Weekly NC State defense notebook: Youth is served

NC State football hopes to look back at the 2019 season at some point and be able to say, 'This is where it started for several young players like freshman defensive tackle Joshua Harris.'

Harris was one of the biggest recruits in the Wolfpack’s class of 2019, both figuratively in the rankings and literally with his size. The Roxboro (N.C.) Person High standout was the No. 143 overall player and No. 10 defensive tackle nationally before enrolling early in Raleigh.

Harris checked in this spring at over 350 pounds, but proved dominant in the run game at times during the second half of the Kay Yow Spring Game. The NCSU coaches wanted him to lose at least 20 pounds for fall camp, but that proved difficult. Then he injured his foot.

The initial fear was that he might miss his entire freshman campaign. However, his rehabilitation went well, and he made his long-awaited debut against Syracuse on special teams.

“When I first got my injury, I was down,” Harris said. “I knew they were missing me and ready for me to come back. Now that I’m back, I just want to contribute to the team and help us win.”

Harris also has started to slim down and is probably “lighter” than his listed size of 6-4, 344 pounds. He got his first action on the defensive line against Boston College, chipping in three tackles on 26 snaps, and he was in on 21 plays in the Wake Forest loss.

“When I was watching, it seemed like the game was pretty hard,” said Harris about missing the first five games. “Once I got out there, it was like high school all over again, just with bigger, faster and stronger guys.”

The NC State defensive depth chart has 10 players who are either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. The last two games have given many of them the opportunity to play meaningful snaps.

“I feel like we, as a freshman class, were out there playing just to play,” Harris said. “We need to play to win. We need to be committed to playing.”

Clemson offered Harris, and he unofficially visited there, but the lure of staying close to home proved to be the right move for him. He’s looking forward to playing the reigning national champions at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“I can’t wait," Harris said. "I went to a couple of games and visited there a couple of times. ... I just felt like I belonged here.”

Is it possible that freshman linebacker Drake Thomas was destined to play in this game Saturday?

When Thomas was a three-star linebacker recruit in the 2019 class at Heritage High in Wake Forest, N.C., most assumed that he would join his older brother Thayer, now a redshirt sophomore receiver, at NC State. But other colleges did not take that for granted, including Clemson.

Thomas ultimately did pick the Wolfpack, but the belief has been that Clemson came in second in his recruitment. As he prepares for his first Textile Bowl, Thomas didn’t necessarily want to revisit history and confirm that was the case.

He remained non-committal when asked earlier this week if he would have been playing in this game, one way or another.

“I don’t know,” Thomas said. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to say. I’m not 100 percent sure.”

What is clear is Thomas is coming off his best game of the season at Wake Forest, finishing with eight tackles, including two for loss and 1.5 sacks, plus a pass breakup. Those were his first hits in the backfield this season.

For the year, Thomas has 21 tackles, and he also intercepted a pass at Wake Forest.

The plan for Clemson will be similar to what the Pack has been doing all season.

“We’re going to try to approach the game just like any other game,” Thomas insisted. “We’re going to prepare the same. We’re going to get the game plan, get down and learn it, and make sure we’re comfortable with it. We’re just going to go out there and play our best to make sure we execute the best we can.”

Freshman safety Jakeen Harris was not like many of the others in the 2019 recruiting class. While the bulk of the newcomers arrived last spring, Harris had to follow from a distance while attending high school classes at Benedictine Military in Savannah, Ga.

“When I came I didn’t know everybody, but everybody just started bonding once fall came,” Harris recalled. “I had to learn the ways of everything. Learning the school schedule, learning the practice schedule, just the little things.”

Harris did not feel that he was behind the early enrollees when he arrived, but he knew he had to study up on the defensive playbook. Then he had to contend with a position change.

When Harris was being recruited, he expected that he would line up as a nickel in the Wolfpack’s defense. And when he first arrived at NC State, he was in nickel coach Aaron Henry’s room.

“I was playing good at nickel,” Harris recalled. “Then they were like, ‘He’s fast. He can play safety.’”

Harris, who has gained about seven pounds since arriving at NC State and is now 5-11, 196 pounds, moved to new safeties coach Tony Gibson’s position group. After beginning the season exclusively on special teams, he continued to improve, and injuries in the defensive backfield led to having his name called more often.

At Boston College, Harris played 30 snaps and had eight tackles (four solo). Last week at Wake Forest, he was in on 47 plays and made eight more hits (three solo).

“I was very excited, but I was composed,” Harris noted. “I was calm. I went out there and did what I practiced every day.

“I learned many things from the Boston College game, learning tackling angles, learning how to get back deep and staying deep.”

Harris is part of a secondary that at many times was playing five freshmen or sophomores against WFU, partly out of necessity with the health of the defensive backfield.

“It’s the future,” Harris said. “A lot of guys are hurt and banged up, so we have to come in and step in their shoes.”

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