There are just 82 days until Sun Devil football returns. The 80's are often reserved for tight ends or wide receivers, like yesterday's spotlight player Derek Eusebio, but today brings us to a veritable Sun Devil legend: Al Harris.
Born in Maine, Harris and his family relocated all the way to Hawaii, where he grew up playing high school football on the island of Oahu. He dominated enough for Frank Kush and his coaching staff to offer Harris, and they secured the defensive end's commitment.
Harris arrived to campus just in time to form a dominant pass rushing duo with another one of our countdown series spotlight players, the great Bob Kohrs. Together, Harris and Kohrs terrorirzed quarterbacks left and right, even though the two played at a time where sacks were not recorded as a statistic.
Arizona State began independently recording sacks for the 1978 season, which marked the last year that Harris was a Sun Devil. He didn't waste any time in making up for it, either, as Harris topped off with a whopping 19 sacks that year to become a unanimous All American.
Those 19 sacks stood as the record for most single-season sacks in school history until 2002, when Terrell Suggs set not just a school record but an NCAA record. No other Sun Devil has surpassed Harris' number, though,
Entering the draft, Harris was a hot commodity. The Chicago Bears used the ninth overall pick on him, just the fourth Sun Devil at the time to be drafted inside the top 10. Harris saw minimal playing time as a rookie, but gradually became more involved, routinely being near the top of the team in sacks.
In a fit of irony, though, Harris would sit out the 1985 season over a contract dispute that stemmed from sharp disagreements with defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. As it turned out, the 1985 Bears featured one of the greatest defenses in NFL history and powered that team to the franchise's only Super Bowl win.
Harris would return to the field the next year, but his playing time began to diminish and the Bears were never as good as that 1985 squad. When his next contract expired, Harris left the team and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency, ironically reuniting with Ryan, who was now the head coach in Philadelphia.
Harris would retire two seasons later, ending his 11-year pro career with 23.5 sacks, 10 fumble recoveries, and four interceptions. Those numbers all top his recorded numbers at Arizona State, though it's clear he had much more of an impact in Tempe.
Simply put, Harris (along with Kohrs) set the standard for pass rushers at Arizona State. The Sun Devils have watched many great players try, and ultimately fail, to surpass the impact Harris had during his time in Tempe.
In 82 days, a few more players will take one last stab at doing that, with players like Clayton Smith, Prince Dorbah, Justin Wodtly, and Anthonie Cooper all entering their final season in Tempe.