Most Important People #14 – Michael Harrison

Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

Who he is: A former two-star WR out of Dallas (I don’t know why I even reference stars anymore really), he put up a 14 | 135 | 3 line last year as a freshman. Those stats belie how ambitious his game is though, not to mention how excited Cowboy fans are about his future.

What he does: Harrison has a chance to be the next in a long line of Biletnikoff award dinner attendees. He made big time plays as a freshman (see below) and established himself as somebody you held your breath for every time a pass went his way.

Where he fits in: It’s not often that the third (or fourth or fifth) receiver is this important to a top ten team, but then again it’s not that often that your #1 is going to get double or triple teamed. Weeden has his top two guys set but I think there’s going to be a non-conference battle for slot number three. Who will he find a rapport with? Which receiver will step into his rhythm? My money’s on Harrison.

Why he matters: In this offense, this year, all the receivers matter. But especially Harrison. With Blackmon getting flogged on the other side of the field, and Cooper running around in the flats, he could become Weeden’s go to deep threat. Or he could drop a few balls early and slide down a few rungs to the 7th or 8th spot in Weeden’s to-do list.

That’s the thing that excited me about this team: after Blackmon, receivers two through eight are going to be borderline fighting for playing time. And, yes, we’re absolutely going to look back at this list at the end of the year to see how poorly I assessed the season.

This post is part of our series on the 20 most important people to a 2011 Oklahoma State title run. Check the full list out here.