Champagnat made Jalen Harrell a successor to Greg Rousseau. Now the DB follows him to UM.
Jalen Harrell had his plan all laid out when he arrived at Champagnat Catholic ahead of his senior season. The defensive back was committed to the Florida State Seminoles and he would keep playing cornerback -- like he always had — once he got to Tallahassee.
Hector Clavijo had a different idea for him — not just for what he could be at the next level, but also for what he would be in his lone season in Hialeah. Clavijo’s defenses at Champagnat usually have a player such as Harrell roaming the back end — someone strong, lanky and athletic to play wherever the Lions might need him. Two years ago, this was a position occupied by Gregory Rousseau.
“He had the mind-set, I want to play corner, corner, corner, corner,” the coach said Tuesday after a practice at Milander Park. “Once he got with me, we kind of sat down — not only on the field, but off the field — and we evaluated him. I gave him an honest what-I-thought and I think he kind of agreed. He saw it. I think he saw his potential at those other positions.”
The Miami Hurricanes were always one of those other teams which liked Harrell for what he had the potential to do at a position other than corner. Miami always liked Harrell as a safety and started to recruit him more heavily in the fall. In October, the senior decommitted from Florida State. On Friday, he orally committed to the Hurricanes.
With less than three weeks until the early signing period, Harrell’s recruitment is finally over. He’s staying home to play a position he never thought he would.
“I just think it’s a situation where now he’s open to, You know what? I can play so many different things,” Clavijo said. “Let me go somewhere where they can use me, and I can probably get on the field faster.”
The Hurricanes’ pitch also embraced versatility. Harrell’s ability to play cornerback is a luxury for them. They’re more enamored with his 6-foot-2, 180-pound frame at either safety or even striker.
This season, Champagnat has used Harrell to shadow star wide receivers as a cornerback, play the last line of defense as a free safety or even to line up in the box as a strong safety. When Miami hosted Harrell for his official visit last month, the Hurricanes laid out a plan to compete at either safety or striker — and there’s an opening on the two-deep depth chart at the latter with striker Romeo Finley graduating.
Harrell called Miami his favorite in the days coming out of the official visit, but he said he went back and forth a few times between the Hurricanes and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets before he finally gave a pledge to Miami’s coaches the day the Hurricanes lost to the FIU Panthers. He went public with his announcement Friday to celebrate his 18th birthday.
“I actually was back and forth on them,” said Harrell, who’s a four-star safety in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2020. “It’s closer to home, and I’m just more comfortable there.”
He scrapped an originally planned official visit with the Central Florida Knights last weekend and hopped on with the local team just before the regular season ended to cap an impressive run on the recruiting trail for a struggling team.
In a span of less than seven days which included a loss to FIU, Miami landed three blue-chip commitments from Harrell, four-star running back Jaylan Knighton and four-star wide receiver Dazalin Worsham. They’re all potentially instant impact players for a team in dire need of help.
“Everybody’s hungry,” Harrell said. “Everybody wants to go in there and change the program, get it to where it needs to be.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 10:35 AM.
