The offensive numbers are eye popping. They are almost ridiculously high. They are what you notice first about Virginia Tech signee Victor "Macho" Harris of Highland Springs High School. Harris, the consensus choice as the No. 1 recruit in Virginia, is a five-star prospect with good reason. Try 5,320 career yards, a Central Region record. Check out 70 career touchdowns. How about 418 yards in ONE game in 2004? Or 2,346 yards and 27 touchdowns as a senior?

Yet the first collegiate look people will get at Harris is on the other side. He's joining the Hokies with an eye on cracking their defensive backfield early in his career, as soon as the 2005 season, he hopes.

The numbers on the defensive side don't add up like the numbers on the offensive side. So words will have to do instead.

"Can he play defense?" said Mark Tomlin, the head coach at Prince George High School who dealt with Harris' Springers in the season's first game. "Let me tell you a story. We're trying a pass play and our quarterback checks his reads. No one is open, so he's throwing the ball away like he's been told to do. Macho is going away from the ball.

"I look up and Macho has reached way back" - Tomlin makes like a contortionist to demonstrate - "and he does something I've never seen before. He catches the end of the ball, pulls it down and starts running and scores a touchdown. Our quarterback was so shocked he just stood there.

"Yes, he can play defense."

A projected cornerback at Tech, Harris was a free safety at Highland Springs. Springers coach Scott Burton understands the questions about Harris playing defense because he saw first hand Harris the offensive machine.

"He has been such a weapon for us offensively, so that's kind of where I naturally see him," Burton said. "I also see on a grander scale why defense is probably the right call. While it is contrary to modern belief - a player always wants the spotlight, always wants the ball - it probably makes more sense."

The spotlight isn't what concerns Harris. He says he'll get a chance to play offense later. He says he feels blessed to have the talent to play both sides and, if defense is his quickest path to playing time, a defender he'll be, and a smiling defender he'll be at that.

"I want to get on the field my first year," Harris said. "Whatever they need me to do, I will do."

A 6-0, 180-pounder, Harris is blessed with both skills and instincts. It helps him on both sides of the ball. Burton believes Tech could almost pick a position out of a hat and Harris would figure out a way to be successful.

"To be honest, I'm not sure there's anything he can't do on the field," Burton said. "He was probably our best long snapper. He probably ran better routes than our receivers. He can throw the ball, he can make tackles.

"He has that athletic intelligence, that spatial intelligence, where he is in relation to everyone else. He's explosive. The first 2-3 steps he has are pretty amazing. You hear the phrase 'ball skills.' That's what I mean when I say athletic intelligence - the ability to understand the most direct route to the ball, to the goal line or whatever you're talking about.

"He's pretty comfortable and natural in everything he does athletically. He always stays in that framework of his body. He's never overextended offensively or defensively. You hear a lot of people say he doesn't look like he's running very hard, going that fast, because he does things so easily and so naturally."

Tomlin, the coach at Prince George, says the same thing. Harris, Tomlin said, reminds him of former Ferrum College and NFL back Chris Warren.

"He just glides," Tomlin said, "runs so naturally and easily."

Harris' skills are just a small part of the "Macho" package. In his remarks to the media on signing day, Tech coach Frank Beamer talked more about Harris the person than he did Harris the player. He's confident without being cocky or overbearing. He's polite. He's diligent.

And he's mature. Most people at 18 are on the tightrope, part kid and part adult. Harris was dealt some heavy blows in December, stuff many adults don't have to deal with, and he handled them with grace and class.

On Dec. 15, he discovered a burning pot on the stove. With younger siblings in the house, Harris removed the pot at great cost to himself. He ended up needing a skin graft for third degree burns on an arm.

Ten days later, on Christmas Day, Harris' mother Maritza Harris died.

"I didn't have a choice but to grow up fast," Harris said. "It's part of life. I'm very much a 'put God first' person, and I look at it as part of God's plan. I'm not going to question it, I'm not going to get mad - stuff comes along. I try to deal with it one on one, not give up, keep working hard.

"My mother is the reason I'm continuing to go on. She would want me to do this. Now that I know her spirit is with me every day, it's like I must do this. I have to be on my 'A' game every day."

Harris certainly hasn't thrown things into cruise control, even with a scholarship in place and qualification for freshman eligibility not a worry. Harris plans to enroll at Tech during the summer and he plans to be ready then, not later.

There's a difference of opinion about whether he's ready to play as a freshman.

Harris thinks he is, or at least will be, but "Coach is probably thinking another thing."

Yes, although Burton admits part of it is a way to challenge Harris because he knows Harris always responds well to a challenge.

"I told him (recently) if they had to start now, he was not ready," Burton said. "Part of that was due to circumstances beyond his control. He basically lost a month (because of the fire). I told him I'd let him know in a few months whether I think he should request a redshirt. It's hard for him to understand that, everything comes so easily to him.

"Those guys at the Division I level, they're all great athletes. It takes more than being a great athlete to be ready. He takes that as a challenge and that's why I gave it to him. Now he feels like he has even further incentive to prepare himself and show me up.

"There's a huge difference between high school and college. Where you thought you had pretty good coverage before, now that receiver is making the catch because he and the quarterback are so much more skilled.

"A lot of it is a matter of reps - I think his game would improve with a redshirt year rather than trying to come in and play right away."

Harris is working out at Velocity Sports Performance in Richmond, where he can get significant individual attention. Among the other clients is former Hokie defensive end Nathaniel Adibi.

He's not trying to improve just one thing. "I'm trying to improve everything," Harris said. "I'm working extremely hard to get ready for that next level. They have me doing all kinds of things, working on every muscle in my body.

"If someone feels like they can't improve, that's when they will fail. I could probably be the fastest dude in the country and I'd still feel like I had to work on my speed. So I feel like I have to work on everything to get better. I will probably be ready physically, I just have to get a little harder. This is preparing me for that level. We'll see what happens when I get there."

Harris plans to study business, with an eye toward a career in real estate. Burton has no doubt he will be successful. He also has no doubt Harris will be as good as expected on the football field. And, yes, that may start to happen in 2005.

"He is a very driven and goal-oriented kid," Burton said. "He's expecting to play. He wants to go in there and start. He's looking to go there in as ideal condition as he can.

"He's definitely looking to make a splash."

Click here for Victor Harris' recruiting profile, including videos and updates.

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