Anthony Harris (safety)

Anthony Harris (born October 9, 1991) is an American football safety for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Virginia. He was signed by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2015.

Early years

Harris attended Lloyd C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, Virginia, where he played quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back (two-time All-state and All-region selection). As a junior, he allowed only one completion and notched eight interceptions on defense, while also throwing for over 1,000 yards and rushing for 800 more yards from the quarterback spot on offense. In 2010, he was selected to the first-team All-Group AAA football team by the Associated Press (AP) and was named to the All-Dominion District first-team as a utility player and earned All-district second-team accolades at both quarterback and defensive back. Harris was also a starter on the Skyhawk basketball team as well.^[1]

Regarded as a three-star prospect according to both Rivals.com and Scout.com, Harris was ranked as the No. 34 athlete in the nation and No. 13 recruit in the state of Virginia by Rivals. He was ranked as the No. 68 wide receiver in the country by Scout. He also received a scouts grade of 72 from ESPN.com and was ranked the No. 201 athlete in nation. Harris committed to play college football at the University of Virginia on June 2, 2010 after being recruited by then Head Coach Jim Reid. He chose the Cavaliers over scholarship offers from Maryland, Richmond and West Virginia, among others.

College career

Harris attended the University of Virginia, where he played for the Virginia Cavaliers football team from 2011 to 2014. He started 35 of the 49 games he played at Virginia. Harris ended his collegiate career with 289 tackles (145 solo and 6 for loss), 11 interceptions, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 19 passes defensed. His 11 interceptions tied him for No. 10 all-time in program history.

Freshman season (2011)

In his first season, Harris was one of 12 true freshmen to appear in games for the Cavaliers, playing in all 13 of Virginia's games. He appeared mostly on special teams and finished the season with 14 total tackles including a season-high three stops at North Carolina.

Sophomore season (2012)

As a sophomore in 2012, Harris helped anchor the nation's youngest starting secondary, which featured 4 sophomores and 1 freshman. Harris recorded 87 total tackles (48 solo and 0.5 for loss), a forced fumble, an interception and was credited with 3 passes defensed. He was one of 11 Cavaliers to start all 12 games. He made his first career interception at NC State and returned it for 37 yards. He registered four games with double-digit tackles, with 11 against Penn State, 12 against Louisiana Tech, 10 at Duke and had a career-high 14 tackles against North Carolina. Against Louisiana Tech, he helped hold one of the nation's most prolific offenses to its lowest output of total yards (385 yards) on the season and only game the Bulldogs were held under 400 yards.

Junior season (2013)

As a junior in 2013, Harris started 11 games for the Cavaliers, earned first-team All-ACC honors and was an All-American by Sports Illustrated after leading the nation in interceptions with eight, the most by a Cavalier since Ronde Barber led the ACC with eight in 1994.^[2][3] Harris finished the season with 80 total tackles (42 solo and 3.5 for loss), one sack, a forced fumble, six passes defensed and eight interceptions, which placed Harris No. 2 all-time at Virginia for interceptions in a season, tied with Ronde Barber and Kevin Cook. He also blocked a key punt in the second half of Virginia's victory against BYU and was named the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts against the Cougars.

Senior season (2014)

In his final season at Virginia, Harris was named 3rd-Team All-ACC. Harris notched a career-high 108 tackles (No. 5 in the ACC and No. 31 in the nation) along with 2 interceptions, a sack and ten passes defensed. He had eight tackles, broke up one pass and returned one interception for seven yards in Virginia's win against No. 21 Louisville to earn the first of his two ACC Defensive Back of the Week honors, with the second one coming in a win over Miami in which he recorded 10 tackles and broke up three passes. He had 13 tackles against Pitt, including one sack for a loss of 11 yards. He ended the year with seven tackles in the season finale at Virginia Tech.

Statistics

Professional career

Harris did not hear his name called during the 2015 NFL draft, but he did strike a deal with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent.

On December 8, Harris was signed to the Vikings 53-man active roster after spending the first 13 weeks of the 2015 season on the team’s practice squad learning the defense. With several injuries at the safety position, Harris was asked to start alongside Terence Newman, who was moved from cornerback to safety, for the team's Week 14 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals. Harris ended the game tied with a team-high eight tackles and he also recorded a pass defensed, which came when he broke up what would have been a touchdown pass deep down the middle of the field. Harris joined linebackers Eric Kendricks and Chad Greenway as the only three players to play in all 67 defensive snaps during the game, but with the addition of playing nine special teams snaps as well, he ended up playing more snaps on the football field than any other Vikings player with 76.

Career statistics

^[4]

References

External links

• Virginia Cavaliers bio