Graham Harrell
From NCAA College Football Information & Resource
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Graham Harrell (Born May 22, 1985, in Brownwood, TX) plays quarterback for the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the NCAA college football tournament. Harrell delivered the fourth best season in NCAA history for a sophomore on his second year donning the Red Raider jersey, just behind Scott Mitchell (1988), Ty Detmer (1989), and Timmy Chang (2002). Harrell has also listed himself with some of the best Tech quarterbacks who have compiled multiple 300 and 400 yard passing games. Scouting reports point to Harrell's pin-point accuracy and solid decision making as his best assets as a playcaller. Before his junior season got underway, Harrell was named as a Manning Award candidate and was hyped as one of the nation's top returning quarterbacks for 2007.
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[edit] Personal Life
Graham is the second of Kathy and Sam Harrell's three sons. He has an older brother named Zac and a younger brother named Clark. Perhaps his father's profession as a high school coach influenced Graham to be an athlete. Graham, who plans to major in history, wants to someday earn a degree or pursue a career in football as a player or a coach.
[edit] High School
Harrell attended Ennis High School in Ennis, Texas, and played football under his father Sam's tutelage. He was a three-year starter for Ennis and led his team to 41-3 during his stint with the team. He also emerged as the state's all-time leading passer, collecting 12,532 yards and 167 touchdowns and ranked nationally in single-season touchdowns (second), career touchdowns (third) and career passing yards (sixth). Named two-time 4A Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press, Offensive Athlete of the Year by the Dallas Morning News and a two-year District 16-4A MVP, Harrell threw for 3,411 yards and 46 touchdowns with only six pick-offs to go along his 1,055 rushing yards and 17 TD runs as a junior. As a senior, he completed 244-of-373 pass attempts and passed for 4,825 yards including 573 in a game against Waxahachie which stood as third-best single-game total in state history. He also connected on 67 TD strikes to lead his school to an undefeated regular season on his final year.
Harrell had a lot of accolades in high school, including a spot at the EA Sports All-America Team, and the PrepStar All-America Team. His exploits also made him the No. 7 pro-style quarterback in the nation (Rivals.com), No. 15 overall prospect in Texas (Texas Insider Top 100), No. 15 quarterback in the nation (SuperPrep.com), No. 17 quarterback in the nation (CollegeFootballNews.com), No. 24 in the Midlands Sweet 66 (Rivals.com), No. 24 in the Texas Top 100 (Rivals.com), No. 30 overall prospect in the nation (Big 12 Insider Top 100), No. 8 area prospect (Dallas Morning News), and No. 9 prospect in Texas (Dallas Morning News).
He also made it to the top list of several publications which include the Hodge 150 (ESPN), PrepStar Top 300, National Top 100 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and the State Top 100 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
[edit] College
A Rivals.com 4-star recruit during his high school days, Harrell was one of the most sought after players by various college teams. He however chose Texas Tech over Georgia, N.C. State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Wisconsin and Kansas State.
[edit] 2004
Redshirted.
[edit] 2005
Harrell played back-up to Cody Hodges during his redshirt freshman year. He made his college football debut against Florida International where he came in on the final quarter, led his team to two scoring drives, and finished his debut going 7-for-8 for 64 yards and a 25-yard pass to fellow redshirt freshman L.A. Reed. His first touchdown pass came the following week against Sam Houston State, where he played all but two series in the second half. He also turned out season high numbers in completions (14), attempts (17), and pass yards (208) during that game. Harrell played three more games the rest of the season, including the Cotton Bowl, before finishing the year with 422 yards on 37-of-55 completion with 3 TDs.
[edit] 2006
Harrell returned in 2006 and started in all of Tech's games to compile the best sophomore season in school history after registering 4,555 passing yards and 38 touchdowns. Among his feats include nine 300-yard passing games, and a 38:11 touchdown to interception ratio. His performance also put him on the leader's charts for several passing categories, which include leading the league in passing, passing touchdowns and total offense, as well as leading the nation in completions (412) and placing second in passing yards. He also placed himself in the school's record books, with his 412 completions ranking fourth-best single-season total and owning the fourth-highest single-season passing yardage mark by a Tech quarterback.
Harrell also picked up the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors against Texas A&M (32-of-45 for 392 yards and 4 TDs) and ended his second season with an Offensive MVP award in the Insight Bowl (36-of-55 for 445 yards and two TDs). The latter individual award came after Harrell led his team to a come-back win over Minnesota. In that game, the Golden Gophers actually led 38-14 after three quarters before the Red Raiders mounted a 24-0 rally and ended up with the largest come-from-behind victory in NCAA Division I-BS bowl history.
[edit] 2007
Harrell made it to the watch lists for several awards, including the Maxwell Award, the Manning Award, and the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award. In his junior year, Harrell took off from where he left off in 2006 as he opened the 2007 campaign with a 419-yard performance against Southern Methodist which came with four TDs. Harrell was named AT&T's All-America Player of the Week and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week after tossing for a career-high 646 yards (on 46-of-67 completion) with five scores against Oklahoma State. He reclaimed the AT&T award a few weeks later after completing 36-of-43 passes for 425 yards and four touchdowns with a completion rate of 83.7% (new school record eclipsing the mark of 83.1% set by Kliff Kingsbury at Texas A&M in 2002) against Iowa State. Against Baylor, Harrell completed 37 of 46 passes for 433 yards and 3 TDs without a pickoff, marking the 9th start of his career he completed without an interception. In the regular season finale, Harrell completed 47 of a school record 72 attempts for 420 yards and two touchdowns as the Red Raiders pulled off an upset of the 3rd ranked Oklahoma. The team went on to their postseason meeting with Virginia in the Gator Bowl, where Harrell engineered a Texas Tech rally with 17 4th quarter points to lead his team to a 31-28 comeback victory for the second straight year in a bowl game. His performance, marked by 44-of-69 passing with 407 passing yards (14th 400-yard game of his career) and three TDs was good enough for a Bowl Game MVP Award.
Harrell ended the year as the nation's leading passer after tossing for 5,705 yards and 48 touchdowns on 512 of 713 completion. He also made it to the All-Big 12 Conference Second Team and was awarded with the The Touchdown Club of Columbus' Sammy Baugh Trophy.
[edit] Career Stats
| Passing | ||||||||||
| Year | Cmp | Att | Yds | Cmp% | Ypa | Lng | TD | Int | Sack | Rat |
| 2005 | 37 | 55 | 422 | 67.3 | 7.67 | 44 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 149.73 |
| 2006 | 412 | 617 | 4555 | 66.8 | 7.38 | 76 | 38 | 11 | 18 | 145.54 |
| 2007 | 512 | 713 | 5705 | 71.8 | 8.00 | 75 | 48 | 14 | 16 | 157.31 |
[edit] Highlights
| Graham Harrell throws a 37 yard game-winner to Robert Johnson to carry Texas Tech to a win over Texas A&M. |
[edit] Achievements
- 2007 2-time AT&T's All-America Player of the Week
- 2007 Academic All-Big 12 First Team
- 2007 All-Big 12 Conference Second Team
- 2007 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (vs. Oklahoma State)
- 2007 Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award watch list
- 2007 Konica Minolta Gator Bowl MVP
- 2007 Manning Award watch list
- 2007 Maxwell Award watch list
- 2007 Sammy Baugh Trophy (The Touchdown Club of Columbus)
- 2006 Insight Bowl Offensive MVP award
- 2006 1-time Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week
