Justin Harrington's 'Fantastic Summer' Could Find Him Back in the Mix For Oklahoma
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It’s been a long road back for Justin Harrington.
After spending two years at Bakersfield College, he transferred to Oklahoma but missed out on the 2020 season due to an injury.
Last year, he made brief cameos in each of OU’s first four games, but announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal at the start of October.
Harrington waited, and when the new defensive staff took over he asked Brent Venables if there was a pathway to rejoining the team.
“I won’t get all the way in the weeds, but he’s come to me a few times since I got the job,” Venables said last April after Harrington linked back up with the team. “Through a lot of conversation, not only with him but other teammates prior to making a decision to let him walk on, I got confirmation who he was as a young man openly. Just was honest, felt like maybe he made some mistakes with how he’d responded to some adversity and maybe some decisions he’d made.”
But merely taking the practice field with the Sooners once again was only the beginning for the 6-foot-3, 208-pound defensive back.
The defensive staff was clear with Harrington that he’d have to work his way back up the depth chart, and throughout the summer he kept his head down and worked hard to digest the new defense.
“He’s been awesome,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said during Oklahoma’s local media day on Tuesday. “He has just been extremely humble, extremely hard-working and just wanted to be a sponge learning. Just wants to learn.”
Upon his arrival, Harrington brought a different dynamic to the OU secondary.
His stature meant he stood out while then-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch tried to change the physical makeup of the back end of Oklahoma’s defense.
Now, Venables and Roof could give Harrington his shot at the cheetah position.
A hybrid between a nickel corner and an outside linebacker, Roof confirmed that Harrington had been working at that spot since rejoining the team alongside Justin Broiles, Jaren Kanak and Trey Morrison.
“There’s a couple of different situations (for the cheetah),” Roof said. “When you put a true linebacker out there as opposed to a hybrid guy.
“You have Justin Harrington as well who had an absolutely fantastic summer. So each one of those guys bring a different skillset.”
Back in the spring, Venables was clear that Harrington still had plenty to learn. But his first impressions about how the defensive back approached practice were positive.
“He’s aggressive, he’s physical, he’s got a good attitude,” Venables said. “… Hopefully he can continue to come on and bridge that gap from a knowledge standpoint and technique.”
From Roof’s perspective, Harrington did everything he could this summer to put in the mental work required to get up to speed.
“(He’s) worked his rear end off this summer learning,” Roof said. “… And as a coach, man, when guys show up like that every day that’s what you’re hunting. And so he’s been fantastic.”
A year ago, Oklahoma’s defense struggled to match up with bigger-bodied pass catchers over the middle of the field.
If Harrington can continue to progress to the coaching staff’s liking off the field, he may have an opportunity to help his team improve in that area on the field batting with Broiles and Kanak for snaps in 2022.
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