A freshman wide receiver is your second #11 of the evening!
Freshman wide receiver Tra’Mar Harris comes to West Lafayette, Indiana from Cincinnati’s Winton Woods High School, where he was graded as a three-star prospect and a top-20 player in Ohio. He was graded as a top-60 receiver prospect nationally by every major recruiting service.
In his junior and senior seasons, Harris caught just over 55 passes each year (56 and 58) for a combined 1586 yards and 17 touchdowns. As a junior, before the local 2A coaches pointed out to their teams that current Purdue #11 is a problem, Harris had eight consecutive games with a receiving touchdown.
The kid’s got the footwork and speed to leave opponents lost, it’s just a matter of whether (at his size) the offensive coaching staff wants Harris to focus as an X, Y, or Z receiver moving forward, as multi-talented as he is.
Right now I see him as a tough slot receiver who can absorb contact on crossing routes and haul in most balls thrown over the center of the field while a linebacker or defensive back closes in. I also see him being used in a few cases of classic misdirection, let’s say a wheel route or something. He’s quick, he’s not short, he’s strong, he’s shown in high school film that those can combine into getting more-than-adequate separation.
I’ll actually post a bit of a spicy opinion: he can get playing time as a true freshman this year and is the exact kind of receiver Hudson Card could use as a safety blanket over the middle.
The 6’1” 182-pound wide receiver has a lot of room to grow both physically and in terms of the coaching staff deciding where he should play as a receiver. He has the athletic awareness to act as an inside receiver while having the somehow-more-insane athleticism to have competed as a track athlete in multiple events, showing deep ball speed and intricate footwork in the process.