Brandon Harris’ Florida Roots Sets Him Up for Success in Gainesville

South Florida is deeply connected to Gators’ cornerbacks coach Brandon Harris in his heart and in how he recruits his players.

Florida recruits many players from south Florida, with more than 25 players from last season’s roster coming from the area. The cornerbacks across college and professional football from south Florida rank among the best in the country. The Miami native has been coaching and watching many of them play for years.

“They get introduced to playing with a lot of pressure and high pressure at a young age,” Harris said. “When guys learn how to play with that amount of pressure and accountability early on in their career, when they come to college, they don’t shy away from that spotlight. They almost embrace it and they look for it.”

Some players whom Harris has known for years are J’Vari Flowers and Ben Hanks III. The two freshmen expect to make an impact in Florida’s secondary this year. 

“They come in pairs, man, you can’t say one without the other, because every time you see them they’re going to be together,” Harris said. “Certain players just have that ‘it’ about them. Certain guys people want to see play.

“J-Rock [J’Vari] was one of those guys. ‘Man, I want to watch J-Rock play. I’m here to watch Ben’s team play.’ Certain guys just have that aura and that ‘it’ about them, and I knew they were going to be pretty special.”

After taking the job, Harris’ top priority was maintaining the guys on Florida’s roster, such as Dijon Johnson, Flowers and Hanks III. After all the coaching changes, Harris knew there was a possibility that everyone could enter the portal. 

“I was on a Disney cruise for Christmas break. My entire cruise was Facetime calls with our players, talking to them about staying at Florida,” Harris said. “It didn’t take much convincing, because they all love this place. They just wanted to know, ‘OK, what’s the plan for me next?’

“I made it a must thing that I talked to them. We wanted them to know how important they were to this position room and this staff. We felt like that room had a lot of potential and room to still grow. We wanted to spend our time recruiting them as opposed to players in the portal.”

One of the Gators’ top defensive backs last season was Cormani McClain, who opted to return to Florida under his new coach. McClain made 17 tackles and an interception for Florida last season.

“Mani is great man, he’s exceptional,” Harris said. “He’s not very vocal, but when you sit down and have a conversation with him, this dude is interesting. And he’s excited for the opportunities in front of him and playing with these guys that chose to stay and be Gators.” 

By taking the job at Gainesville, Harris has now coached at every Division I school in the state of Florida. Having the south Florida background and relationships he has built have made his transitions between jobs easy.

“Just putting on this logo and sharing the locker room with this group of guys, I’m extremely excited about being here,” he said.

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