From Then To Now... Kolby Harvell-Peel
The 2019 football season saw a number of Oklahoma State players make a strong impression on the college football scene. Spencer Sanders, Chuba Hubbard, Tylan Wallace, Teven Jenkins, Trace Ford, Amen Ogbongbemiga, Tre Sterling, and Jarrick Bernard are some examples from the Pokes roster.
Those players proved they are among the best in the Big 12, But another player that proved his value and raised his stock, maybe more than any other was first-team All-Big 12 selection and Oklahoma State Defensive MVP winner Kolby Harvell-Peel.
Some people surely would choose Chuba Hubbard as the player that proved the most among Cowboys in 2019, but Hubbard came out of high school, even in Canada, more highly-regarded by some recruiting sites. His success was easily more expected, maybe not 2,000-plus-yards, but still, he expected to be a better than average running back.
Harvell-Peel was not as highly thought of coming out of high school, nationally, in Texas, or even among safeties. He was actually recruited to move down to a hybrid linebacker position at Oklahoma State. One major recruiting service had him ranked as the 77th best safety and 969th overall player. Another recruiting service didn't have him ranked at all.
In the Mike Gundy era at Oklahoma State, stars and rankings have never been something the recruiting staff pays much attention to. They like to find a player they believe has talent and then see if he would fit into the Cowboy culture and program. If they feel comfortable with a player, they do not need validation from outside sources. Kolby Harvell-Peel is one of these players.
Harvell-Peel showed up in Stillwater after high school and immediately earned himself some playing time. As a true freshman, he racked up 52 total tackles, 4 pass deflections, but 0 interceptions. These numbers are good for a first-year player but did not yet secure his place as a Big 12 star.
The stardom would come as a sophomore while being one of the leaders of a very young defense. In his first-team All-Big 12 campaign, Harvell-Peel totaled 71 tackles, 13 pass deflections, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, and 5 interceptions.
Those numbers are sensational, especially for an underclassman. Harvell-Peel churned out one of the best seasons from a safety in the country last year and in fact, it was one of the best by any safety in years. It is shocking to me that Harvell-Peel was not even mentioned in the Jim Thorpe Award conversation, the award given to the best defensive back in the country. Honestly, the Thorpe Award may move too fast in their selection process and that could cost them from finding a deserving and emerging star.
I have put together a chart of the last five Thorpe Award winners compared to Harvell-Peel's 2019 season.
| Year + Player | Tackles | Interceptions | Pass Deflections | Sacks | FF+FR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 Harvell-Peel Season | 71 (1st) | 5 (T-1st) | 13 (1st) | 1 (3rd) | 4 (1st) |
2019 Delpit | 65 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 2 |
2018 Baker | 40 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 1 |
2017 Fitzpatrick | 60 | 1 | 7 | 1.5 | 1 |
2016 Jackson | 55 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 2 |
2015 King | 58 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
From the chart, you see the five major statistics normally tied to defensive backs (tackles, interceptions, pass deflections, sacks, and forced/recovered fumbles). Harvell-Peel came in first place in every category except for sacks, where he was 3rd.
The Thorpe Award signifies the best defensive back in the nation, but as we can see from statistics, Harvell-Peel played better than any of them. Only the last five years are shown to give a recent outlook on it, but if you were to go back another 5-10 years, you would still not see numbers like those he posted in 2019.
With another off season under his belt and nearly the entire defense returning for 2020, Kolby Harvell-Peel is in line for an even better junior season. I would not be surprised to see an 10-20 percent improvement in tackles, interceptions, and pass break-ups, a feat that would surely land him at the top of the discussion for the Thorpe Award.
I am not the only one that now sees Harvell-Peel as one of the elite defenders in the nation. Pro Football Focus, college football's leading analytics provider listed Harvell-Peel as the 13th best defensive back in all of college football and the seventh best overall player in the Big 12 conference.
Here is what PFF had to say about Harvell-Peel. "[He] was better than most true freshmen safeties in 2018, recording a 67.3 coverage grade. In his sophomore 2019 season, Harvell-Peel looked like an upperclassman in coverage by producing an 89.5 coverage grade, ranking eighth among FBS safeties and leading way to being one of the 10 most valuable safeties in the country. Harvell-Peel spent most of his time at free safety, and that’s where his play shined, improving his coverage grade rank to fifth while allowing just four first downs, intercepting two passes and successfully defending six other passes. In other words, he was a certified ball hawk for the Cowboys."
In a second article, PFF stated: "No one has seen more passes thrown their way when lined up at free safety than Harvell-Peel, and he’s still been the second-highest graded in coverage at that alignment."
After reading all of this, I did a deep dive into Harvell-Peel's recruiting cycle and every safety that was ranked ahead of him with an in-depth analysis of the top 10 safeties in 2018. Kolby Harvell-Peel has more career starts than nine of ten and was the only one to be named an all-conference player last season. It seems as though he is already on track to have a better career than all 10 of those players in essentially every statistic. Amount of starts, number of tackles, interceptions, pass breakups... everything! Five of those players have never made a start and three others have transferred from their original schools.
From being ranked as 77th as an incoming freshman by a recruiting service, PFF now ranks Harvell-Peel as the top free safety to come out of the 2018 class.
From being overlooked to now being considered the best, Kolby Harvell-Peel has come a long way in a very short amount of time, like many other Cowboys have in the school's football history.
Harvell-Peel is becoming a well-known name with people within the football business and if he has another dominant season, I believe he will be one of the most talked-about defenders in the country and could potentially have a very favorable stock in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Oklahoma State defense will be fun to watch next season, returning 10-of-11 starters and will have five other All-Big 12 selections alongside Harvell-Peel. Nearly all of these players are like Kolby Harvell-Peel, overlooked then, excelling now.
