Harrington puts pride to the side

There was no way to turn back the clock, so all defensive back Justin Harrington could hope for was a second chance.

A second chance from a coach he didn’t know to return to an Oklahoma program that Harrington made an impulsive decision to hit the transfer portal after four games in the 2021 season.

No guarantee it was going to happen, but Harrington kept at it. He wanted to let first-year head coach Brent Venables know he was willing to do whatever it took to come back. He wanted to let safeties coach Brandon Hall know ‘hey, I’m still here.’

It wasn’t going to come easy, and Harrington was fine with that. But if Venables has been known for something outside of his defensive prowess, it’s his ability of giving grace and granting those second chances.

When it came time for the conversation, Harrington had to put his pride to the side. He had to show Venables this was for real.

“I would say it was a real, selfless moment,” Harrington said. “I would say it was the least prideful. I had to put all my pride to the side. I felt like football is not who I am, but it is what I do. And I feel like this is what I want to do for a long time. Again, you really can't choose anywhere else if this is the type of football you play. This is the type of people that you want to surround yourself around.

“And when we talked, we had an hour and a half talk. It really wasn't about football. I felt like he was trying to find out who I was as a person. One thing that he said to me was…not that I'm that young, I'm 22. But, you know, you still make impulsive decisions. And that's kind of what we talked about - making impulsive decisions and people just deserving of grace and a second chance.”

Once a highly touted junior college prospect for the 2020 class, now Harrington was wearing No. 37 and as a walk-on for the Sooners in the spring.

A two-year journey full of plenty of downs, hoping he can finish with some ups this time around. When he arrived at OU, it was known he had a pretty bad knee injury. He missed the 2020 season to clean that up, but then Harrington was a name to watch last fall.

Nobody knew what position he could or would play, but when you have the look and the size of Harrington, he fits in somewhere.

Except he didn’t. Labeled as a corner, Harrington saw the definition of spot-duty in the first month of the season before hitting the portal and going back home to North Carolina.

He never forgot about his teammates, and his teammates never forgot about him, welcoming him back with open arms.

“For me? No, not at all,” said safety Billy Bowman about if it was tough to accept Harrington’s return. “I was always close to Justin, so I always wanted him back. He’s a worker, grinder. He’s going to show why he came back here. Day after day, you’re seeing it click with him. He’s showing everybody what he can do.”

Harrington mentioned guys like Key Lawrence and Reggie Grimes, among others, as teammates that really helped push him through the last 12 months.

Lawrence has seen the transformation, now he’s waiting for the next step.

“God had another plan for him,” Lawrence said. “It wasn’t a bad thing, but he’s back into the flow of everything. He’s done a great job of adapting. We’re proud of him. I’m proud of him.”

That first part of the redemption story is in the books. Harrington came back as humble as ever, understanding what being a walk-on was going to mean.

He stuck it out during the spring, hit the grind in the summer, and now we’re seeing the next chapter of his OU story – the CHEETAH position.

He’s not a cornerback anymore, definitely not eating like one. Harrington is now in that hybrid SAM linebacker role made oh-so famous back in the day by Roy Williams. For OU in 2022, it’s going to be DaShaun White and Harrington as the first guys to get a crack at it.

As good as Harrington has been throughout camp, it was White listed as the starter. No pouting, no discouragement. Back to work.

“Well, I asked him to come back with humility and expecting nothing and to be about the work,” Venables said. “That's the way that I encouraged him to earn the trust and respect of his teammates. And he's done that. You know, he's over delivered in that regard. He's got a can-do attitude, he's been high energy. He can run all day, he's got great endurance. He's got a good skill set, he's aggressive, he can run, got good length. He's hungry and he's here for his opportunity.

“He wasn't listed as a starter. You don't hear anything. His family's reached out a couple of different times and just to thank us, which is just refreshing. There's no "expectation." So that's fun to deal with too. You've got humble people that you're working with.”

It’s hard to fully understand what the fall and winter months were like for Harrington last season. A man on an island with zero idea of where his next step was going to be.

You can’t live life looking back with regret, but Harrington kept coming back to OU as being the spot he needed to be.

“There’s nothing really like Oklahoma,” Harrington said. “I committed here. That’s what went through the thought process of me coming back. You can’t get anything better than this. The development. The competition around here. The integrity. The accountability. All the way down. Can’t get anything better.”

Now in his third year in the program, we’re finally going to see what Harrington can do. Physically, he’s fine. Mentally, he’s better than ever.

Let’s get to it.

“That's the main thing. Just having family,” Harrington said. “I'm from Raleigh, N.C., I'm far — 17-hour drive. You've got to catch two flights to get back to Raleigh so it's like having guys, like Key — I'm with Key every day.

“Having guys around like Reggie and the offensive guys as well, joking around with them outside of the field, that just makes it a family-oriented program and that's what Coach Venables is really wanting to build. It's not really about football. At the end of the day, yea, we want to win and Oklahoma wins, but we want to be a family after this.”

And you don’t turn your back on family. Harrington wants to show Venables, show his teammates, show the OU fans that this was the right move.