Jan. 25, 2017
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - If you walked by the intramural fields a decade ago, you may have seen a future Super Bowl participant.
Josh Harris would have been easy to spot, leaning over a football and firing strikes between his legs to a friend 15 yards behind him.
A freshman from Carrollton, Ga., Harris attended a tryout for walk-ons his first day on campus in August 2007.
"And I snapped a few balls, and they said, `We'll email you guys and let you know if you made it,'" Harris said. "I never heard from anybody. About halfway through the season, I get a phone call from somebody in the football department saying, `Hey, Josh, have you been snapping?' I kind of laughed to myself, and I said, `Yeah, of course, I've been snapping.'"
That was, of course, a football fib. In the months since the tryout, Harris joined a fraternity and was in ROTC, leaving little time to practice a skill he assumed would no longer be needed.
"I immediately went to the store and bought a couple footballs and went out to the intramural fields with one of my buddies and snapped some balls and made sure I could still do it," he said.
Within a few days, Harris began practicing with Auburn.
"It was just amazing. It was really a dream come true," he said. "Growing up a huge Auburn fan and getting the opportunity now to go and play. I didn't really understand what was going to happen or how it was going to happen. But it was just amazing to be able to wear that AU logo on the helmet and call myself a part of the Auburn football team."
Josh Harris was a three-year starter as Auburn's long snapper from 2009-2011." style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-footbl/auto_a_storywide/12386330.jpeg"> Josh Harris was a three-year starter as Auburn's long snapper from 2009-2011."An incredible opportunity"
Ten years later, Harris, in his fifth season as the long snapper for the Atlanta Falcons, will compete in Super Bowl LI in Houston next Sunday.
"It's an incredible opportunity that we have before us to get to play in the game," Harris said. "It's something that you dream of."
A dream that seemed unlikely 10 years ago. Harris redshirted in 2007, served as backup in 2008 and became Auburn's snapper for punts, field goals and extra points in 2009.
"And then that 2010 season came," he said. "Unbelievable."
Not only did Harris earn a scholarship before the 2010 season, he carried on a family tradition by winning a national championship. His grandfather, Jimmy Morrow, was a freshman on Auburn's famed 1957 team.
With the scored tied 19-19 with two seconds remaining in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game against Oregon, Harris delivered an on-target, 7-yard snap to holder Neil Caudle, setting the stage for Wes Byrum's game-winning 19-yard field goal.
Wes Byrum kicks a field goal to win the 2010 national championship, after Josh Harris snapped the ball to holder Neil Caudle." style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-footbl/auto_a_storywide/12386283.jpeg"> Wes Byrum kicks a field goal to win the 2010 national championship, after Josh Harris snapped the ball to holder Neil Caudle.
"Especially, as a specialist, for it to come down to a field goal, that's what it's all about right there," Harris said. "So to get to close it out, become a national champion. To me, it just meant so much more as an Auburn man, and a member of the Auburn family, to win that for Auburn. Not just for personal reasons, but it really meant the world to me that I was able to accomplish that in an Auburn jersey."
"What it?"
Harris started long snapping in middle school. In high school, he played football, baseball and wrestled. His high school coaches encouraged him to walk on at Auburn as a snapper.
"I thought to myself, `I don't know if I really want to do that. If I'm going to play football, I want to play a real position,'" he said. "Growing up, it wasn't necessarily my dream or my goal to be a long snapper. I finally said, `What's the worst that can happen? They say no. You know what, I gave it a shot.' I didn't want to look back on an opportunity and wish that I had done something and wonder, `What if? What would have happened if I would have tried it?'"
After starting three seasons at Auburn, Harris, an undrafted free agent, won the Falcons' job as a rookie in 2012, adding another assignment for the Leonardo of the Long Snap.
"On punts, first you've got to snap, and then you've got to protect. That's one of the biggest differences between the high school and college level versus the professional level," Harris said.
After snapping and blocking, Josh Harris becomes part of the punt coverage team. Photo courtesy Jasen Vinlove, USA Today Sports." style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-footbl/auto_a_storywide/12386295.jpeg"> After snapping and blocking, Josh Harris becomes part of the punt coverage team. Photo courtesy Jasen Vinlove, USA Today Sports.
"After you snap, now you're responsible for blocking somebody," he said. "First you've got to make sure you take care of the snap. Your technique in how you're able to snap it is what's going to better suit you and help you out to execute your block.
"Then it's about getting downfield and being in the right place, getting down there and making a play. Everybody's got a job to do. When we're out there to punt, my job is to snap, then all of our jobs are to protect, then go down and cover, and get the guy on the ground."
"All about us"
Harris helped the Falcons reach the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history.
"Getting to this game isn't necessarily the reward or the goal," he said. "It's winning this game. That's what we're focused on now. We celebrated the victory Sunday, but Monday we started our preparation and started getting into our process of how we're going to get ready for the Patriots. That's just how we do things."
Atlanta seeks its first Super Bowl victory, while New England is chasing its fifth.
"Both teams, we've had really good years, obviously, both teams making it to the Super Bowl," Harris said. "We're not really worried what Tom Brady and the Patriots do. It's all about us."
Josh Harris is 60 minutes away from adding a Super Bowl ring to the national championship ring he earned in 2010. Quite a journey from that freshman on the intramural fields 10 years ago, practicing the skill that would one day launch a career.
"I wasn't recruited really anywhere out of high school," Harris said. "I just knew that I wanted to go to Auburn. It was the only school I applied to out of high school. Whether I was playing ball or not, I knew that Auburn was going to be the place for me."
Josh Harris at Auburn in 2010, the season he earned a football scholarship and won a national championship." style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-footbl/auto_a_storywide/12386276.jpeg"> Josh Harris at Auburn in 2010, the season he earned a football scholarship and won a national championship.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer