Najee Harris recently made an interesting revelation about his time at Alabama.
Harris was a highly touted recruit who played at Bama from 2017 to 2020. He was a star running back for the Crimson Tide as a junior and senior, scoring 20 touchdowns in 2019 and 30 touchdowns in 2020. After college, the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Harris in the first round, and he went on to have a successful rookie season.
During an interview with “The Pivot Podcast” that was published on Tuesday, Harris discussed his journey from college to the pros.
Harris shared that he butted heads with Nick Saban during his time with the Tide. The interesting revelation is that Harris said he left school briefly in 2020.
“It was COVID year, and I came back to school,” Harris told the show, via AL.com. “It was our last incident. Imagine all four years, we kind of like, bumped heads, in a good way. Then I guess COVID year — last incident happened and I left school.
“I’m like, ‘Man, I’m not messing with y’all. I’m gone.’ So I left school for like two weeks. Yeah, people didn’t know that. I left school for like two weeks.”
Harris returned to school and played in all 13 games that season. He did not reveal when exactly he left.
Harris said his clashes with Saban had to do with the coach’s manner of handling players. Harris did not appreciate being talked to/yelled at the way Saban did. It took the two of them sitting down and talking things out to fix matters.
“From that point on, he took his time out of the day to really understand who I am. Ever since that day, man, we’ve been rock solid, man,” Harris said of Saban.
Harris is now entering his second season in the NFL. He rushed for 1,200 yards and seven touchdowns. He caught 74 passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl.
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