When Deion Sanders decided to leave Jackson State in December to become the head football coach at Colorado, Gary Harrell knew he would follow him if the opportunity was presented.
“I’ve been in coaching for about 22 years and in this business, you need someone that can take you places that you probably can’t get to on your own,” Harrell, CU’s assistant head coach/running backs coach, said this week. “And I knew I had a special guy when I met coach Prime. I knew he was going places based on some of the things that we implemented within a short span of time at Jackson State.”
It was Sanders who helped Harrell get his first opportunity with a Power 5 conference program, but Harrell was one of the keys to helping Sanders get his collegiate coaching career off the ground three years ago.
Harrell, who grew up in Miami, knows HBCU football better than most. He played at Howard and worked as an assistant coach at four different HBCU programs (Howard, Texas Southern, Florida A&M and Morgan State) before a six-year run as Howard’s head coach from 2011-16. He was an assistant at another HBCU program, Alabama State, in 2019 when he met Sanders.
“When I met him four years ago, before he became head coach at Jackson State, we had maybe about three or four conversations,” said Harrell, known as Coach Flea. “The conversation was based on some of the things that I’ve been through as a head coach, especially at the HBCU level. So he just wanted to know some of the ins and outs as far as how to go about it, some of the things structure wise, organization wise, some of the things to expect. And through that conversation, we built trust.”
That trust led to Harrell being hired at JSU and now at CU.
“I would not be here if it wasn’t for the trust and loyalty that I gave to him along the way,” Harrell said.
As assistant head coach, Harrell will play a major role as Sanders’ right-hand man, but he’s also tasked with getting the Buffaloes’ run game going.
Being new to CU, Harrell said the Buffs have plenty of work ahead to figure out roles in the running back room, but he would like to find a lead back.
“We’ll have to find out one guy that’s an all-purpose guy (to lead the group),” he said. “In this offense you’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to think like a quarterback when it comes to protection, when it comes to understanding what we call the box, things of that nature. So you’ve got to know how to think like a quarterback, you’ve got to be well-conditioned because (offensive coordinator Sean Lewis), he dials it up. He goes pretty fast.”
Lewis runs a fast-paced offense, but it’s an offense that depends on a good running game.
“We’re gonna run the football,” Lewis said. “When it comes to our offensive identity, we’ve got to control what we can control. We have to own the line of scrimmage, and we have to maximize our calculated shots. So we need to establish a ground game. Without that, you become too one dimensional and you need to be able to have a punch and counter-punch. We’ve gotta be able to throw it, we’ve gotta be able to run it.”
CU returns its leading rusher, Deion Smith, from last year, as well as Anthony Hankerson, who shined at times as a true freshman. The Buffs also signed four-star recruit Dylan Edwards are they are slated to add Kentucky graduate transfer Kavosiey Smoke this summer.
“Do we have that (lead) guy? We’ve got to go through the spring and find out,” Harrell said. “We’re gonna take our time as far as evaluating guys in the spring just to find that right guy.”
In addition to finding his running back rotation, Harrell is getting himself and his family settled in the Boulder area. And, he’s eager to continue his journey with Sanders.
“As far as coming here to work, seeing the things that we have in place, it’s a great place,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to be a part of (the program).”
