MOBILE, Ala. – Instinct. One of the definitions of the word is "a natural aptitude or gift." Taken a step further, it is one of the keys for survival, particularly in a world of violence.
The trait takes on even greater importance when you're University of South Alabama senior linebacker Maleki Harris, a man who works in the trenches frequently with a decided weight disadvantage. Midway through his senior year, Harris mans the position at just 210 pounds, 20-25 pounds less than the average individual at the collegiate level.
"I honestly believe some guys are born with football instincts, they understand before the snap the possibilities and when the ball is snapped where it is going," explains first-year assistant coach Mike Adams, Harris' position coach. "Maleki has a way of anticipating the play and getting himself in the proper position, he sees really well what is going on around him. He is very instinctive and anticipates well."
How else to explain what the senior from Cordova, Ala., has accomplished as a Jaguar, particularly since the beginning of last season when he became a starter? As a junior, Harris recorded 63 total tackles — which included 8½ behind the line — and broke up seven passes while also recovering a pair of fumbles and returning an interception 58 yards at Tennessee. In addition to posting a career-best 10 stops in a Homecoming win over Kent State and a team-high nine tackles against Troy, he collected six against the Volunteers as well as Sun Belt Conference co-champion Louisiana-Lafayette.
A second-team all-league selection this summer prior to the start of his final year on the collegiate level, Harris has lived up to the billing while once again being credited with an array of numbers. His 42 tackles stand second on the squad as do his four stops for loss, and he's also forced two fumbles, broke up three passes and intercepted another. And once again his star shone brightest on the Jaguars' biggest stage, as he was named the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week after making 14 stops and forcing a pair of fumbles in the home opener against Mississippi State, now the No. 1 team in the country.
In fact, despite starting for just a year-and-a-half now, Harris is among the all-time leaders in program history with four fumble recoveries and 11 passes broken up, and he's quickly nearing the top five in total tackles with 132 entering tonight's contest against league rival Troy.
"When I'm watching film I like to look at the perspective of what somebody on offense sees. If I can see what they see, then I'll know where they are trying to go with the ball and I can put myself in the right position on defense," he says. "I like to talk to [Jaguar quarterback] Brandon [Bridge] and ask him about the coverages he sees in our defense, what weak points he sees. I'll then show one thing and switch to something else to try and confuse the offense; if I can make them read the wrong thing, then it's a turnover or an incompletion on third down and we are off the field."
But lots of players have what coaches consider to be good football instincts, so that can't be the sole reason why Harris has thrived despite his size.
Intellect. When you lack size on the football field, it can certainly offer an equalizing factor.
"He is definitely very smart," states Adams. "Maleki has a great concept of what is going on around him, what we are trying to get done and his role within each call. The other players listen to him, whether it is on the sideline or on the field when he is trying to help with the calls; they all know Maleki understands what is going on and that he can lead them in the right direction."
It helps that academics were an important part of Harris' development from a very early age.
"My mom is a school teacher, she always preached that I couldn't play football without making As and Bs," he observes. "Making Cs didn't happen in my household; my sister was a brainiac, which annoyed me, but I had to follow in her footsteps. Even when I was young, I would see an opening and wonder why the player didn't go through it; I would go through it and make plays. I loved football, but I knew I couldn't play without good grades; my mom would literally come on the field and pull me off if my progress report had a C on it."
Not only did his upbringing lead to success in the classroom per the family's expectations, but he found that it could be used to help overcome his size disadvantage on the football field.
"You have to do a little extra with positioning, alignments and angles. One of my favorite subjects in school was math, I always liked angles and seeing how things lined up," Harris says. "When you study film you might see someone cut off where if they were a step over to the left or right they're making a tackle for loss. One of the things I have heard the whole time I've been playing football that has always resonated with me is that football is a game of inches. It really is — if a lineman locks up on me then he will more than likely get me, but if I can make one of his hands miss then I have him and I can make him do what I want him to even if I'm 210 pounds and he might be 330.
"You have to study a little more, be a little smarter and have a little more savvy, know when to use your speed and when to use your power."
Not only has that extra work paid off in Harris making more plays, but it served as a benefit to the Jag defense because of his ability to take that extra knowledge he has gained and pass it on to his teammates.
"It would be easy for a guy like Maleki — who has been around and understands the system — to fade away in meetings and not pay attention, but he's been locked in all season," Adams says. "More than anything, he wants a championship not just for himself but for the team, so the more he understands and can help the other guys the better chance we have on Saturdays."
Passion. It's a common trait across fan bases of schools all over the country, whether it's seen at pregame tailgating activities or inside the stadium once the action starts. It also can help explain how a 210-pound inside linebacker can consistently make plays.
"I love playing football, how can you not love going out there and putting on a show in front of however many people are out there?" Harris asks. "I've been doing this since I was three or four years old, I would go out there and play with seven- and eight-year olds; they would bust my lip and my mom would be freaking out, but I loved it. Where else would I want to be?"
"I think there are certain guys who just enjoy being out there, they like the competition," Adams adds. "I've got a couple of those guys, and Maleki is certainly one of them. He likes to be out there leading the defense, making the calls, making the stuff go right, and he loves having success. That can be contagious, he has infected a few of the guys in our group and hopefully has affected more guys on this defense."
"Maleki is the guy who understands the most and understands the magnitude of the game," adds USA defensive coordinator Travis Pearson. "Maleki's expectations aren't as high as mine, but he comes to work every day and I think the kids look up to him. His energy is very, very good, the kids really respond to it."
That passion has been evident ever since Harris began playing the sport. But going back to his start in organized leagues, when he was eight years old, he has used a mentality in all athletics that has helped him to overcome the size disadvantage he is used to facing.
"I've never been a big person. On the roster in high school they may have had me listed as 205 [pounds] but I may have weighed 185 soaking wet," he explains. "Even though I've always been undersized, I have always played linebacker; even when I played basketball I was a post man, I played in the paint. That's just my mentality."
Harris first made the varsity as an eighth grader at Calera High School, and after three seasons he transferred to Cordova High. As a Blue Devil, he finished with 141 stops including 15 sacks his junior year and added 148 tackles with 12 sacks the following fall. Not only that, he was a key player offensively as well with 53 receptions for 987 yards and 11 touchdowns combined while helping the school to the state 3A playoffs both years.
"I loved offense. Defense is fun, but as a defensive player I think offense is easy — you know the snap count, you know what you have to do, the only read you have to make if you're a receiver is where the defensive back is playing," says Harris. "People think playing defense is 'see ball, hit ball' but with the schemes offensives have you need to have some savvy, it's more about read and react. And you have to do that in a second-and-a-half while a 300-pound lineman is coming at you trying to take you out. I loved playing receiver, and going and getting deep balls."
His size initially gave the Jaguar coaching staff pause when it came to recruiting Harris, but eventually performance won out.
"We looked at Maleki early in the spring [before his senior year], and we turned him down because he was playing receiver and linebacker — where he blitzed a lot — but he looked kind of thin. But when I went back and looked again, I said we need to look closer because this kid could make plays," USA head coach Joey Jones recalls. "We watched a few of his games in the fall and started recruiting him hard, we realized pretty quickly that he was going to be a really good football player even though he might not fit the measurables that we needed at linebacker. When I look at him now, there is no doubt in my mind that Maleki is one of the best linebackers in the Sun Belt.
"It just shows you that when you have smarts and guts and are as competitive as he is that you can still play the game."
Competitive. Defined as having a strong desire to succeed, it not only explains how Harris has thrived as an undersized linebacker but how he ended up as a Jaguar in the first place.
"It goes back to wanting to leave a footprint. I had always heard about Mobile and had family members stay down here, and it's 45 minutes from the beach — that's what got me interested in the school," Harris states of his decision to accept Jones' offer and join the fledgling program. "With football I liked the challenge, I've always liked to do something that's a little more difficult. Coming here and starting a new program there were going to be a lot of naysayers, but I liked that; that's what fuels me.
"If you say I'm too small or too slow to do something, give me a chance to prove it. When people said that South Alabama football wouldn't amount to anything, I said I would go there and prove everyone wrong. I liked the fact that it was a new program. UAB and Southern Miss have good programs, but they've been there — even if I went there and did something significant I would just be another name. How many times can you say you started a program, especially a Division I football program?"
It also helps explain why Harris was able to find his way on the field as a true freshman in 2011, and why there was a certain level of frustration when he didn't earn more playing time the following season. He competed in eight contests his first year with the program, collecting seven stops, and saw that figure increase to 20 tackles while participating in every game the next fall.
"I handled it a little better my freshman year, I knew I had to earn my stripes so to speak," Harris explains. "But it was frustrating because I didn't come here with the mindset of riding the bench for two years and then being ready to go, I came here wanting to play. There were times I didn't feel I got a fair shot, but it was more about me being young and inexperienced, and having to learn to be a college football player — there is a lot of off-the-field preparation and time that you have to put into it that many high school players don't know about. You might be more athletic than the senior that you come in behind, but he has more wisdom.
"I felt like I was waiting on something to change, but I had to go make the change myself. Once I finally starting putting the time and work in, my time came."
"Most of it is intellect and old-school, down-and-gritty want to," Pearson says of Harris' ability to succeed. "But he does not allow outside forces to determine how good he can be, you can't tell Maleki what he can't do because I think he feeds off of that."
That work has paid off not only in a starting role and increased playing time the last year-and-a-half, but in Harris putting himself in a position to help guide a unit that ranks among the best — standing among the top five in seven statistical categories, including third in total and scoring defense — in the Sun Belt.
"It's Coach Pearson's defense, I'm just the man he has entrusted right now," observes Harris. "Most times it's going to be me just because they trust me to do it, but even when I got sent off the field at Appalachian State after being called for targeting we had a next-man-up mentality."
"He reminds me of a Jaguar, you can punch him right in the face and he's not going to blink; Maleki is going to be aggressive," Jones comments. "During the contest he brings the guys together, he is the leader of our defense. We have other leaders as well, but if you had to pick one Maleki is the guy who is leading the defense because he has such an air of confidence about him. He makes them feel comfortable, that they have all worked hard and to go get it."
A lot of Maleki Harris' success as a member of the South Alabama football program might appear as if it can be simplified and boiled down to single-word terms — instinct, intelligence, passion, competitiveness. But it's all those attributes combined that have helped put a rail-thin, 210-pound senior in position to be recognized as one of the best linebackers in the Sun Belt Conference.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
