It was the night before the season opener. A.J. Harris and the Penn State cornerbacks were going over their keys for victory when position coach Terry Smith made an announcement. Harris and Jalen Kimber, two transfers from the SEC, would start at West Virginia. Harris immediately went into laser-focus mode and didn’t snap out of it until the game was won.
Harris learned much from his lone year at Georgia. He learned what it takes to guard some of the nation’s top receivers. He learned the mentality of a championship-winning defense. But most of all, he learned to take things one day at a time. And that’s how head coach James Franklin will handle his cornerback room in 2024. Nothing is promised and no starters are set in stone.
“I think you’re going to see a rotation there. We feel like we got six guys that all can play. And I think you’ll see a little bit of a rotation,” Franklin said on Monday. “We’ll see how this week goes, but different guys starting based on how they practice that week, like a true competition based on weekly production and weekly practice habits.”
Harris was solid in his first career start. He tallied three tackles and a pass breakup and scored the third-highest grade, per Pro Football Focus, of any defensive player against the Mountaineers. But Harris isn’t satisfied. He knows that he’ll have to continue to solidify his starting spot, and that the job isn’t truly finished until he bathes in confetti as a national champ.
“It’s only Week 1. Not being too high, not being too low, staying level headed. And understand that we have a lot of games ahead of us,” Harris said. “So, just not getting too happy with Week 1, and knowing that it’s still a lot of work that’s undone on my behalf, knowing that there’s still not a lot that has been showcased or put out there, so just making sure I keep my head down and just do my work.”
Harris worked extensively this past offseason. He knew that at 19 years old as a new face in a deep cornerback room, it’d take plenty to separate himself from the pack. So he handled things like an NFL player. Harris joined safety Jaylen Reed and other Nittany Lions defensive backs in Houston, where they worked with a prominent trainer and bonded as a unit.
The trainer in question was Jacory Nichols, known professionally as Jacory 1Way, who has worked with a number of high-profile NFL players such as Trevon Diggs and Darius Slay. It was with Nichols that Harris began to separate his work as a college player to that of a professional. Kimber, with four years of experience already under his belt, is said to be at the level.
“I feel like they approached the offseason well. I feel like in the off season, they were approaching it like pros… That’s why they started today,” Reed said postgame. “They did a great job of approaching it with a pro mindset, you know, and everything. They made the plays that came to them.”
Everything that Harris learned over his brief tenure with the Bulldogs, Kimber has also experienced and then some. He was a member of the Georgia team that won the national title in 2021. And as a full-time contributor at Florida over the previous two seasons, he’s seen what it’s like for a team to underperform its expectations.
Kimber has become a guiding presence within a Penn State cornerback room that lost all three of its starters from last season. He and veteran leader Cam Miller, who played the third-most snaps of any cornerback on Saturday, have taken a young unit under their wings. That can only help Harris and the rest of the defense as the season marches on.
“When Jalen needs to talk, he talks. And he doesn’t say much, so when he does say something, everybody listens, and I believe that helped us a lot this off season,” Harris said. “And I believe that someone who’s seen a lot of football, you kind of know what’s coming, and you just play freely. And with that experience, it allows you to come in and to start a spark and earn it, just because you know what’s coming.”
Harris and Kimber played significantly more than the other cornerbacks at West Virginia. But it was another player who made the best play at the position that day. That was Elliot Washington II, who caught his first career interception. Despite only playing 17 snaps, Washington made his case in brief playing time that he too should be considered for a starting spot.
It’s unclear who will earn the nods against Bowling Green on Saturday. That’ll be determined by Franklin, Smith and defensive coordinator Tom Allen based on how each player performs this week in practice. And there’s nothing necessarily bad about that. For a unit that entered the year with significant question marks, the cornerbacks appear to have a good problem on their hands.
“I think Elliot’s another great example. Played really well on special teams starting in four units. And then, also got reps at corner and made a huge interception, which was a big time play,” Franklin said. “So, you know, I’d be careful if I was you guys, not just a corner, but a lot of positions, feeling like the guys that started in Game 1 are going to be the exact starters in Week 2 or throughout the year.”
