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The Game I'll Never Forget: Clark Harris
by Mike Spofford, Packers.com
posted 06/21/2007
Avid college football fans all remember the classic Louisville-Rutgers game from last fall, when the upstart Scarlet Knights knocked off the third-ranked Cardinals on a nationally televised Thursday night showdown, 28-25 on a field goal with 13 seconds left.
But not many necessarily know about the key role Rutgers tight end Clark Harris, a seventh-round draft choice by the Packers, played on that game-winning kick.
Harris was the Scarlet Knights' long snapper, and he made a heads-up play to move kicker Jeremy Ito a bit closer for that game-winning boot.
Originally, Ito lined up for a 33-yard attempt and missed, silencing the frenzied Rutgers crowd for the moment. But Harris had seen a Louisville defender jump offsides and snapped the ball at the right moment, resulting in a flag and moving Rutgers 5 yards closer to give Ito another try.
"We had a ready-set call and we could snap whenever we wanted," Harris said. "Someone on their team tried to draw us offsides, so he yelled, and it drew their guy offsides. I saw that out of the corner of my eye, so I just fired it back. It was still a little early, but I figured if he's offsides we get another kick regardless."
That they did, and Ito made good on a 28-yarder to break the 25-all deadlock. Harris had no doubts his kicker wasn't going to miss again.
"I saw people putting their heads down once he missed it, and then right afterwards people were going over to him saying, 'C'mon, you have to make this one,'" Harris recalled. "I knew the kicker, was friends with him, so I ran over and said, 'He knows what he has to do. Just leave him alone, he'll be able to do everything on his own.' And sure enough he came through."
The field goal capped a comeback from a 25-14 halftime deficit that had been 25-7 midway through the second quarter. But the Rutgers players, and a record crowd of 44,111 packed in with the help of extra end-zone bleachers, simply wouldn't give up.
"We were down at halftime by a big margin, and it was a feeling in the locker room that we're not going to lose this game," Harris said. "Nobody even had to say anything. You just got that feeling this game was still ours.
"Normally when you're down 20 points, your fans are out of it, but once we came out at halftime, our fans were still there ready to go and cheering just as hard as they were on the opening kickoff, so that gave us what we needed to get going."
The celebration afterwards was memorable as well, though it started a few moments too soon. After the kickoff that followed the field goal, the fans couldn't wait to storm the field and rushed out while there were still two seconds left. Louisville had one more play, but Rutgers sacked the quarterback to finally end it.
"I've never seen anything like it - everyone got off as fast as they came on," Harris said of the premature sea of red flooding the field. "I would think that would take 15 minutes, but it was instantly. I guess everyone knew the importance in thinking if we get a 15-yard penalty at that point because the fans came on the field, it could ultimately hurt us bad.
"So they got off the field just as fast, and once (the clock ran out and) people came on again I ran through the tunnel and to the locker room as fast as I could."
Aside from snapping on the field goals, Harris had an otherwise forgettable game. He said he dropped a pass, the only time he did so all year, and it snapped his streak of 38 consecutive games with at least one reception.
But the personal statistics mattered little in such a huge win for the team and the school. Ranked 15th at the time, Rutgers notched its first win over a ranked opponent in 18 years. The win vaulted the Scarlet Knights to No. 7 in the country, their highest ranking ever, and legitimized their 9-0 start.
They went on to finish 11-2 with a victory over Kansas State in the Texas Bowl.
"Some teams thought we might just be a fluke at 8-0, that we hadn't played anyone," Harris said. "And to come out on a Thursday night against the No. 3 team in the nation, who everyone thought was a national contender and possibly thought was going to win the national championship game, to come out and beat them was just awesome." |
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