Aug 18, 2003 4 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia running back Kay-Jay Harris finds it hard to stay focused when he’s not playing. As a centerfielder in the Texas Rangers’ organization, Harris would take a nap during games when he wasn’t in the lineup.

“I used to fall asleep in the dugout and the coach got tired of fining me and taking my money,” Harris said. “He used to make me go sit in the bullpen with the pitchers so he wouldn’t see me sleeping.”

After three years without advancing past the Class A level, Harris grew tired of baseball and the long bus rides.

“I just felt like it was too boring,” he said.

He also knew that several football players he had played against in high school had gone on to the NFL.

“Every year I came home to Tampa, everybody was always saying, ‘you should go to school and play football.’ It kind of wore on me that everybody asked that,” said Harris, 24. “So I said, fine, I’m going to do it before it gets too late.”

Despite a four-year layoff from football, Harris rushed for 2,087 yards and 20 touchdowns the past two seasons at Garden City (Kan.) Community College.

One day last year while in the school’s football office, he noticed a West Virginia media guide, opened it and saw a photo of an old friend, Mountaineer running backs coach Calvin Magee.

A Tampa, Fla., native, Magee has known Harris since Harris was in the seventh grade.

“Kay-Jay called me and told me he was playing ball again. I thought he was kidding. I said, ‘if you’re serious, send me some film,”‘ Magee said. “He sent the film and hadn’t lost a step. He looked even faster than he was.”

Harris arrived in Morgantown last January and has been trying to catch on to the Mountaineer offensive scheme.

Now, he hopes it’s opposing defenses that are caught napping.

At 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, Harris is deceptively quick. In high school, he won four state long jump titles. In minor-league baseball, he batted leadoff and once ranked second in the Appalachian League in stolen bases.

“So that tells you I can run,” he said. “A lot of people look at my size and the first thing they assume is, ‘He can’t be that fast.’ That’s always the misjudgment about me.

“Once I’m in the open field, they’re like, ‘oh, I can’t catch him.”‘

Harris doesn’t mind running over people, too.

“The first time he carried the ball inside, he looked like T.J. Duckett,” said WVU running back Quincy Wilson, referring to the former Michigan State star. “I know the (defensive back) had to think twice about getting in his way.

“That’s going to really help this year. We’ve got a guy who can come in there and pound you.”

Then there’s that thorny issue of sitting on the bench, which didn’t sit well with Harris in baseball.

But he’s accepted his role as Wilson’s backup, knowing it’s only a matter of time when he’s called upon in an offense that ran the ball nearly 60 times per game last season.

“There’s enough balls to go around,” Harris said.

In fact, Harris predicts 1,000-yard seasons for both himself and Wilson – a lofty goal for someone who has yet to face Division I-A competition and whose team lost three starters on the offensive line.

“A lot still remains to be seen because he’s still learning the offense,” Magee said. “But I think he’ll bring a lot to the table – a big powerful guy with a lot of speed. He’s a bruiser, and very mature, which is going to help us a lot.”