Najee Harris isn't one to do interviews. He hates them, in fact.
"(Reporters) say the same stuff and it's like, 'Well, I just told him that, can't you get it off of him?" Harris said of his disdain for media interviews.
Yet in an exclusive talk with Rivals.com's Rob Cassidy, the five-star running back decided to open up about his recruitment.
He specifically mentioned Alabama, Cal, UCLA, USC and Ohio State as schools he regularly speaks with.
He spoke highly of Cal head coach Sonny Dykes: "He comes at me not so much in a recruit-you way, but care free." He said Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban is actually a really funny coach once you crack his all-business exterior: "It was the third time I visited and he was doing something on the field and I was just watching and he was coming by me and started making some jokes and some stuff."
But the Northern California running back, who's still committed to Alabama, really gushed about his meeting with Jim Mora on an unofficial visit to Westwood late last Friday evening.
"Mora is hella cool. Hella cool," Harris said. "I wasn't even expecting him to be like that. But he was hella cool. We wasn't even talking about - we were talking about football, not about recruiting. Just football in general. I didn’t know he knew so much people! He started naming all the players. He said, 'I'll call anyone right now.' I thought he was playing. He started giving me all the contact names. I was like, 'Do you got Adrian Peterson?' And he was like, 'Yeah, that's my friend!' He said he's got Marshall Faulk - he's got 16 Hall of Famers."
Harris thought that was impressive. Then, Mora started talking about the kinds of people he knows outside of the football world, and that really blew Harris away.
"Even besides football, he's got hecka people's numbers," Harris said. "It's like, damn. He told me what really happened on - he said somebody he knew was in the same car as Tupac. I swear to God. I was like - what?! It sounded hella real. I was like, what? He said he knew somebody that was in the same car when Tupac got shot five times. And I was like, what?! That's crazy, bro."
Because he arrived in town late Friday afternoon, he wasn't able to do much on his trip to Westwood other than speak with Mora. Although that conversation made just as much of an impact as a tour of the school would have.
"It was cool," Harris said of the UCLA visit. "The trip was good. I've been there before, but it's been a minute, so."
Harris said he'll visit Ohio State next month. For now, he remains a 'Bama pledge.
"(Reporters) say the same stuff and it's like, 'Well, I just told him that, can't you get it off of him?" Harris said of his disdain for media interviews.
Yet in an exclusive talk with Rivals.com's Rob Cassidy, the five-star running back decided to open up about his recruitment.
He specifically mentioned Alabama, Cal, UCLA, USC and Ohio State as schools he regularly speaks with.
He spoke highly of Cal head coach Sonny Dykes: "He comes at me not so much in a recruit-you way, but care free." He said Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban is actually a really funny coach once you crack his all-business exterior: "It was the third time I visited and he was doing something on the field and I was just watching and he was coming by me and started making some jokes and some stuff."
But the Northern California running back, who's still committed to Alabama, really gushed about his meeting with Jim Mora on an unofficial visit to Westwood late last Friday evening.
"Mora is hella cool. Hella cool," Harris said. "I wasn't even expecting him to be like that. But he was hella cool. We wasn't even talking about - we were talking about football, not about recruiting. Just football in general. I didn’t know he knew so much people! He started naming all the players. He said, 'I'll call anyone right now.' I thought he was playing. He started giving me all the contact names. I was like, 'Do you got Adrian Peterson?' And he was like, 'Yeah, that's my friend!' He said he's got Marshall Faulk - he's got 16 Hall of Famers."
Harris thought that was impressive. Then, Mora started talking about the kinds of people he knows outside of the football world, and that really blew Harris away.
"Even besides football, he's got hecka people's numbers," Harris said. "It's like, damn. He told me what really happened on - he said somebody he knew was in the same car as Tupac. I swear to God. I was like - what?! It sounded hella real. I was like, what? He said he knew somebody that was in the same car when Tupac got shot five times. And I was like, what?! That's crazy, bro."
Because he arrived in town late Friday afternoon, he wasn't able to do much on his trip to Westwood other than speak with Mora. Although that conversation made just as much of an impact as a tour of the school would have.
"It was cool," Harris said of the UCLA visit. "The trip was good. I've been there before, but it's been a minute, so."
Harris said he'll visit Ohio State next month. For now, he remains a 'Bama pledge.
