A funny thing happened on the way to the coming out party of LSU quarterback Brandon Harris.

As the stock of running back Leonard Fournette reached its peak, injuries to the blocking scheme for the Heisman hopeful began to mount. More and more, Harris was in situations where he threw the ball because he had to, and not because he wanted to.

Through the first seven games of the 2015 season, Tigers head coach Les Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron made a concerted effort to work Harris into the offense. While the running game featured the top running back in the nation, Harris was able to pick and choose his spots to develop his passing game.

Over seven games, that run/pass combination worked smoothly. The Tigers were 7-0, Fournette had all but locked up the Heisman Trophy with 1,352 yards rushing – an average of 193 yards per game – and Harris looked like a quarterback ready to lead his team to the College Football Playoff.

He completed better than 60 percent of his passes in four of those games, hit 55 percent in one and 50 percent in another. Only once did Harris complete less than 50 percent. He was riding a three-game streak of 200-plus yards passing when the wheels fell off.

Injuries in the offensive line, tight end and fullback positions decimated the blocking scheme. Over the next three games, Fournette ran into brick walls disguised as defensive players from Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas.

The Heisman Trophy went out the window and Harris was reduced to a sitting duck. He threw desperation passes where calculated, pinpoint throws used to leave his arm. As Fournette digressed, so did the LSU offense and with it a fragile and much-maligned quarterback who had seemingly risen above it over the first half of the season.

By the end of the season, Harris had lost the confidence he’d worked all season to regain. His receivers weren’t helping, either. There were some crucial drops along the way. But even as Miles and Cameron dialed back the passing game to short, high-percentage throws, Harris wasn’t even making those any more.

He completed just 7 of 21 passes in the regular season finale with Texas A&M, throwing for just 81 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. It was his worst game of the season since a 4-for-14 showing early in the year against Eastern Michigan when Fournette galloped for 233 yards and three touchdowns.

But the galloping was gone and the Tigers limped to the finish line with an 8-3 record and dreams of the playoffs turned into a nightmare ending. LSU, instead, is playing in the earliest bowl game of any SEC team with not much relevance on a national scale.

However, the Texas Bowl – where LSU will meet Texas Tech on Dec. 29 in Houston – offers an opportunity for Harris to begin to build it all back up again. Miles, who most believed wouldn’t even be around for the bowl season, remains at the helm of the Tigers and has vowed to revamp the offense. That means a bigger role for Harris and much more responsibility.

If Harris intends to complete the transformation he started in the first half of the 2015 season, he’ll have to add the element of performing under pressure.