Before senior linebacker Darien Harris became a leader for the MSU football team he began his athletic career playing soccer and baseball.
It wasn’t until he turned 11-years-old that Harris began playing football —his father played college football for Virginia Tech and one of his former teammates started a youth football program in Darien’s neighborhood and Harris checked it out.
“We went out there when I was 11-years-old, that was my first year playing I was actually terrible at it,” Harris said. “I was actually playing left tackle and a lot of center because I was the biggest kid on my team.”
It didn’t take long for Harris to fall in love with the game, the following summer he had a six-inch growth spurt and he began to play in positions he felt more comfortable in. Harris went from playing youth football to starring at DeMatha Catholic High School.
“I had pretty good high school career at DeMatha Catholic and I got recruited to play (at MSU),” Harris said. “I came on my visit and I immediately fell in love with this place, with East Lansing, with the campus, the family atmosphere that coach Dantonio has provided for us here and I knew this was the place to be and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Harris described his first years as a learning process aided by the presence of former Spartans Max Bullough, Denicos Allen and Chris Norman.
Harris is a fifth-year senior who already finished his first degree program earning a bachelors in journalism, he is now working on a human capitol degree in the social science department with a focus on economics and business.
Harris believes he stepped into a leadership role when he became a full-time starter last year as a junior, but now as a senior he is ready to take it to the next level.
In a recent press release that announced Harris being named to the Butkus Award Watch List, co-defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett spoke about Harris as a leader.
“Darien Harris is one of the top leaders not only on our defense but on our entire team,”Barnett said. “He’s well respected by his teammates. Darien is a smart football player and an outstanding tackler.”
This year with the expectations for MSU football as high as they’ve ever been Harris feels it’s important that the team takes it one day at a time.
“After Thursday’s workout we’re just looking forward to Friday’s workout, after Friday’s workout we’re just looking forward to Monday’s workout and as we take things one day at a time everything will fall into place,” Harris said.
Harris won’t let the team become complacent after consecutive top-five finishes— No. 3 in 2013 and No. 5 in 2014.
“We always have to play with a chip on our shoulder,” Harris said. “We have not arrived yet, those teams (that finished No. 3 and No. 5) belong to the seniors of years past, we have to write our own history and our own legacy.”
The senior linebacker believes the sky is the limit for this team and he expects big things out of the upcoming season.
“I want (us) to be remembered as one of the best teams to come through Michigan State, I think we have all of the talent in the world to do that,” Harris said “This senior class is incredibly strong and we knew that when we came in, in 2011, that we would be able to do big things here and now it’s time to walk the walk.”
On the field Harris wants to be remembered as a great teammate and a great leader, off the football field he wants to be remembered as the example of a consummate student-athlete.
“We’re just students like everybody else here, we’re no more special than the next person,” Harris said. “We’re thankful to be here we understand it’s a privilege to be here, not a right, so I just want to conduct myself in the best possible way so that I’m an example on this campus.”
