Dale Harris makes transition look easy

Yale running back Dale Harris has made quite an impact in the two weeks since his transition from defense.Jack Warhola — Special to the Register


Dave Borges profiled Dale Harris and his smooth transition from corner back to running back. 

Dale Harris was a pretty good high school running back at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Maryland. Good enough to be recruited by Colonial Athletic Association schools like Towson and James Madison.

But he wound up going to Yale, which recruited him solely as a defensive back. And defensive back is all Harris had played through his first three years with the Bulldogs. Until a couple of weeks ago.

With Yale’s running backs corps banged up and coach Tony Reno in need of healthy bodies heading into a Nov. 7 matchup with Brown, Harris was asked to make the switch from DB to RB. Harris, who always thinks of his team first, gladly took the challenge.

“I had the mindset to help my team if I knew I could,” he explained. “If that means me embracing a new role and finding a new position, I’d do it.”

Harris picked up right where he had left off in high school, gaining a team-high 71 yards on 12 carries and scoring a touchdown in Yale’s 41-14 romp over the Bears. But it was the following week, in a tough showdown at Princeton this past Saturday, where Harris truly took it to another level, rushing for 177 yards on 30 carries — including a 71-yard scoring run — as the Bulldogs edged the Tigers 35-28.

Harris admitted he even surprised himself with his big day — at least a little bit.

“I always go into a game with confidence, and I don’t want to count myself out of doing anything,” he said. “It was definitely shocking. But I was so caught up in the game, I wasn’t realizing, statistically, what I was doing. Looking back, it definitely was surprising.”

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