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Syracuse’s former No. 1 wide receiver Taj Harris has found a new home at Kentucky. Harris has committed to a transfer to the SEC school, he announced via Twitter on Saturday morning.

Harris entered the transfer portal in early October after playing three games with the Orange this year. He missed SU’s win over UAlbany due to injury and then didn’t travel to the team’s conference opener at Florida State.

The wide receiver has two years of eligibility remaining because of the NCAA rule which says less than four games can count as a redshirt season (Harris had not yet used his redshirt season).

“Syracuse thank you for all the love and support … @CoachDinoCuse thank you for being the remodel I needed in my life as well as the coaching staff,” Harris’ tweet on Oct. 3 said. “With that being said I am entering the transfer portal … love y’all.”

Harris was the second Orange player to enter the transfer portal this season, following backup running back Jarveon Howard. Since Harris’ announcement, Syracuse also lost Tommy DeVito to the portal after Mississippi State transfer Garrett Shrader won the starting job since the Liberty game. Harris was one of DeVito’s top receiving targets during his tenure at SU.

Harris posted on Twitter about offers he received from other SEC schools including Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Auburn, as well as the ACC’s NC State and Louisville and the Pac-12’s Utah, among others.

At SU, Harris was Syracuse’s No. 3 receiver during his freshman season but filled the No. 1 role after Trishton Jackson entered the NFL draft. In 2020, he ranked fifth in the conference in receptions and earned third-team All-ACC honors. He also infamously flipped off a television camera during Syracuse’s loss to Liberty last season and was suspended for a game.

Without Harris for the last month, Courtney Jackson, Anthony Queeley and Damien Alford have stepped up. Jackson scored a punt return touchdown against BC, Alford caught the winning pass with seconds remaining at Virginia Tech and Trebor Pena caught a deep touchdown pass against Clemson. Shrader said Jackson is the closest thing SU has to a new No. 1 receiver at the moment, but he emphasized that he distributes the ball to whoever’s open.

“You can’t really worry about what’s going on in the past or what happened,” Jackson said. “You’ve got to move on to the future and work on what we have in our locker room.”

Published on November 6, 2021 at 10:17 am

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16