Monday Man Crush: Montel Harris, Boston College
The ACC has certainly provided some college fantasy football sleepers in 2009, and that list continued to grow in week 7 thanks to Boston College’s beatdown of NC State on Saturday.
The newest player to watch in the ACC is Montel Harris, the sophomore running back from BC. In Saturday’s 52-20 stomping of NC State, Harris rushed for a school record 264 yards on 27 carries. He also set the school record for rushing touchdowns with five.
In a conference where outstanding quarterback play from the likes of Russell Wilson, Christian Ponder, and Jacory Harris has largely overshadowed stellar college fantasy football contributions from running backs, an outstanding rushing performance like the one Harris put up on Saturday is refreshing.
Saturday’s performance upped Harris’ season totals to 756 yards and 10 TDs on 134 carries. One area of improvement for Harris over the next 2.5 years as he eyes the 2011 or 2012 draft will be his ability to catch passes out of the backfield and make plays. This season, he only has 2 catches for -1 yard. Improving his value as a receiver should also improve his value as a fantasy football running back next season.
This season, Harris has also put up 100-yard games in BC victories over Northeastern and Florida State. While his performance on Saturday was exceptional, a performance like that also seems to be the EXCEPTION for Harris. With so much depth at the running back position in college fantasy football, we can’t recommend adding Harris at this point in the season. Keep an eye on him for next season, however, as he could be a solid value pick in the later rounds.
Harris isn’t a stranger to rewriting the record books at BC. Last season, he set the freshman record for rushing yardage with 900, and also set a freshman record with 5 consecutive 100-yard games.
