Ole Miss wide receiver Tre Harris feels comfortable at Ole Miss, on and off the field
OXFORD, Miss. — In a tad under two weeks, the Ole Miss Rebels will be looking for success on the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium field as the season begins.
Until then, some of the strides moving forward have been taking place off the field.
With Lane Kiffin’s prowess in acquiring talent from the transfer portal, it appears the secret of getting so many new players to bond with the existing ones might come away from the gridiron.
Wide receiver Tre Harris transferred into Oxford from Louisiana Tech where he had a great career. He was a first-team All-Conference USA selection last year, and in his career with the Bulldogs he caught 106 passes for 1,527 yards and 14 touchdowns. Presumably, any program in the nation would want him on its depth chart, but sometimes a player just does not fit into his new environment.
That is not the case for Harris and it is, at least in part, because of his new teammates and their relationships away from the Manning facility.
”It’s more outside of football,” Harris said of the team’s chemistry building.
“Just hanging out with each other, taking guys out to certain places and just being able to get to know each other outside of football. Knowing each other’s interests, hobbies, and just building that bond with each other.”
WR Tre Harris on building relationships with his teammates
Harris doesn’t believe he is the only new player to don the Ole Miss uniform who is blending in with the Rebels’ culture. (Ole Miss currently has the No. 3-ranked transfer portal class in the nation for 2023.)
“So far, I’m fitting in perfectly,” Harris said. “Not even just myself, I feel like that goes for all the guys who transferred over. Everybody’s starting to mesh together and have a better camaraderie with each other and we’re starting to come together for the season.”
Yet on the field, Harris knew he could thrive because the Rebels’ history with players like D.K. Metcalf, A.J. Brown and Elijah Moore. Each took their raw talent, honed it in Oxford and moved to the NFL.
“That was a huge part of it,” Harris said.
“Going into the (transfer) process, I wanted to go somewhere where they develop guys to be good receivers in the (NFL) and that’s the goal for me. I knew coming here could definitely develop me into a first-round talent at receiver.”
Tre Harris on why he chose Ole Miss
Harris, a 6-foot-2, 205 pounder from Lafayette, La., could be right. He, along with teammate Zakhari Franklin, has already been named to the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award that goes to the best receiver in the country.
The Lafayette, Louisiana native is now hoping to continue to produce at a high level in the SEC, and he feels he’s made the adjustment.
“Coming in, it wasn’t too hard for me to learn the concepts and learn the playbook, to be honest with you,” Harris said of his arrival at Ole Miss.
“I feel like coming from an air raid offense back at Louisiana Tech, a lot of the same concepts, they pop up in different playbooks and stuff like that.”
Tre Harris on familiarity with the Ole Miss offense
While SEC competition will be tougher, Harris has shown he can produce against Power 5 programs in the past. That includes last season against Clemson when he caught four passes for 56 yards and a touchdown.
His first chance to live up to the hype comes Sept. 2 when Mercer visits Ole Miss.
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
