Harrison Has Tempered His Attitude : Raiders: Rookie defensive end, who was kicked off his college team, excels after taking over for injured Long.

Nolan Harrison, who once ripped an automated teller machine out of a wall after it ate his bank card, is doing his ripping now on NFL quarterbacks.

For instance, Harrison, a Raider rookie defensive end, whacked Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly in the face and drew a 15-yard penalty during the Bills’ 30-27 overtime victory over the Raiders last Sunday.

“It was a questionable call,” Harrison said. “I did hit Kelly in the face, but there’s a difference between a blatant personal foul and an accidental face mask (penalty), and that’s what it was. It should only have been five yards, but it was 15 for striking a blow to the quarterback’s head, which was far from the thing.

“I was swiping at the ball and accidentally hit Kelly in the head. And he started crying, and when the all-pro starts crying, the ref goes, ‘Let me (appease) the all-pro.’

“If I was really out to hurt Kelly, he wouldn’t have finished the game. And that’s just the plain fact of it. I’m 6-6 and 290 pounds. If I really want to hurt somebody, I can.”

Starting in place of Howie Long, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection, Harrison has 1 1/2 sacks in two games since Long suffered a sprained knee ligament.

“It’s a tough job, replacing somebody as good as Howie Long,” Harrison said. “But I’ve been training really hard all season to get ready for the situation where if one of the guys goes down, I have to step in and do the job.”

Long has been helping Harrison.

“He’s like an angel on my shoulder,” Harrison said. “Whenever I come off the field, I talk to him about what’s going on. He’s a good student of the game. He’s almost like a second coach now. He gives me a lot of pointers. It’s a great comfort to me that he’s out there watching.”

Long predicts that Harrison will become a star in the NFL.

“The biggest plus that Nolan has is just wild energy,” Long said. “He works real hard and he’s going to be a real good player. He hustles, that’s his No. 1 attribute. He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever played with up front on the defensive line.

“He’s going to be a great player. You’ll hear a lot about Nolan Harrison through the ‘90s and the year 2,000. Nolan will be a great player in 2,003, when I’m sitting on my sofa.”

If Harrison feels any pressure in replacing Long, he hasn’t shown it.

“I don’t think he knows what pressure is,” Long said. “When I was 22 or 23, I had no idea. I think Nolan realizes what his role is. He’s looking to be in there full time in the future. His great years are ahead of him.”

The Raiders think Harrison has filled in well for Long.

“Nolan’s played phenomenal,” Raider nose guard Bob Golic said. “With Howie going out, it’s difficult to come in and have that kind of pressure put on you, but not only did he go in and occupy a position, he went in and performed very well.”

Is there a big drop-off between Long and Harrison?

“Nobody can replace the experience, leadership and intensity that somebody like Howie Long brings to the game,” Golic said. “The only way you can get close to that is to have somebody who has talent and has that youthful enthusiasm, which Nolan has. “

Selected during the sixth round of the NFL draft, Harrison has been one of the biggest surprises of the season.

Harrison didn’t play his senior season at Indiana in 1990, having been kicked off the team by Coach Bill Mallory because of an alcohol-related traffic accident. That ended a troubled college career that also included the run-in with the ATM during his freshman season. Harrison wound up paying $4,500 in damages to the bank.

“Coach Mallory made a decision that he thought would better the team,” Harrison said of being dropped as a senior. “He wanted to make sure that players didn’t think they could get away with screwing up like that. He made me an example, which was fine. He made the decision and hopefully he’ll stick by those rules for the rest of his career.

“I was bitter at first, who wouldn’t be? But once I realized that I was the one at fault, I had to step back and readjust my thinking.”

Being away from football was difficult for Harrison, but it helped him to mature.

“It hurts, sitting out,” Harrison said. “But I had something else to concentrate on, which was school. I was determined to try to play again, and I was determined to try and finish my education.”

Harrison rejected offers from the Canadian Football League in order to get his degree in criminal justice. He didn’t expect to be selected during the NFL draft, but hoped to be signed as a free agent.

Harrison’s stock rose, though, when he did well in strength, speed and agility tests at the NFL scouting combine last February. The Raiders, who have never had any qualms about acquiring players with troubled pasts, drafted Harrison.

“I didn’t think I was going to get drafted at all,” Harrison said. “So I was pretty happy to get drafted. I wanted to prove to people that I wasn’t the screw-up that people seemed to think I was at the time and that I’m a good player. I wanted to prove that I can get headlines as a good player instead of as a screw-up off the field.

“I wanted to prove to people that the Raiders didn’t take a chance on me, and I think I’ve shown that.”

Harrison has been a model citizen with the Raiders. In fact, his teammates had to tell him to lighten up.

“I don’t think Nolan blinks the entire game,” Golic said. “I’ve been looking over at him and his eyes start to dry out. When they come out to give us water, we drink and they just squirt Nolan in the face. It’s kind of like squirting a dolphin to keep him wet.”

Harrison said he had trouble relaxing when he joined the Raiders.

“I didn’t fit in easily at first because I’m a very work-oriented guy,” Harrison said. “It took me a while to get very comfortable with my teammates, to where I could laugh and joke around. For a while, they never saw me smile or laugh.”

Harrison got a chance to play during the exhibition season because of the holdout of defensive end Scott Davis. He got four sacks in five games, but was relegated to special teams until Long was injured during the Raiders’ 9-7 victory at San Diego two weeks ago.

Although the Raiders expected that Buffalo would try to exploit Harrison’s inexperience by calling trap plays last week, the Bills rejected that strategy and Harrison excelled. But he says that the Saints might run at him during Monday night’s game at New Orleans.

“(The Bills) really didn’t try to come after me and I was real surprised,” Harrison said. “But I know that the Saints are going to come at me. They’re a running football team. But I’m not one that’s going to be lulled to sleep and look bad on national TV.

“I have a lot to improve. People said that I played great last week. But to me, that’s not good enough, because we lost. What’s important in my mind is improvement, and my improvement will reflect on the team improvement.”