Sophomore back stands out

By Greg Doddridge
Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — Joey Harris exceeded expectations Sunday.

As late as last Tuesday, Purdue coach Joe Tiller was denying the impact the sophomore might have, saying, "Harris may prove to be a factor this year, but I don't know about being a factor in the first game."

Harris, in his first collegiate game, was a factor in the 19-14 Purdue win over Cincinnati in the season opener for both teams. The sophomore running back rushed seven times for 79 yards with a touchdown to complement two kickoff returns of 29 and 13 yards.

The Tomball, Texas, native fumbled the opening kickoff, which was later recovered by Purdue's Jason Loerzel. But Harris said the fumble was actually helpful for him.

"I thought for the most part that I would be really nervous and really shaky," said Harris. "And I'm glad I had that fumble because it let me know that 'Hey, this is going to happen, that's what happens in a real game.' I pretty much did what I wanted to do, which was fumble the ball and calm down a little bit."

Harris only saw action during two plays in the first half, outside of special teams participation. It was during Purdue's second drive of the third quarter that the sophomore shined.

Harris got outside and ran 48 yards on a second-and-10 play.

"The offensive line had some great blocking to open up the cutback hole," said Harris.

He scored on a 16-yard reverse four plays later.

"I think it was the strong safety who was creeping out, so I figured if I could cut it inside, I might have a chance to score," said Harris. "There was a little bit of green and I went for it."

Redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Hance said Harris was a playmaker.

"We put him in some situations where there wasn’t much there given to him, but he made the rest on his own," said Hance.

Tiller said he was glad to see Harris play well and score, especially since Harris has been out of football for a year. Tiller had preseason concerns that being out of football might cause Harris to be a slow starter.

Harris said he had no idea before the game how often he was going to run.

"I thought it would just be a special teams thing," said Harris. "I'm glad I got a lot more carries than what I expected."

Harris said he was happy with the two opportunities that he got in the first half and he would have been happy if those two plays were all he got in the game.

"The fact that coach allowed me to get more opportunities showed that he has a lot of confidence in me," said Harris. "I have total trust and confidence in Coach Tiller. If he thought I would have made an impact later in the year, then hopefully I would have. The fact that I made it earlier in the year, I think that says a lot to where I will be hopefully contributing to the team throughout the year."

Field Turf

The Nippert Stadium field consists of synthetic, rubbery grass stuck in artificial dirt made of grains of black rubber.

Senior Matt Mitrione said that the turf was causing some foot problems for the Boilers. Mitrione said that where the outside spikes were at on their shoes, people's feet were hurting.

Attendance Anomaly

Nippert Stadium set a new attendance record with a sellout crowd of 35,097. That is the smallest crowd that Purdue has played in front of since Tiller's first game as head coach at Toledo on Sept. 6, 1997. The crowd on hand that day was 27,700.

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