How Jaden Harris went from soccer star, to punter to future Miami Hurricanes cornerback
In the past week, Jaden Harris has suddenly had a lot of people asking him about his soccer background.
In the grand scheme of his athletic career, it was basically a blip for the three-star cornerback from Riverwood in Atlanta. Long before he signed a national letter of intent with the Miami Hurricanes on Wednesday, Harris got his start as an athlete by playing soccer as a preteen, and, if he’s to be believed, he might be hunting professional dreams there if he decided to stick with it.
“ I was really good,” the 6-foot, 180-pound senior said, laughing about the days when he scored about three goals per game in a church league. “I was probably a better soccer player than I was at football.”
It was a detail coach Mario Cristobal pointed to on the first day of the early signing period in his analysis of the least-heralded member of Miami’s Class of 2021.
Harris is the No. 924 overall prospect in this cycle, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and the only three-star recruit in a class full of blue-chip prospects. The Hurricanes, however, love his multi-sport background and his relative lack of experience in the secondary.
“If you play soccer and you have to use your feet the way they do, and you make that transition, at first it’s difficult,” Cristobal said Wednesday in Coral Gables. “He looks very natural with it.”
Jaden Harris’ soccer background
The truth is there was no straight transition from soccer to football for Harris, although soccer is a big part of his background.
His father, Airinton Mosquera, was a professional soccer player in Colombia, so Harris, who’s of Colombian descent and was born in the United States, made it his first serious sport when he was 7 or 8.
After a few years, he gave it up and played basketball through middle school. This one, he wasn’t particularly good at.
“I’d just foul out of all the games,” Harris said. “Funny story: I was playing AAU, it was like the last tournament, and my coach told me, ‘Son, you’ve got to go play football.’”
Harris heeded his advice and went to play football as a freshman.
He was a four-year varsity player, although two of those years were mostly spent as a punter. His kicking ability is the first detail Harris offers up about his background.
“I was a punter,” he said when asked about how his football career started, with his two years playing outside linebacker — one on varsity — sort of an afterthought.
After his sophomore season, Harris wanted to play defensive back because he knew, with his speed and natural athletic gifts, he had a chance to maybe play in college.
At North Springs in Atlanta, the coaches wanted to keep him at linebacker, so Harris transferred and immediately became a starter for the Raiders as a junior.
At the time, Riverwood had a star senior cornerback named Khalil Anderson, who now plays for the Pittsburgh Panthers, and the Raiders knew opponents weren’t going to throw on him much. Riverwood coach Robert Edwards took it as a chance for Harris to get a ton of quick experience by playing opposite a shutdown corner.
“We kind of threw him into the fire,” Edwards said.
Why Miami likes Jaden Harris
As a junior, Harris had one interception and led the Raiders with seven passes defended in nine games. Harris got beat a lot — although rarely deep because of his speed — and it turned out to be exactly what he needed, Edwards said.
As a senior, Harris had another interception and coaches voted him the player of the year in his region.
“He’s a work in progress,” Edwards said, “but his work in progress is a lot further along than a lot of experienced corners.”
It’s what defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson noticed when he offered Harris a scholarship last month. Robinson, who had a prior relationship with Edwards, told Harris he liked the idea of molding a still-inexperienced defensive back in his own image, especially because Harris was already emerging as a legitimate star.
Robinson was the main selling point. Harris came down to South Florida for his official visit the weekend of Dec. 3 and silently committed to the Hurricanes on Dec. 5. He flew back home to Georgia on Dec. 6 and found out former coach Manny Diaz had been fired right as he touched down in Atlanta.
Harris never wavered, though. Robinson texted him right away and told Harris, “You’re still good.”
“He told me he still wanted to coach me and that we were just going to see what happens, we were going to see who we get and stuff like that, so that was big because I felt comfortable,” Harris said. “I really want to play under Coach T-Rob because of his resume.”
Although Cristobal never made an in-home visit with Harris, the new coach talked to Harris on the phone and to let him know he was still wanted. Harris held off on making a public commitment until Wednesday to build up some drama. He knew all along he was going to stick with Miami.
“I’m a man of my word,” Harris said. “I knew that I would like it because it was in Florida, but when I went down there I was like, Oh, this is crazy. As soon as I got off the plane, I was like, Yeah, I’m not leaving.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 3:35 PM.
