Harris a study in perseverance
Ottawa quarterback was ready to quit, but the CFL beckoned
EDMONTON — Trevor Harris describes it like being in a washing machine.
His path from a tiny college in a tiny town in Pennsylvania to starting quarterback for the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks in Sunday’s Grey Cup has been anything but delicate.
The spin cycle involved labour strife, shaky teams and stops barely long enough to unpack.
“It’s been very challenging,” Harris said Thursday as he reflected on his career.
“I was thrown around every which way, but when I got out of it, I was able to stand up, stand tall and say I can still do this and I still believe in myself.”
Harris was a star for the Edinboro University Fighting Scots, a small Division 2 school in Edinboro, Penn., population 6,500.
He set every passing record at the school while playing from 2006-2009 and was a four-time all-PSAC West selection.
His former coach in Edinboro, Scott Browning, remembers a kid who was focused and driven.
“His fun on a Friday night was to get a whole bunch of guys together and see who could drink a gallon of milk,” Browning said from his home in Maryland.
Harris signed as a free agent with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League in 2010 and made it to the final round of cuts.
That’s when the fun began. Long story short, Harris spent three years bouncing between the United Football League, the Arena Football League and the Buffalo Bills, who rescinded a contract offer during the 2011 NFL lockout.
In 2012, he got offered the offensive co-ordinator job back in Edinboro and it was tempting, Harris recalled. His brother still had two years left with the school and Harris would have been his coach.
“At that point I was like: ‘Man, this deal is just throwing me around every which way. There’s no stability.’ Coaching would have given me that stability,” Harris said.
He credits divine intervention for taking one more shot at playing in the CFL.
“He just had to find the right place,” said Browning.
He signed with the Toronto Argonauts to back up Ricky Ray.
He started 16 games for the Argos in 2015 as Ray recovered from an injury. Ottawa signed him in ’16, but again he fell behind another CFL great on the depth chart, Henry Burris.
He and Burris split time starting that season as they both battled injuries and dealt with benchings. Ottawa made it all the way to the Grey Cup.
It looked like Harris would be pressed into starting the championship when Burris’s knee locked up pre-game. But the veteran recovered in time for kickoff and Harris watched from the sidelines as his team won.
“It was something else, that’s for sure,” he said. “I was an upand-down, roller-coaster type of day.”
Harris enters Sunday’s big game as the undisputed starter with 5,116 and 22 touchdowns against 11 interceptions in 17 regular-season games.
His six passing touchdowns against Hamilton in the Eastern final last week were a playoff record.
Harris’s fellow players laud his poise in the huddle and his smarts on the field. “He’s got swagger. He’s got confidence in himself,” said wideout Diontae Spencer. “When you have those types of traits as a quarterback, only good things can happen.”
Now, he’s looking to win a Grey Cup on Sunday — behind centre this time, not on the sidelines.