Vincentian national and Sun Devil Football wide receiver N’Keal Harry has been named a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, presented annually by Texas Roadhouse to the most versatile player in college football.
He joins Marion Grice (2013) as the only other Sun Devil to be named a finalist for the prestigious award, now in its ninth year after being launched by the Louisville Sports Commission in 2010.
The junior out of Chandler, Ariz., has demonstrated his versatility throughout the season, scoring touchdowns receiving, rushing and on punt return this season and being responsible for numerous game-changing plays all across the football field.
Harry is averaging 110.7 all-purpose yards per game and has played 606 snaps this season – 10th-most among all Power Five receivers – and has at times handled direct snap-taking duties in the team’s Sparky formation.
N’ Keal mon Naudine Harry says ” Am now lost for words to express how my son is performing and keeping his focus, so many things are happening all at once for him, tears are my language right, all i can say, ” that’s my son, my son, i love him so much.
Sister Rheanna smiling from ear to ear says my brother is just one in a million, exceptional, we’ve got his back, ” you go bro”. we looooove you.
Harry posts an 84.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, the fourth-highest grade among Pac-12 offense regardless of position and 8th among all wide receivers nationally.
The junior ranks in the Top-20 nationally in receiving touchdowns (9/8th), receiving yards (828/18th), receiving yards per game (92.0/19th) and total touchdowns (11/17th).
He has a reception in all 34 games of his career at Arizona State, tied for the 10th-longest active streak among all current FBS players and is in 3rd place in program history with 195 receptions. He is also 6th in school history with 2,629 career receiving yards, within 100 yards of the top four all-time.
At 5.74 receptions per game in his career, Harry is third among the NCAA’s active career leaders in the category. His 77.3 career receiving yards per game are sixth among all active players.
With 22 career receiving touchdowns, Harry is tied for 5th in ASU school history in that category as well and needs just two more to move into fourth.
Harry has at least one touchdown reception in 10 of last 14 games. He has 14 touchdown receptions in those 14 games after he had just 8 in the first 20 games of his career.
Harry has a 146.6 NFL QB rating when targeted this season, good for third nationally among receivers that have logged at least 50 percent of their team’s targets. He has forced 14 missed tackles this season, which is good for 13th-most among all FBS receivers.
He is averaging 22.4 yards per punt return this season and 157 total return yards – already 29th nationally despite only returning punts in the second half of the season.
In the past two weeks, Harry has been named both the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week and the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week.
In victories over USC and #16 Utah that have placed ASU in control of its destiny in the Pac-12 South, Harry has posted 364 all-purpose yards (256 receiving, 5 rushing, 103 punt returns) and a combined six touchdowns (5 receiving, 1 punt return).
The Louisville Sports Commission successfully launched the Paul Hornung Award in 2010 to honor its namesake and native son, and to promote outstanding performances by versatile college football players who often go unnoticed.
