 |
| Eric Hoffses' tweet on Sunday night. |
Maybe an old fire battalion chief said it first, but it rings true today:
"Where there's smoke, there's fire."
There's a whole lot of smoke around today about maybe the best running back in the storied history of the ACC, Montel Harris, attending Temple.
Eric Hoffses of EagleAction.com tweeted as much last night.
Hoffses is a respected reporter with close ties to the Boston College football program and to Harris himself.
As far as smoke goes, that's a lot.
 |
| 2011 pre-season media poll for ACC Player of Year |
As far as fire goes, this is a five-alarmer.
In the interest of accuracy, Harris is NOT the all-time leading rusher but if he had played his final year at Boston College, he no doubt would have been. He came into this season just 878 yards short of the all-time record. That's for the ACC, where some good football has been played the last 30 or so years. Since he averaged well over 1,000 yards the first three seasons, he might have done that by mid-year. He had a falling out with head coach Frank Spaziani but his two former offensive coaches now at Temple, Kevin Rogers and offensive coordinator Ryan Day, love the guy.
What does this mean for Matty Brown?
Nothing.
Brown will get his carries. Harris can't be expected to be 100 percent this year.
I see an 80-90 percent Harris adding a lot to the Temple team, though. If, God-willing, Harris comes back closer to 100 percent, he immediately becomes a Pierce-like threat and the best running back in the Big East and a potential first-round draft pick. I don't know, though, of a whole lot of guys who came back better after a serious knee injury. Maybe the Bionic Man, but that was a fictional TV series. We can only hope for that to happen here.
I see Harris possibly playing the same role Brown did to Pierce last year as a supporting back.
Harris will get his 1,000 yards and six to 10 touchdowns (heck, Brown almost had 1,000 yards) and Brown could get the 27 touchdowns and 1,700 yards Pierce got last year.
Or both could get over 1,000 yards and split the same 33 touchdowns and 2,700 yards (roughly) Pierce and Brown got together last year.
It's all good.
Remember, the fact that both Pierce and Brown had the misfortune of getting hurt (but still playing) against Bowling Green cost the Owls a game. Brown needs an insurance policy and Harris is at least that. Just like Brown was Pierce's insurance policy.
Temple head coach Steve Addazio kept the embers of the fire going last week when asked if Harris was going to join the team:
"Not yet."
Yet was the operative word.
When is the next similar word.
Judging by the smoke on the horizon, it could be very soon.
