete with these bigger guys.”

IU offensive coordinator Kevin Johns and junior quarterback Nate Sudfeld have both lauded the Harris’ eagerness to learn and adapt to what is a rather complex Hoosier offense.

Wynn, who primarily returned kicks as a freshman, said Harris is already playing by instinct, a trait sometimes hard for younger guys to pick up.

“He came in as a freshman doing a lot of things I couldn’t do,” Wynn said. “He’s playing fast. He’s not thinking. He’s already prepared to play in the big games.”

The perpetual challenge for smaller receivers like Harris is finding ways to get open against defensive backs that can often stand nearly a foot taller than him.

He knows he doesn’t have the body to be an enforcer around the line of scrimmage, so he improvises.

“I think of it as the term ‘finesse,’” Harris said. “We really have to work on mechanics, get around guys and try to avoid getting their hands on us.

“But once we get past that, it’s all fun and games.”

Harris said he loves running, and it’s his speed that lets him find open space more than anything else. He doesn’t consider himself among the fastest on the team, but he’s pretty close.

The feature that often gets overlooked is a little harder to notice — his hands.

“I don’t know where these came from,” Harris said, looking down at his hands, which look more like the size of a 6-foot-5-inch outside receiver than a smaller man’s.

When he holds up his hand against a reporters’, his fingertips stretch about an extra inch.

“It almost scares me sometimes. I look down, and I’m like ‘Oh, put them back, put it away,’” he said jokingly, hiding his hands behind his back. “Put it away, that’s a weapon.”

He said he used to get made fun of for the largeness of his hands and length of his fingers.

When he first shook hands with Johns, Harris said Johns jokingly referred to his hands as “tree limbs.”

He doesn’t take the jokes to heart, though. The hands are his weapons now.

“It makes it a lot easier to catch that ball,” Harris said.

Growing up, Harris said his first name was sometimes hard for people to grasp.

Harris said he doesn’t know how he received his unusual name — J-Shun Nehru Harris II. He was named after his father, who he shares the name with, but the two have since become distant.

In high school, most people just called him “Seven,” his old jersey number.

He hears the mistakes of “J-Sean” or “S-Shin” when people attempt to say his uncommon name.

But as he continues to develop, people might need to start getting used to saying “J-Shun Harris.”

Senior receiver Isaiah Roundtree certainly thinks so.

He said he has been impressed with the play of freshmen like Harris, Simmie Cobbs and Dominique Booth, who have all seen playing time early on this season.

Harris’ ability to absorb information combined with his natural speed and hands have made him a threat to be at the base of a talented young receiving corps who are ready for the test of leading the Hoosiers for years to come.

“J-Shun’s a beast,” Roundtree said. “He’s going to be a monster.

“The next few years of football are going to be exciting with J-Shun, Simmie, Dom Booth. Ya’ll about to see some exciting football out of them for a while.”

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