The 2024 college football season begins this Saturday with what’s known as Week Zero. That will lead us into Week 1, where there will be some big boy matchups featuring Georgia-Clemson, Notre Dame-Texas A&M and LSU-USC.
Mixed up in the Week 1 hoopla will also be the Arkansas Razorbacks hosting Arkansas Pine-Bluff.
While that matchup won’t move the meter much at all, the storyline in the game will. The Razorbacks will have 29-year-old Monte Harrison making his collegiate debut.
This comes ten years after Harrison, a 2014 four-star recruit at wide receiver, chose baseball over football and Nebraska when he was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round MLB draft out of high school.
He’s now expected to play meaningful snaps for the Razorbacks and head coach Sam Pittman.
LeBron James Makes Joke About Harrison
At nearly 40, James is still doing some amazing things on the hardwood. Just two weeks ago he was named Olympic MVP as Team USA captured its fifth consecutive gold medal. Always one to joke and have fun, James reacted to a picture of Harrison with the following caption:
“Me when I retire from the league! Haha!”
James is speaking of Harrison getting such a late start in his football career after playing ten years of MLB. In those ten seasons, Harrison played 50 games in the majors, with all of them coming during the 2020 (60-game) COVID-19 shortened season, but his time stretched into the 2022 season. It included stints with the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels.
Harrison Channeling Inner Chris Weinke?
Harrison isn’t the first to arrive on the college football scene after a lengthy MLB career. Back in 1990, Weinke, the former Heisman Trophy and national championship-winning quarterback of the Florida State Seminoles, opted to play MLB after the Toronto Blue Jays chose him in the second round.
Torn, Weinke spent some time on the FSU campus before ultimately deciding to go play baseball.
Legendary Seminoles head coach Bobby Bowden was understanding and promised him he’d always have a scholarship if ever decided to return. After seven seasons he returned to Tallahassee and led the Noles to a national championship in 1999, the same season he won the Heisman Trophy. Not bad for a guy who left the sport entirely for seven years.
As for Harrison, the likelihood that his impact is on par with Weinke’s isn’t realistic. But if he can help the Razorbacks passing attack improve with Taylen Green taking over for former record-breaking signal caller K.J. Jefferson, who transferred to UCF this past offseason, his transition will be considered a success.
Harrison Has Raw Tools
As of last week, reports out of Fayetteville were Harrison was getting first-team reps. Not bad for a former MLB player. The aforementioned Pittman and Razorbacks wide receivers coach Ronnie Fouch told reporters this about Harrison:
“Harrison’s strong. He’s physical. He’s still learning release and stuff like that.”
Sounds about right, but with four years of eligibility if he so chooses to use it, Harrison will only improve.
