Former Texas A&M DB Dustin Harris joined us in-studio to talk about his time as an Aggie on Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Live. Harris shared how he thinks revenue sharing would have affected his A&M career and what athletes should remember entering this new era.
Key notes from Dustin Harris interview
- During summer ball at A&M, I'd go jump on bulls. I had a couple of buddies I went to high school with, and it was just one of those adrenaline rushes. I wanted to jump on bulls. I went to a couple of rodeos for it. The coaches didn’t like it very much. There were some teammates who were similar, but not many. I kept it on the downlow. We'd go out to Snook, TX and rope during summer ball, but once we started training, it all kind of cut out. It was just a summer deal.
- I was drafted out of high school by the White Sox. I kind of wanted to stick around and have the family watch me play, and that’s how I ended up at A&M. Jeremy McMillan was the reason why I was at A&M. My wife kind of gets upset at me because everything that’s on is baseball when it's going. College mostly, but I watch some pros, the Astros and Rangers. It brings out the kid in me.
- I guess you could relate it back to the 2023 season of football, where you’re watching it and they are doing well, then you have to turn it off, like dang, why are we doing that? Going into the SEC Tournament, it was crazy that we still had a chance. It was all about getting the bats going. The pitching was outstanding, but we needed to get the bats going. It’s rough watching the seniors go out the way they did, but I know they enjoyed it.
- I give the credit to my years in high school. As a freshman in high school, I was starting on the varsity team. You had to step in as a man's role, where you’re going up against grown men in my freshman eyes. When I got to college, I thought of it as the same process. As well as the NFL. You’ll be the youngest on the field, but don’t let anyone know that. I was the smallest. I was a 155. I give all the credit to the trainers and nutritionists. I went from 155 to 175-180 pounds. The main process was putting the weight on, even though I lost some speed.
- I played with Von Miller, Jerrod Johnson, Ryan Swope, Johnny Manziel, my junior year, Mike Evans, Steven Terrell and Steven Campbell. On the defense, you had some dogs. To think of how the NIL is now, and if we had that back then, how much more effort and try you probably would’ve gotten out of guys.
- It speaks to the guys I played with. We played for pride. That senior group I graduated with, such as Sean Porter, we had the mentality that we weren’t losing. We had good years, but not that level of the year we wanted. I think if you threw NIL in that deal, you have guys playing for their lives. It would’ve been another level for us.
- Our senior year, the first game we had, I believe it was against Florida. We lost. That was the Johnny Manziel era. It was field goal after field goal. We should’ve had that game. To think we lost two games that year, and we could’ve been in the playoffs. I got taken out of the game for a freshman, De’Vante Harris. I missed a couple of assignments, and he did great. That’s when we started rotating in, but that game haunts me because that senior class had one more year to get into the playoffs. All we had to do was win that game.
- The Alabama game, I think the whole game, we were on another level. We were making plays that we’ve never seen anyone make. We surprised ourselves, and from that game forward, it was like “OK, we got this.” To do that against Nick Saban and their elite running backs at Alabama was eye-opening for me. Once I got home, I didn’t even party. I spent time with family and friends and cherished that moment. You have people looking up to you, and my parents made that drive to every game, but especially that Alabama game, to see your family member extremely happy. My mom was so happy she was crying, and my dad was just proud. He had seen a different level from me and a bunch of the other guys. I’d put him on speaker before the game, and he’d talk to us. It was one of those deals that put me on another level.
- As a defensive back, I didn’t love what I saw last year. The first game I took my son to, I was just there to enjoy it. As a defensive back, looking from the outside in, there were a lot of mental mistakes made throughout the year, like missed assignments and missed coverages. It can all be fixed. I said this last year.
- I believe in Mike Elko after seeing what he did with Duke. I knew he was going to make a change. As a player, you know it's not going to take one year, but as a player looking outside in, I hope it's the next level. Once again, NIL, I love it. I wish I had it in school, but play for yourself. Play for the self-confidence you have in yourself. Don’t play for the money. Don’t play because there are fans in the stands. Play for the pride. Play for the guys that are on the field with you. Know your assignment. Listen to the coach because they don’t just go to practice, and go home.
