The 49ers took cornerback Tim Harris out of Virginia with the No. 198 overall pick. That’s not the outcome Harris likely expected when he dreamed of entering the NFL as a highly-touted high school prospect.
Harris was catching eyeballs from college coaches as a sophomore in high school, but he also caught the eye of then-Seahawks and current 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman.
According to a story by Mike Barber . in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sherman noticed Harris at a camp run by former Seahawks and 49ers special teams ace Michael Robinson.
“Richard Sherman looked at his body and the first thing he told Tim was, ‘You’ve got an NFL body,’” Harris and Robinson’s high school coach Stu Brown said. “He was telling him that at 15 years old.”
Brown told Barber that Harris received more scholarship offers than any player he’d ever coached.
Harris chose Virginia and stepped into a starting job due to an injury ahead of him during his freshman year. Injuries wound up setting Harris back multiple times in his career, dramatically impacting the pro outlook for the once highly-touted recruit.
Now Harris will get to play alongside Sherman as an adult, albeit under much less hype. If Harris can stay healthy and elevate to the level he played at that earned him attention from big-time college programs as a sophomore, he just might be the one to eventually take over for Sherman in the 49ers’ secondary.
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