SEC football powers have fallen hard for one Lexington high school player
When Fredrick Douglass football coach Nathan McPeek put Jamarrion Harkless on the phone with coaches from Georgia earlier this month, the senior-to-be defensive lineman expected an invitation to a Bulldogs summer camp.
Instead, the reigning national champions offered Harkless a scholarship.
Says Harkless: “Oh man, you can ask Coach McPeek. When they offered me, I had a smile on my face the whole day.”
In the history of Lexington high school football, one wonders if there has ever been a player whose recruiting profile has exploded over a matter of mere weeks as has happened this spring with Harkless, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound nose guard/defensive tackle.
At the end of his junior season last year, Harkless held a solitary scholarship offer — from Eastern Kentucky of the FCS.
He did not get his first FBS offer until Feb. 1 of this year, from Miami (Ohio).
By the time Harkless traveled to Noblesville, Ind., late in February to attend the Best of the Midwest Combine, he had added two more MAC offers: Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green.
Harkless, however, “showed out” at the recruiting camp, earning co-defensive line MVP honors for his performance. In evaluating Harkless’s camp efforts, Steve Wiltfong, the 24/7 Sports national recruiting analyst, wrote that he “showed his quickness in drills and was a tough block in 1-on-1s.”
Just like that, a guy who had previously been somewhat unsung on a Fredrick Douglass roster stacked with Division I college prospects saw his stock with college recruiters soar.
On March 9, West Virginia became the first Power Five Conference school to offer.
“I told him when West Virginia offered him, more and more (Power Five scholarship offers) would roll in,” McPeek says. “But I didn’t know it would be quite like it has been in these past days.”
It was April 8 when McPeek posted video to Twitter of Harkless excelling in a “hip-motion” drill.
Subsequently, the Power Five scholarship floodgates opened for Harkless.
Illinois offered April 9. Following in short order were Georgia (April 13), Auburn, LSU, Louisville and Michigan (all April 14) and Kentucky (April 15). For good measure, Cincinnati, soon to join the Big 12, came through with an offer on April 20.
It was the offer from Georgia — the school that rode an uber-powerful defensive front in 2021 to the national championship — that opened eyes.
“When Georgia called me, their staff, and (Harkless) got on the phone with them, he was pretty emotional about it,” McPeek says. “He’s not an over-emotional-type kid. But, obviously, (an offer from Georgia) is a big deal.”
What schools such as LSU, Auburn and Georgia like about Harkless is not a great mystery, McPeek says.
“Bodies that are 300 pounds and move like him — there are not a whole lot of those guys in the country,” he said.
Frederick Douglass High School is 5.1 miles from Kroger Field, home of the Kentucky Wildcats. No school has recruited Douglass more ardently or effectively in recent seasons than UK.
Mark Stoops, Vince Marrow and Co. signed two Broncos players, wideout Dekel Crowdus and offensive guard Jager Burton, in their 2021 recruiting class. UK added Douglass wide receiver Dane Key in its 2022 class and holds a 2023 commitment from Broncos safety Ty Bryant.
So the fact that UK was only the 18th school to offer Harkless was interesting.
“I don’t know,” McPeek said of Kentucky’s recruitment of Harkless. “Everybody has to speak for themselves. ... I’ve been pretty open about, I think he’s a Power Five kid. Obviously, sometimes the tape doesn’t match that. And I think, sometimes, that happens with a big guy.”
Asked about UK and U of L (the 16th school to offer him) being tardy to his recruitment, Harkless laughed.
“I didn’t really care,” he says. “At the end of the day, they offered me. So I’m just really grateful about that.”
Harkless says he was discouraged during his sophomore season at Douglass because he wasn’t playing as much as he wanted. Last season, an illness and an ankle injury cost the defensive lineman three games, McPeek says.
“He played pretty well,” McPeek says of Harkless’s junior season. “I think he played well in the playoffs. I hope this will take him to that next step with all these schools really wanting him and he becomes a dominant force.”
Harkless says his family has emphasized the need to “stay humble” amid the recruiting blandishments.
On the field, his immediate goals are to get better taking on double teams, become more explosive coming off the ball and show improved acceleration in side-to-side pursuits.
As for his college plans, Harkless will take an official visit to Illinois on June 3. He plans to attend a camp at Georgia on June 1 and one at Auburn on June 16.
In a perfect world, Harkless said he would make his college choice before his high school senior season. However, with his recruiting picture having changed so dramatically in recent weeks, he figures he won’t be able to visit all the schools he wants to before Douglass kicks off its 2022 campaign.
“So I’m probably going to commit by the fourth or fifth game — maybe,” Harkless says.
In the meantime, Harkless is still processing his new reality from a spring in which tradition-rich SEC football powers just kept offering him scholarships.
“I’ve always dreamed for this moment,” Jamarrion Harkless says.
