At the moment Connor Harris jumped and intercepted the ball, the receiver hit him low and Harris fell on his shoulder. He played a few more snaps, but soon lost feeling in his right arm. What he thought was a cramp turned out to be a separated shoulder. It required season-ending surgery.

It was the third game of Harris’ sophomore season for Lindenwood University, a Division II school in St. Charles, Missouri. The Lions were 2-0 and beating a rival school at halftime. After Harris’ injury, the Lions lost the lead and six of its last seven games.

For the first time in Harris’ life, injury forced him to the sideline. It was almost a full year until he could play football again.

“I thought, ‘Oh man, can I compete at the level I was at?’” Harris said. “’Can I get my strength back? Is this going to affect my future?’”

Two years later, Harris has answers. The redshirt junior linebacker leads Division II in tackles with 107 in six games, 17 more than second place. On Oct. 10, before head coach Patrick Ross sat his starters in a lopsided loss, Harris recorded 23 tackles in three quarters. Yet Harris, on pace for 196 tackles this season, didn’t play linebacker before college, turned down a Division I offer and couldn’t work out his right arm for a full year.

“It was unfortunate to get that injury, but it showed me how to lead,” Harris said. “I learned a lot about myself.”

Harris prepared as usual following his injury, watching hours of film on Hudl. He relayed reports to his replacement, freshman Clint Koons. Koons led the team in tackles that year.

Harris maintained his strict diet of lean meats, chicken breast and fish. He couldn’t use his right shoulder, so he did leg presses, sled pulls, hamstring raises and left arm workouts. Harris’ friend and former Lindenwood slot receiver Chase Stewart remembered Harris’ workouts as painful cycles of adding another 10 pounds each rep followed by only 30-second breathers.

“You leave (the gym) needing to hit an ice bath as soon as possible,” Stewart said. “… (That’s why) he looks like a created player in Madden.”

The injury was Harris’ second college adjustment. He played safety and quarterback in high school, which is why he didn’t initially attract Football Bowl Subdivision offers, Ross said. Bigger schools had to project where the 6-foot, 240-pounder could play. (Harris told Kansas it was too late when, the day after he committed to Lindenwood, the Jayhawks offered him a scholarship.)

Ross, who compares recruiting to darts, saw Harris’ high school state championship game when he scored touchdowns on a pass, rush and pick-six.

“This guy was a bullseye,” he said. “I saw him play live one time and he became a must-have.”

Harris arrived on campus in 2012 and converted to linebacker. During an intrasquad scrimmage at the end of camp, Stewart caught a screen and turned to run upfield. Harris introduced himself.

“Probably the hardest hit of my collegiate career,” Stewart said.

Ross and Stewart said Harris is the best football player they’ve ever been around. Ross has coached 10 NFL players. Stewart grew up playing Texas high school football.

“Connor’s not the only great player I’ve played with,” Stewart said, “but the diet, nutrition, training and study sets him apart. (You know) what you see on the field and in the stat column? That’s seven days a week.”

As Harris’ transition continued at middle linebacker, he became more vocal, acting like the defense’s quarterback — a position he found himself in on the other side of the ball.

In Lindenwood’s last game of 2014, Stewart said, the struggling Lions offense put Harris at quarterback to run zone reads. On 11 carries, Harris rushed for 188 yards and four touchdowns — more rushing scores than any other player had all season.

“We’re in Division II and he looks like he’s playing a bunch of high schoolers,” Stewart said.

Ross doesn’t like to use Harris on offense, preferring to let him focus on defense, where Harris has been the team-leading tackler since he started as a true freshman.

But before his 107 tackles this season, he had to make his first with a healed right shoulder. In his return from injury last season, he tensed as he saw the running back coming. He felt doubt.

“I wouldn’t say scared of contact, but I was uneasy,” Harris said. “I was expecting pain, but (at the hit) I didn’t feel anything. I thought, ‘Wow. This feels fine.’

“So it slipped my mind and I kept playing.”

Published on October 14, 2015 at 1:05 am

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR