Najee Harris explains why Alabama is in a class by itself for preparing players for the NFL
By Keith Farner
Published:
Alabama’s Najee Harris is at a position in the pre-draft process of the NFL Draft where he can explain why the Crimson Tide program has prepared him to be selected next week.
During a segment on ESPN’s First Take, Harris pointed to all the No. 1 recruits Alabama attracts at positions around the field and said that’s why Alabama sets itself apart from other programs.
“The competition level in practice was almost greater than the game,” Harris said. “Because you go up against all these guys who are future first-rounders, future Hall of Famers, future all-pro, all this talent that’s coming there. Just me being at practice would be almost as hard as the games.”
Harris rattled off a slew of former Alabama stars who “laid the wood” in practice to prepare him to play against other defenses.
Harris then noted that Alabama has several former or future NFL assistant coaches, from Steve Sarkisian and Brian Daboll, to the current staff on offense with Doug Marrone and Bill O’Brien. Much of the playbook was the same terminology as the NFL, and the only difference was the terms were different names.
“They try to make the offense as NFL-ready as possible,” he said. “So me learning all these things in college that now translate to the NFL, I’m going to all these Zoom meetings with the NFL and I just know all these things, we learned all that in practice. We learned all that in film, we learned all that on game day. It just translates so well into the NFL, sometimes I wouldn’t even prepare for meetings because I knew it already.”
“The competition level in practice was almost greater than the game.”
—Najee Harris on playing football at Alabama😮 pic.twitter.com/SSiFBIvLfF
— First Take (@FirstTake) April 22, 2021
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
