After capping off his junior season at Auburn University with a BCS National Championship on Monday night following the Tigers’ 22-19 victory over Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., Carrollton High School product Josh Harris has enjoyed a whirlwind of a week since returning to campus late Tuesday evening.
Harris, the starting long snapper for the Tigers, was in on the last-second, game-winning field goal, snapping the ball to holder Neil Caudle for place-kicker Wes Byrum’s 19-yard field goal as time expired.
Harris has come a long way since walking on to the Auburn football team as a freshman, earning a starting role last year and a scholarship this season.
And capping off a perfect 14-0 national title run by being an integral part of the game-winning play, the 2010 season will definitely serve as one to remember for the lifelong Tiger fan.
(Harris spoke with Times-Georgian Sports Editor Corey Cusick via telephone on Thursday afternoon about being a part of the Tigers’ BCS National Championship squad).
Corey Cusick: Starting off, talk about what these past 72 hours or so have been like for you since Monday night.
Josh Harris: I mean, it’s really been unreal. It’s hard to even put it into words. It doesn’t feel like it’s actually happened, really. I mean, it just feels so surreal. I’m sure it will sink in any day now. But until it does, it’s just like riding a wave. It’s pretty fun.
CC: As far as looking back on Monday night’s game, what stands out the most to you right now?
JH: Well, me and Wes and Neil, we couldn’t have scripted it any better. That’s something that you dream about since you were a little kid. Just to be able to say that you had a part in the game-winning field goal in the national championship game, that’s something you dream about. And to have it actually happen, it’s just undescribeable, really. It’s just incredible.
CC: What was going through your mind there in those last seconds when you were going into the game?
JH: Well, to be honest with you, I wasn’t really thinking about it that much. I knew we were well within Wes’ range. I mean, that was just a chip shot. We’ve practiced situations like that over and over and over. We all had confidence in each other.
Basically, when we knew we were going out there to kick it, we knew that we were about to win the national title. That’s the only thing we could think about. There wasn’t really time to be nervous. You don’t want to overthink it. You just want to go out there and do what we’ve done for four years now. Only this time, there was a little bigger incentive on the other side than a congratulations.
CC: During those final seconds, you guys ran out there, then they called a timeout and brought the offense back in. Obviously, you just wanted to win at that point, but what was being said on the sideline between you guys and the coaches?
JH: When Michael Dyer busted that run late, they reviewed it and had it down to the half-yard line and me and Wes realized, you know, right then we were like, ‘All right, we’re going to have a chance to win this thing unless they decide to try to punch it in with the offense.’
I remember we got called up and they brought the field goal unit in and we went out there and that was when there was 10 seconds left. We were just going to go ahead and kick it then, because [special teams] coach [Jay] Boulware was like, ‘All right, we’ve got two special teams plays left. This field goal and then a squib kick.’ Then [head] coach [Gene] Chizik and [offensive coordinator Gus] Malzahn started talking and they decided that they just wanted to run it down so we could just end it on the field goal.
I remember coach Chizik asking Wes if that spot was OK, because we actually talked about maybe taking a penalty — a delay of game — and backing it up five yards to give him a better angle. We all have all the confidence in the world in Wes. He just said, ‘No. This is perfect. Let’s go ahead and kick it.’ We ran out there and ran the clock down to about two or three seconds and then we trotted back out there and did our job.
CC: When looking at the season overall, not a lot of people gave you much respect early on, as far as being a national title contender. Talk about going from where you started to such a big finish.
JH: As a team, we never really paid attention to the preseason rankings with where we started at. The good thing about being in the SEC is if you win your games, you make it to the big game. So you don’t have to worry about any of the scrutiny with the BCS system or anything. We knew that what happened in ‘04 wasn’t going to happen again, as long as we just kept doing our job. As the season progressed, we kept winning and we got confident. We just had that mentality where we believed there was no way we could lose. The team just had a resiliency about it that nobody was going to stop us.
I mean, the chemistry on the team was unbelievable. Everybody believed in each other — no matter what. We came from behind in nearly every game that we played this season. No matter how much we were down, everybody was still on the sideline saying, ‘We’ve still got this. We’ve still got this.’
It’s a 60-minute game, and if you only play 30 minutes of it or only 15 minutes of it, you’re not going to win it. And so we knew that. We knew as long as there was time on the clock, we were in the game.
CC: What was it like having the national spotlight on you with Cam Newton’s situation with his father? How did you guys deal with that, as far as continuing to move ahead and not letting anything get in the way of the ultimate goal?
JH: I mean, Cam, he’s just a standout guy. There’s just not enough nice things you could say about him. He wasn’t going to let anything get him down. He knew that with the team, that was his family. With us, he was around us, and none of that stuff was going to be talked about or going to be said.
You know, it was strictly football. It was just a friendship there. Nobody was going to be asking him questions or questioning him about this, that or the other. It was kind of like a place of refuge, if you will. That’s kind of how we took it.
He was going through a lot. He’s a strong little person to be able to go through something like that and come out on top. I have all the respect in the world for him. I felt like he really thrived under the pressure that he was under. He knew that when he was around us, he could be himself and not have to worry about any of the media or anything like that.
CC: Personally, for you, starting off as a walk-on and to get to this point where you’re at now, talk about that journey and all the work you’ve put in to get there.
JH: To be honest with you, I never in a million years expected to be in this situation. Back in 2007, when I walked on, it was kind of a long shot. I figured I’d give it a shot and see what happens. You know, see what comes of it. And I ended up making the team. That was the first goal.
So I made the team and I was feeling pretty good. A year or two later, I end up winning the starting job. You know, that was shocking. Because here I am, just a walk-on. Nobody expected me to do anything like that. The next thing I know, I’m playing for the team I grew up loving, you know, growing up in an Auburn family. It didn’t seem real. I mean, just to be able to play for the team that I pulled for since I was old enough to know what football was, it’s an incredible experience.
And then last year was my first year starting. My sophomore year when I was the backup we were 5-7 and didn’t even make it to a Bowl game. I was thinking, ‘Man, this is still cool and all, but I wonder what’s going to come of this?’ The next year with the coaching changes and all, I wasn’t really sure what the deal was going to be with the walk-ons that had come in under the previous coaching staff.
When coach Chizik and all the assistant coaches got there, I realized that we really had something special. That first year with them, we went to the Outback Bowl. I remember the first thing he said was, ‘The last time I walked through these doors, we were 13-0,’ and his plan was to get us back there. Little did we know that this season was going to turn into what it was. We made history.
CC: Then being rewarded with a scholarship this year, what did that mean to you?
JH: Earning a scholarship, that meant a lot to me. It took a lot of hard work to get to that point. But when I finally got rewarded with it, it felt like I accomplished a huge goal. I just never would have thought that I’d ever be playing for Auburn, let alone on an athletic scholarship to the college that I love. It’s really meant a lot for the coaches to have that much confidence in me. They knew that I could do it. And then to reward me with something like that, it’s really unbelievable.
CC: Talk about your position as a long snapper. It’s a position that a lot of people take for granted, where you typically only get noticed when you make a mistake.
JH: Being a snapper, it’s unlike any other position on the field. I mean, to be a specialist, in general. Wes gets a lot of publicity for being the kicker that he is, but no one really thinks about the snapping and the holding that goes into every one of those kicks. A lot of people take it for granted.
It’s one of those positions where if you do your job right, no one really pats you on the back or anything. It’s just one of those deals where as soon as you mess up, everybody’s kind of like, ‘That’s unbelievable. I don’t understand. What’s going on? What’s the deal here?’
But it’s really incredible. I enjoy it. It’s kind of the unsung hero position. You’re just kind of flying under the radar, but you’re a part of the team that just goes out and wins games under pressure situations. It feels great.
CC: You had several friends and family members out there for the game. What was that like for you?
JH: Having my family and my friends out there, it meant a lot. I knew that they weren’t going to miss that game for anything. That’s the biggest game for all the guys on the team’s career. They’re never going to forget that.
And to be able to share that moment with my family and my friends was just really incredible. It was just an incredible experience that I got to share with them. It’s just something that we’ll never forget.
CC: I spoke with your dad [John Harris] the other day and he said that your grandfather [Dr. James W. Morrow, Jr.] actually played on the 1957 national championship team. How special is that to you for you and him to have played on the two national championship teams?
JH: That’s something that’s just really, really special to me. Me and my grandfather were really, really close. I know that if he were still here today, he would be just extremely proud of the things that I’ve accomplished. For him to have been on the ‘57 team that won the national championship, and then for me to be on the 2010 team that won the national championship, to try to put that into words, it almost does it an injustice, because it’s just so special. Not only to me, but the rest of my family, too.
One of my grandfather’s teammates, Dr. Lloyd Nix, was the quarterback of that team. I stay in contact with him. I actually saw him the day before the game when we went to the stadium for a walk-through. Getting to sit there and talk with him for a little bit was really unbelievable. He understands how special I think it is that I’m on this team that my grandfather played on, as well. It’s hard to put it into words how I feel about it.
CC: Have you had time to talk to any friends back home or any former coaches or anything like that?
JH: I have. I’ve talked to mainly my friends back at home. A bunch of my high school teammates. They’re just super excited for me. They never expected Auburn to be here, just like no one else expected Auburn to be in this situation.
To say that not only did we win the national championship, but I had the ball in my hands on the last play to win the national championship for our team, they just couldn’t be more excited for me.
The support they’ve showed me ever since I’ve been here is just really incredible. I’m really thankful to have the support from my friends and my family that I do.
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