Photo courtesy of ecupirates.com
The last few months for former ECU defensive end Nate Harvey has featured a lot, from thinking he would play college football another season to all of a sudden needing to scramble for the NFL. Some would consider those last few months a bit of a roller coaster, Harvey included.
“That’s exactly how I would describe it,” Harvey said. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride. There’s a lot of stuff that has been putting me up and down.”
Harvey had begun spring practice with ECU and was convinced, along with many others that he would get an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA after playing only a handful of snaps his freshman season at another school. But, after a lengthy wait, the NCAA denied him that extra year of eligibility, a questionable move to say the least.
Still, Harvey impressed and drew a lot of intrigue at ECU’s annual pro day which took place on Thursday morning inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Many teams were in touch with Harvey, including the Panthers, Browns, Texans, Giants and Rams among others. Harvey said those teams told him he had a good day and that he should keep working hard.
That’s even more impressive considering Harvey had hardly any time to prepare for NFL scouts Harvey only got nine days to train specifically for pro day and now for the NFL draft. Harvey had even already practiced with ECU, and is still juggling classes at ECU.
“(The appeal process and the NCAA’s decision) took so long and I practiced on the first day so in my head I’m already back. Then after that first
But despite being complimented on his pro day, Harvey doesn’t want them to pay too much attention to the numbers he put up at pro day. He instead wants them to look at his film from his lone season at defensive end, when he was the AAC DPOY.
Harvey’s award-winning season saw him average 2.1 tackles for loss per
“I feel like my film is everything. I put my heart into last season, and next season whoever I’m playing for I’m gonna put my heart into it again,” Harvey said.
There’s no reason to think Harvey isn’t just scratching the surface of his defensive line prowess considering he only played it one season at ECU and excelled. Harvey started as a walk-on fullback before switching to linebacker and eventually moving to defensive end right before the 2018 season for then-defensive coordinator David Blackwell. Harvey even said himself that he was “learning on the fly” last year and the position can become more natural to him.
ECU head coach Mike Houston only had a few months with Harvey after taking the job. Despite briefly working together, Harvey won Houston over and the coach has said he will do anything he can to help Harvey make it there.
“When I took the job here, I didn’t even know who Nate Harvey was. Over the last three months, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know him on a daily basis,” Houston said of Harvey, per ecupirates.com
Houston made such an impression on Harvey as well so that Harvey was holding back tears the day he found out the NCAA had denied his extra season of eligibility. Harvey has no hesitation in returning the complimentary attitude back to Houston.
“Coach Houston is a great coach,” Harvey said, per ecupirates.com. “He showed me that the first week he was here, and that’s what made me want to stay.”
Harvey is still in the process of signing an agent and getting comfortable in going through the NFL process. Despite going through a rollercoaster last few months that would shake a lot of people, Harvey is still absolutely sure in one thing.
“I feel like I tried my best out here and I just hope a team can pick me up and if they do, they won’t regret it.”