Versatility Could Be The Key For Georgia Tech Safety Tae Harris Forcing Turnovers & Having A Big Year

A lot of talk has been made about the defensive back room, especially uber-talented safety Tae Harris, who was one of the highest-ranked prospects in program history alongside Georgia Tech great Calvin Johnson. Harris was a blue-chip prospect from the 2025 cycle. As a true freshman, he came in and contributed immediately for the Yellow Jackets, finishing with 20 tackles, two passes defensed, and a forced fumble. Harris has taken that and continued to add to his game this past season. An area he worked on most was his versatility and being able to line up anywhere on the field.

Harris has continued to master the various safety positions, and it could prove valuable this season as he embarks on a deeper role with the team. He talked about playing multiple positions in the spring and how it helped.

“Yeah, it helped me a lot. Like I said, just trying to understand his philosophy part about it. Just he wants guys to not just be able to play one position. He wants us all to be able to play all three plus the outside guys, the corners; they got that, but he wants us to be able to play star, you know, the strong safety, the free safety, a lot of stuff that he had to do when he was at Bama. So he always tells us. You're not going to be going with the same people every day. So you've got to learn this position just in case this guy, you know, may catch a cramp, something like that. So he definitely wants us to be versatile. But I think it's helped my game out a lot,” said Harris.

One area that Harris can help the team is his tackling ability, especially in the run game. A season ago, the Yellow Jackets had one of the worst run defenses in the country and were gashed against opponents. Harris physicality and ability to make plays and play down near the box could help a bunch. You add his coverage ability, and the game begins to slow down for him to the point where it will be impossible to keep him off the field.

“As I said, from a coverage standpoint, I can definitely see jumps on film from the cover standpoint, seeing the ball, just seeing what kind of routes I'm getting, just understanding the concept more. So it's definitely helped me out a lot. The run support part is, you know, it's always come along, especially from last year. was just a guy that, you know, just guarded the slot, guarded the two receivers and stacks and stuff like that. So being a little bit more in the box down low has helped me out a lot. Just seeing the run support, not just going to tackle the dude with the ball, just seeing where the blocks are lining up and then going to play off of it. So it's helped me a lot,” said Harris.

The Yellow Jackets are going to need Harris to step up and have a big season if this defense is going to reach its potential. Harris should be a big contributor in that and make a number of impact plays. One of the areas is forcing turnovers, which has been a major emphasis this offseason under defensive coordinator Jason Semore.

“It's a big emphasis actually. He doesn't go a day without saying it. So we've been getting our hands on a lot more balls in the camp. I think one of our biggest problems in the spring was catching football. So we dropped a lot of balls in the spring. I think we're catching it. We're starting to understand the scheme, the schematic part of it.

What coach Boogie (Coach Jason Semore) wants us to do in this certain call, show this call, and then we got to do this off of it. So I think it's growing, and yes, it's a big emphasis. So we've been taking heat of that emphasis every day, just trying to at least never go out a day without punching the ball out or getting an interception. So it's definitely a big emphasis, and I think we'll take that huge job actually,” said Harris.

Georgia Tech has been looking for an impact safety for a long time and they may have it with Harris, who has All-ACC cailber potential.

Add us as a preferred source on Google