Harris Still Committed to Succeeding at SDSU : Football: Recruit vows to overcome dyslexia that limits his progress.

Since signing a national letter of intent to play football at San Diego State on Feb. 6, 1991, linebacker Fred Harris has taken more standardized tests than he cares to count, said more prayers than he can remember and still has had the “linebacker” part taken out of his life.

He is the most heralded football recruit in Coach Al Luginbill’s four recruiting classes--and probably in SDSU school history--and yet he has never snapped on an Aztec helmet.

But Harris, in his first interview since learning that he will be ineligible to play for a second consecutive fall, said over the weekend that he is not about to give up and that he hopes to enroll in SDSU this fall and play football in 1993.

Harris, who is said by Luginbill to have a learning disorder, called the past 1 1/2 years the most difficult experince of his life.

“I’m not getting down; I’m not getting upset,” said Harris, the 1990 Gatorade player of the year in Louisiana. “I read my Bible every day and go to church.

“It’s hard to go somewhere and people ask why you’re not playing. You can’t hide from it. I’ve got to be up front and tell them it’s because I have not passed the test.

“Inside, it bothers me. I want to be out there as much as anybody.”

Instead, since he didn’t score high enough on either the American College Test (ACT) or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to satisfy NCAA eligibility requirements, Harris is left behind while friends such as Marshall Faulk and Ray Peterson, a redshirt freshman from New Orleans who is expected to play at H-back this season, return to the practice field.

“I know I can make it,” Harris said. “I’m not a failure in life. I never quit.

“When you’re by yourself with your problems, though, it’s tough. But I keep going.”

Yet in a few weeks, Harris will be in the same position he was last fall--in a seat in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium instead of on the field.

“I think he’s embarrassed,” said SDSU receivers’ coach Curtis Johnson, who recruited Harris. “But I explain to him it’s like an illness. You’ve just got to overcome and do the things you need to do.”

Said Luginbill: “It’s bizarre. He’s never stepped one foot on the field and he’s had more publicity than anyone on the team.”

The Aztecs landed Harris, 6-feet-3 and 219 pounds, over schools such as then-national co-champion Colorado, Louisiana State, Mississippi and Texas A&M.; The battle for Harris, a three-time all-state player, was so ugly that Johnson even received death threats.

Harris carried a B average in core classes at Woodlawn High in Shreveport, La., but did not score high enough on the standardized tests. According to Luginbill, Harris had scored a 15 on the ACT at the time the Aztecs were recruiting him, just a few points short of the NCAA’s required 18 (since lowered to 17).

He entered SDSU as a “special admit,” and Aztec coaches figured he would make the test score after taking it again. Harris moved to San Diego last summer, got a job with a local construction company but, when he still didn’t qualify after taking more tests, decided to work full time for a year instead of enrolling in SDSU.

By doing it that way, he figured, he would still have all four years of eligibility left.

But after none of Harris’ tests showed improvement, Luginbill said it was discovered in February that Harris suffered from dyslexia.

As such, Harris, unlike normal students, qualifies to have the test read to him. The only problem is, the diagnosis of the learning disability came too late to have any effect on this season. Now, Harris is attempting to enroll in SDSU under the Equal Opportunity Program (EOP).

“It bothers me because I’m not going to be with the team,” Harris said. “I wish I could be out there playing. But I’m going to put it behind me.”

He refuses to blame what some say is an unfair system. He said he has never seriously considered going home to Louisiana or transferring to a different school. If he enrolled at a community college, for example, he could play football immediately.

“I could, but I don’t want to go to a junior college,” Harris said. “There’s nothing wrong with it, but I prefer to be at San Diego State. I like San Diego State.”

His most difficult time came when the final test results came back this summer and he learned he would be ineligible once again. Now, he will have only three seasons of eligibility left.

“I came home and sat by myself (after that),” he said. “Why me? It had to be me. I couldn’t understand it. After I didn’t pass, it was hard on me.”

And difficult, too, he said, because people know who he is and why he came to San Diego.

“People see me,” Harri said. “And it’s in the papers. It’s hard to adjust to. I’m just 20. It’s an experience. It was like this in recruiting, all the attention.”

NCAA rules, at this point, forbid Aztec coaches from helping Harris. He’s got to do everything school-related alone. He cannot even work out with the team.

“He’s a top talent,” Colorado Coach Bill McCartney told The Times in 1991. “He can run, he’s aggressive, he has a big frame. . . . He’s a big, lanky kid who can flat-out run. He has tremendous potential.”

But for now, Fred Harris, a friendly, polite young man who frequently answers question with “yes, sir” and “no, sir,” has only game-day memories.

“I’m still part of the team,” Harris said. “Sitting in the stands, it feels like I’m not.

“But I’m still a part of the team.”

Aztec Notes

H-back Will Tate is tentatively scheduled to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery this morning. If he has a torn meniscus cartilage, as the Aztecs believe, he will be out two-to-four weeks.