2014 Sportsman of the Year finalist: Madison Southern's Damien Harris one of best football prospects ever from Kentucky

Over the coming days, we are revealing, in alphabetical order, the 10 finalists for the 2014 Lexington Herald-Leader Kentucky Sportsman of the Year award.

The winner will be announced simultaneously the night of Feb. 4 on Kentucky.com and at the fourth annual Bluegrass Sports Awards banquet.

Complete results from Sportsman voting will be in the Feb. 5 Herald-Leader along with a story on the winner and summaries on each of the top 10 finishers in the voting.

Here is the fourth of the 10 finalists:

Damien Harris

Why 2014 was a very good year: Though limited to seven games by injury, the Madison Southern football star ran for 1,576 yards and 23 touchdowns and won the high school Paul Hornung Award.

What the voters said:

1.) "Not since Tim Couch has a homegrown football prospect held the state at such rapt attention."

— Alex Forkner, CatsIllustrated.com (Rivals network)

2.) "Madison Southern has never enjoyed so much publicity regionally and nationally. (Harris) put the Eagles on the map and was on his way to Mr. Football honors before his injury."

— Keith Taylor, The Winchester Sun

3.) "Damien Harris is the best high school player to come out of Kentucky in quite some time."

— Lee K. Howard, WKYT-TV, Lexington

This story was originally published January 28, 2015 at 4:36 PM with the headline "2014 Sportsman of the Year finalist: Madison Southern's Damien Harris one of best football prospects ever from Kentucky."