ESPN names a 'very confident' Tre Harris among Top 100 players in college football for 2023
When Tre Harris entered the transfer portal from Louisiana Tech and picked Ole Miss he was expected to be a valuable part of the Rebels offense. What happened instead if Harris became one of the most exciting players to watch in 2023.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin took a chance on Harris and was rewarded with the receiver leading the Rebels and becoming a top five receiver in the Southeastern Conference. Harris was 15 yards shy of having his first 1,000-yard season of his career.
The 54 catches for 985 yards and eight touchdowns was enough to earn Harris a spot on ESPN’s Top 100 players of the 2023 season on Wednesday.
Harris landed at No. 53 and is the lone representative for Ole Miss on the list. ESPN did not have Harris ranked in its preseason Top 100 list.
The senior concluded his first season at Ole Miss with seven catches for 134 yards in the Rebels Peach Bowl win over Penn State. Harris helped secure the first 11-win season in program history, but ready for what is next.
A decision to return for a final season in 2024 was made by Harris prior to the Peach Bowl. He gets one more season to up his already high draft stock and NFL potential as well as helping make more history for Ole Miss.
“I’m very confident,” Harris said after the Peach Bowl of the Rebels becoming a championship contender. “Really this year that was the goal to go out there and win a SEC Championship and go (for) a National Championship. We came up a little short but going into next year we all know what the main goal is and that’s a championship.
“Everybody’s full steam ahead and I feel like this win, especially, is going to catapult a lot of people to work even harder this offseason because we know how good we can really be.”
Ole Miss heads into the offseason with buzz circling the program that has not been seen in the modern era.
The Rebels are already a trendy way-too-early pick as a SEC and national title contender, let alone already feeling like an odds-on favorite to make the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
With the top transfer class headlined by No. 1 recruit from 2022 Walter Nolen and one of the best high school recruiting classes of the Kiffin era the momentum is swelling around Ole Miss seven months ahead of 2024.
Harris is a major part of that buzz, returning with Jordan Watkins and Caden Prieskorn and joining incoming weapons Deion Smith and Juice Wells to make the Rebels considered one of the top wide receiver rooms in the country.
Monday saw the official news Ole Miss was waiting on with quarterback Jaxson Dart announcing his plans to return for 2024 and a ‘Last Dance’ with his offense.
With losses to Alabama in September and Georgia in November the potential for another snowball effect to end this season was possible, but returning veterans from 2022’s team ensured a different ending was taking place.
“I’m just proud of all my teammates,” Harris added. “That was a big emphasis from the guys that were on the team last year. They continued to preach to everybody on the team that, ‘Hey, we were in this spot last year and we ended up just going down hill. Let’s not do that. Let’s keep going. We still got a whole season left and still got a lot to accomplish. I’m just glad we could accomplish an 11-win season and go out there and beat a really good team.”
