Mike Furrey shares what excites him about working with Nyck Harbor going into fall camp
Mike Furrey has only been at South Carolina for five months. During that time, he has yet to be on the field with Nyck Harbor, not even once.
“The only thing I can say about Nyck that I have been around is I’ve stood next to him,” said Furrey, who stands at 6-feet tall, a five-inch difference compared to Harbor’s 6-foot-5 height.
To be fair, there’s a valid reason why South Carolina’s wide receivers coach hasn’t been Harbor yet. He also runs track for the Gamecocks, which meant he was entirely focused on that sport for a good portion of this year. Because his season ran all the way into June, the now-sophomore receiver missed all of spring practice.
So until fall camp begins, the only thing Furrey has been able to see is tape from Harbor’s freshman year. Harbor played in all 12 games and started the final five in 2023. In that time, he caught 12 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown.
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Heading into this season, expectations will be higher for Harbor. He showed obvious flashes of what he can do in his first year. His tremendous size and speed helped him turn into an occasional target in the back half of last season. Now, with all the potential he has as a former five-star recruit, many are hoping he can put it together.
But despite what many want to happen, it doesn’t always end up that way. Harbor still has plenty of work to do to become a top receiver. And Furrey knows this better than anyone, being in the coaching industry for the last 13 years.
“I think the first thing that everybody’s got to stop worrying about what he could be,” Furrey told GamecockCentral. “He needs to start, as everybody else does, you need to start learning how to become a very good wideout. You can always be super talented but talent’s only going to take you so far.”
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While Harbor has many of the tools needed at receiver, Furrey pointed out that talent can only do so much. He believes it really comes down to understanding the X’s and O’s in order to become smarter as a player.
“What you need to do now is start learning the game, learning situational football, start building your football IQ, understanding coverages and not just relying on talent,” he said. “We all would like to run straight. But if you could run straight, everybody’s going to know, ‘Guess what? All you can do is run straight.'”
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With just over a month to go until South Carolina’s season opener, Furrey is excited about working with Harbor, along with the rest of the receiving corps. The Gamecocks will have a much different looking group after losing the likes of Xavier Legette to the NFL and Juice Wells to Ole Miss in the transfer portal.
Could Harbor still turn into an elite receiver for the Gamecocks? Absolutely. But Furrey knows it’s going to take a lot of work to get there. And it all gets started when South Carolina has its first fall camp practice on Friday.
“Our job is to turn everybody in that room into a wideout, not just an athlete. And that’s what I’m looking forward to,” Furrey said. “Rather it’s Nyck or rather it’s anybody else in that room, no matter what, that’s what I’m looking forward to, and to get them to become highly effective in Coach (Dowell) Loggains’ offense. (And the players) make sure that we’re doing our job and we’re performing and we’re impacting and we’re part of the reason why we’re helping this team.”
