College football recruiters are off and running with another open period to visit high school prospects. But TE Nyck Harbor of Washington, DC is running in a track meet in Virginia this weekend to help prepare him for the Texas Tech Relays, so the coaches won’t pile into his school until early next week.
Harbor has a short list of USC, MIchigan, Southern Cal, Miami, Maryland, Georgia and LSU. He has taken official visits to USC, Maryland and Michigan and has one scheduled for Oregon the end of this month. The Ducks could become even bigger players for him because of their track and field heritage. Each school’s track program will be a major part of Harbor’s decision.
“He has aspirations to being an Olympic athlete, so he wants to maintain that structure,” Harbor’s coach Robert Harris said. “That’s one of the reasons he stayed on the offensive side of the ball at the Under Armour Game. Everybody has done a great job making sure that their track programs were heavily involved. “He wants to break some national high school records before he leaves here. He’s intent with that and I admire him for that.”
From the football side, all the staffs are in regular contact according to Harris, and that includes Shame Beamer and the Gamecocks.
“They still been recruiting him strongly,” Harris said. “He hasn’t narrowed it down to anybody else, so those guys are still in the race and they’ve been doing their due diligence. I applaud them.”
Harris added that Harbor remains focused on the same major points that will lead to his final decision.
“I don’t think they’ve changed. It’s the same things,” Harris said. “School, academics, football and track. Those have remained at the forefront of things for the family decision and I feel and believe those things are the same.”
Of course, the question comes up to Harris all the time about what Harbor eventually will do. He said all of that will come out on February 1st.
“He’s keeping it close to the vest,” Harris said. “So many people ask him that question. He’s going to take this Oregon visit and then sit down with the family and start to put things together to make his announcement for February 1st. We’re going to have an official signing day reception for the kids and the families. It will be him and about five of his teammates. His 5-7 minutes will be covered by ESPN as well, so it will be televised nationally. We’re going to start that around Noon. He may wait till that moment to sign.”
