There's a reason
Najee Harris is ranked the No. 1 junior running back in the country and why he was Alabama's first recruit from the class in 2017.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder from
Antioch (Calif.) showed about all of those reason during a 47-22 win over visiting Milpitas on Friday night.
According to the Contra Costa Times, Harris rushed for a school-record 378 yards and three touchdowns and added TD receptions of 76 and 18 yards against the Central Coast Section's best defense from 2014.
He did all of his work in less than three quarters. He didn't handle the ball in the fourth.
Milpitas, considered the biggest and largest team in the CCS, watched Harris score on runs of 74, 76 and 30 yards to total five touchdowns total.
Najee Harris rushed for a school record 2,263 yards and 23 touchdowns as a sophomore.
File photo by Ernie Abrea
It was Antioch's first meeting with Milpitas, which had five shutouts and allowed just 82 points during a 12-1 season in 2014. Milpitas (0-1) took an early 16-8 lead, before Harris scored four straight touchdowns and Antioch (2-0), like their star back, was gone.
Antioch coach John Lucido told us before the season that the Panthers would use Harris prominently as a receiver. Check out his two catches Friday on his two-game highlight reel. One he picked off the top of his shoes, somehow got quickly up to speed and evaded a half-dozen would be tacklers en route to his 76-yard touchdown.
"He's got the best hands on the team, maybe in the league," he said. "He could be a Division I receiver."
As a sophomore, Harris broke school records with 271 carries for 2,263 yards and 23 touchdowns. He opened the season with 15 carries and 187 yards and two scores in a 62-7 win over Acalanes.
On Friday, he broke his own single-season school record of 371 yards rushing in a 50-26 North Coast Section playoff win over San Leandro, Antioch's first playoff win since 1984.
Harris is 15 pounds bigger and faster than he was last year, according to Lucido. "That's pretty scary," he said.
Harris performance on Friday shouldn't be that big of a surprise. He was
gone almost every weekend during the spring and summer at training
camps or recruiting trips.
He was one of only a handful of incoming
juniors invited to The Opening at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.,
where he was a standout against 170 of the nation's top recruits.
"He's always looking to improve himself," Lucido said. "If he has one bad run, one bad step, one bad workout, he knows it and focuses on what he needs to do. He's a very focused young man."
Najee Harris at The Opening in July.
Courtesy of Nike
