Harris now Miami's unquestioned leader

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- Time is precious, Miami quarterback Jacory Harris says as he settles in on the couch. Perfectly calm and composed, he starts to discuss the day that changed his life.

April 23, 2006.

Harris was standing with friends outside a home in Miami Gardens, a mile or two away from where the Hurricanes play home games. Ten minutes after Harris left, a car approached. A dozen gunshots rang out and James "JT" Anderson -- Harris' best friend -- dies.

"Drive-by shooting," Harris said. "It wasn't targeted for him. But things went wrong. I had just left there. And he was killed."

Time is precious. That's what Harris reminds himself when he thinks of Anderson, whose alleged killer is still awaiting trial. That's what Harris reminds himself when he looks at his bull tattoo beating his friend's initials.

That's what Harris reminds himself when realizing he could have been that day's victim.

"This is my time," Harris said. "This is my time to be a leader."

Now the full-time starter at quarterback after backing up Robert Marve in 2008, Harris knows he's the key to Miami's hopes of rejoining the ranks of the national elite -- a quest that starts Monday night when the Hurricanes open the season in Tallahassee against No. 18 Florida State.

Since Anderson was killed, Harris has started 32 games at the high school and college level. He's won 31 of them.

"What Jacory does is very beneficial and healthy for this team," Miami coach Randy Shannon said. "Here's a guy that knows he's going to start, but he's always happy-go-lucky. Guys who are down, he's talking to them. Guys playing well, he's always talking to them too. He was that way last year, too. All he wants to do is win. And that carries a whole lot of weight around here."

Weight often is an issue with Harris -- the first Miami-Dade native to be the full-time starter at Miami in nearly four decades.

Harris frequented a famous Miami soul food establishment for huge breakfasts throughout the offseason, part of a plan that packed 15 pounds on his frame. He enters the season weighing around 191, still making him one of the leaner starters not only in the Atlantic Coast Conference but the entire country.

Not a big deal, Harris said.

"I made it through last year," said Harris, who played in all 13 Miami games a year ago.

He came to Miami to play, not sit, and it became clear entering this past offseason that Harris would pass Marve for the starting job. Marve never said that played a role in his decision to transfer to Purdue, and Harris insists he and Marve always remained supportive of one another.

But it's his job now. Two backup quarterbacks left last month, and Shannon said there's no plan to use second-stringer A.J. Highsmith this season "unless necessary."

With the job, though, comes responsibility that Harris wasn't entirely prepared for.

Everywhere Harris goes, he's a lightning rod. Restaurants, movies, even on a vacation to Tennessee, he somehow gets recognized whenever he enters a room.

"He called me and said, 'This is crazy,"' said Shannon, who took a recruiting trip to Iowa State as a high schooler with Harris' father Rodney -- still a close friend of Miami's coach. "He's the face of the program. The mayor of Dade County. He has to accept that role. We've talked about how to handle certain things, and he's handled them all."

Harris completed 118 of 194 passes last season for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns. In a full-time role, his numbers for 2009 could dwarf what he did a year ago.

How he does against Florida State could set the tone for the entire season, and Harris knows it.

"You want to be put in these situations," Harris said. "Who doesn't want to be playing against the Florida State Seminoles up there in Tallahassee on Labor Day, first game of the season? It's something that a lot of kids want to do and I'm just one of the kids who was blessed to be here in this situation."

He says it, and the Hurricanes agree: It's his time.

"Jacory Harris is our leader," said linebacker Sean Spence, a teammate of Harris when they won 30 straight games and consecutive state Class 6A titles at Miami Northwestern High. "Jacory likes pressure, likes to be in the spotlight. Lives for it, honestly."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)