Najee Harris working to be more explosive in his final season at Alabama

Like he has every offseason since the start of his sophomore year of high school, Najee Harris turned to longtime trainer Marcus Malu this summer looking to improve on his game. The five-star back surprised many by forgoing the NFL draft this year, opting instead to return to Alabama for his senior season.

He still had something to prove.

Harris fancies himself as a future first-round pick, an evaluation that wasn’t necessarily shared by NFL scouts this offseason. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound back broke the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career last season. He was also a productive receiver out of the backfield, hauling in 27 receptions for 304 yards through the air, including seven receiving touchdowns — the most ever by an Alabama back.

So what’s left to show?

“He came to me and said,‘Marcus, I need to feel explosive,’ Malu told BamaInsider. “This offseason, we’ve really focused a lot on getting him that explosion.”

Harris posted one run longer than 30 yards last season. According to Pro Football Focus, the bruising back gained just 28.4 percent of his yardage on runs that went 15 yards or more. For comparison, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the only running back taken in the first round of this year’s NFL draft, gained 44.7 percent of his yardage on such plays.

That lack of breakaway ability likely contributed to Harris’ day-two evaluation, something that didn’t sit well with the star back. During an intense couple of months back home in California this offseason, he and Malu set out to change that perception.

Malu still remembers training Harris during his high school days when the prized recruit made a habit of working out up to four or five times a day. He also remembers the Antioch Police Department having to dispatch an officer to monitor the young back during late-night workouts when he snuck onto his high school field.

“He’s still the same Najee,” Malu said with a laugh. “Same kid as back then, nothing changes.”

That phrase, “nothing changes,” has been Malu’s motto since he first started working with Harris. This offseason was no different than the others in terms of workload as he and Harris have always prided themselves in taking things to another level in the weight room.

“We make our hard work seem easy,” Malu said. “Our easy work is everybody else’s hard work. What we do normally is what people consider crazy or too much. That’s where we want it because there’s less than 1 percent that get paid on Sunday. Not everyone gets that, so that’s why we’ve always had to work so hard.”

The difference this offseason came in the technique. Malu said he switched things up a bit, creating a series of single-leg exercises while also implementing a combination of upper and lower-body work during drills to provide both power and mobility.

“I feel like he’s back to his old self,” Malu said. “He’s really focused right now, making sure he stays mobile, stays agile. You’re going to see it in how he breaks long runs. I feel like he’s comfortable enough. Last season, we didn’t see many long runs, but I think now he has a clear mind… This year, I think it’s all going to come together. I think when we’re going to talk again, we are going to be like, ‘Dang, Najee won the Heisman.’”

Malu admits he’s been making that claim since Harris’ freshman season with the Tide. However, if the senior is able to add more explosion to his game, some serious hardware isn’t out of the question.

Despite not breaking too many big runs on the ground, Harris still proved elusive, avoiding a combined 70 tackles on the 236 times he touched the football, according to PFF. He was also hard to bring down, gaining 747 of his 1,224 rushing yards after contact.

Harris certainly looked like a Heisman contender late last season, posting a career-high 146 rushing yards in each of the games against LSU and Auburn while adding 136 yards on the ground against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. He reached the century mark four times over his last seven games, racking up 751 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground over that span.

“What it seemed to me just being at games is that he was running up to his size more than he had earlier,” said Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, who watched Harris in person five times last season. “He was running more physical, running with more aggression, breaking more tackles. He was doing a better job after first contact. Watching him from the press box, that’s where it truly looked like he started to take his game to the next level. He started to truly run like a big back.”

Nagy, who spent 18 years as a scout in the NFL, likens Harris to former Alabama back and Heisman winner Derrick Henry, who led the NFL with 1,540 rushing yards last season. Earlier this month, former Heisman winner Reggie Bush took that comparison a step further, stating Harris reminded him of “a more athletic Derrick Henry.”

Harris set himself apart from other big backs last season with his contributions in the passing game. His 11.26 yards per reception led all SEC backs, as did his seven receiving touchdowns which also tied for No. 7 overall in the conference. In fact, many of Harris’ best plays last season came through the air, including his hurdle against South Carolina and his leaping grab in the corner of the end zone against LSU.

“I think the two things that stand out on him are his size and versatility,” Nagy said. “He’s not just a guy where you just hit him in the flats. They’ve thrown him the ball down the field, and he’s shown the ability to go up and get it. He can go over people and make some incredible plays."

Harris should have plenty of opportunities to add to his highlight reel this season as Alabama returns four of its five starting offensive linemen. The senior back enters his final year 1,214 rushing yards shy of Henry’s school record of 3,591 yards, a mark that could become even more attainable if the Tide leans on him early while breaking in either Mac Jones or Bryce Young behind center.

Earlier this month, the Westgate Las Vegas SportsBook put Harris at 40-1 odds to take home the Heisman Trophy, the third-best odds among running backs behind Clemson’s Travis Etienne and Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard who were both listed at 20-1. With an added explosion to his game, Harris is expecting to break away from the pack even more in the coming months.

“For him, it’s about solidifying himself as one of the best backs,” Malu said. “I think he’s going to do that this year. If Bama lets them do what they always do with backs, it’s a wrap. He’s going to run crazy, and he’s going to show everybody what people here in Antioch have already seen.”