Arizona Cardinals rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison has quickly emerged as one of the top players at his position in the 2024 NFL Draft Class. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
PHOENIX – On every level, Arizona Cardinals rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has taken the game of football by storm. He famously excelled at Ohio State, winning the 2023 Biletnikoff Award as the most outstanding receiver in college football. Before that, he was a three-time state champion at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia.
Oh, and his father – and namesake – happens to be a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Expectations have never been anything less than sky-high for Harrison. Now the world is watching as he makes his mark in the NFL, bringing his track record of success with him.
After a tentative start to his rookie season – Harrison caught one pass for four yards in his debut with Arizona – he has since authored flashes of brilliance for the Cardinals, who bring a 2-4 record into Monday night’s home game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Harrison remains in concussion protocol after taking a shot to the head on an incomplete pass during the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers.
While some fans in the Valley might be just learning about Harrison’s talents and admirable work ethic, folks in southeastern Pennsylvania have long marveled at his genius on the gridiron.
Harrison enrolled at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, also known as the Prep, in the fall of 2018 as a sophomore transfer from LaSalle College High School. He was a key contributor with LaSalle, the Prep’s biggest rival, in his freshman year, finishing the season with 20 catches for 254 yards and five touchdowns. The Prep was already familiar with his game.
“We knew how talented he was. We coached against him the year before,” former St. Joseph’s Prep wide receivers coach Ryne Morrison said. “Obviously he was only a freshman, but he played a pretty big role for those guys, and they gave us a little bit of a scare when he was a freshman. So I knew, obviously, how tremendously talented he was, the pedigree he had.”
It would have been easy for expectations to overwhelm Harrison as a high school sophomore walking through the doors of St. Joseph’s Prep with the name of a Pro Football Hall of Famer on his back. But he understood those expectations, and instead of shying away from them, he strived to surpass them.
“I think he knew the expectations that people set for him on the outside, because of who his father was, but he wanted to set them higher,” St. Joseph’s Prep head coach Tim Roken said. “He wanted to be the best that he can be himself, and the best ever. That’s always been his focus.”
The Prep held Harrison to a high standard, something Roken prides himself on doing with every player on his roster. Harrison also held himself to a higher standard, fully aware of the unique pressure placed upon him.
“It was kind of, what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained. I think everybody had tremendous respect for Marvin Jr. immediately because of the reputation and the success of his dad in the sport,” Morrison, who now coaches at Rowan University, said.
“But if you ask Marvin today, he’ll give you the same exact answer that he would have given you when he was 16 years old: ‘I’ve been compared to my dad forever, and until I hang the cleats up and I have a gold jacket, it’s impossible for me to have accomplished what he’s accomplished, and to say that I’ve had the career that he’s had. So it doesn’t do anybody any good to compare me to him at this point. I’m running my own race.’”
Marvin isn’t the only one repping the family name on the football field. His younger brother, Jett, just began his freshman year of high school at the Prep, and he’s already making waves on the varsity football team. Six games into the Prep’s season, Jett’s 381 receiving yards leads the team.
“The twitch is there, the explosiveness is there,” Morrison said about Jett. “I don’t think either one of them will lie to you, Jett catches the ball a little bit better than Marvin Jr. did at this age. But it’s not like Marvin struggles to catch the ball.
“The Prep pass offense is very expansive, very vast. Truthfully, there’s more in there than what I have at Rowan right now, at the college level. It’s a lot to put on a 14 or 15-year-old’s plate, to expect that he’s going to be able to pick everything up and perform at a high level early. Nothing that he’s doing right now is surprising to me, and I really do think the sky’s the limit.”
The Prep wide receivers also have the unique benefit of learning directly from Marvin Harrison Sr., a 13-year NFL veteran who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016. Through his sons’ involvement in the program, Harrison Sr. has become more and more of a presence at the Hawks’ practices. While he’s not listed as a coach, that is the role he fills.
“When Marvin (Jr.) first transferred to us, (Marvin Sr.) trusted that Marvin was going to be coached hard and coached well and held to a high standard, and he was still going to be able to be involved, even if he wasn’t at every practice, through film study and stuff like that,” Morrison said. “Now that Jett’s at the Prep, I think Marvin Sr.’s made a point to be around a little bit more. But even before Jett was with us, he started coming to practice a little bit more often and helping the receivers and giving words of advice and just helping coach.”
Over three seasons at the Prep, Harrison Jr. amassed 124 catches for 2,370 yards and 32 touchdowns. As one of the team’s leaders, he was instrumental in helping the Prep capture three consecutive state championships from 2018 to 2020.
Marvin Harrison Jr. runs with the ball in an eventual St. Joseph’s Prep 47-7 win over Father Judge in 2019. (Photo courtesy of St. Joseph’s Prep)
While the Prep’s out-of-conference schedule is notoriously rigorous – this year the Hawks faced nationally ranked St. Edward (Ohio) and Our Lady of Good Counsel (Maryland) – their in-conference play within the Philadelphia Catholic League is just as intense, if not more so. The storied interleague rivalries, which date back more than a century to the league’s conception in 1920, run deep and fierce. Playing that kind of schedule against that level of competition prepared Harrison for his next steps.
“We have great competition, and we try to make practice very competitive. He was going up against some Division I-level corners and safeties, guys within our own program and throughout either our non-league schedule or our regular season or postseason,” Roken said. “The amount of football, and the amount of reps, and the amount of time going against great competition in Pennsylvania and within our own program, I think that … prepared him for a place like Ohio State.”
Ohio State co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline thinks so, too.
“Back in the day, (Harrison will) tell you, he was very talented, but there were so many things to work on, you know what I mean? And I could get that information from him even in high school,” Hartline said. “He was never satisfied. He’d have some drops, and he didn’t like that, and so he’d work to never have those drops. Yeah, Marv was a very, very, very high upside guy.”
Harrison took the high standard he had set for himself at the Prep and raised the bar even higher at Ohio State. He had no choice, considering the company he kept. In 2021, he entered a wide receiver room that featured future NFL first-round draft picks Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
“Those guys did a great job. They reset the standard then, but then Marv just took it to a whole other level, and it still kind of lingers to this day,” Hartline said.
Harrison set himself apart from the other elite wide receivers at Ohio State through his commitment to mastering the mental aspect of the game. His remarkable work ethic carried over from high school into college; Roken joked that from what he’d heard, Ohio State would probably name a JUGS Machine after Harrison at some point, and Hartline wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment.
His intense preparation, both physically and mentally, paid – and continues to pay – massive dividends for Harrison on the field. He chose not to rely solely on skill, although he certainly has more than enough skill. Instead, he devoted himself to learning how to exploit the game (and defensive backs) to his advantage.
Harrison’s Week 2 performance against the Los Angeles Rams is a prime example. After the Buffalo Bills limited him to just one catch and four yards in Week 1, he took the lessons and bounced back in a big way. In just the first quarter against the Rams, he hauled in four catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns. He pulled in contested catches, scored a masterful toe-drag touchdown and ran circles around the Rams’ defensive backs. In total, Harrison has 17 catches for 279 yards and four touchdowns this season.
“Marvin’s like an artist when it comes to manipulations of DBs, right? He really bought into the mind game he played with DBs,” Hartline said.
“DBs try to read receivers, and we want to dictate what they do, and if they don’t do it, then our body language wasn’t right. That’s the mindset that we have, and he embodied that. He always wanted to know why that worked, why it didn’t work on a certain DB. I think the mental makeup like that, coupled with the work ethic, just set him apart and elevated him past the other guys.”
As a coach, seeing a player go on to succeed is what it’s all about. Roken has a good amount of experience in that department. Recent Prep graduates currently in the NFL include Harrison, Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift, Washington Commanders wide receiver Olamide Zacchaeus, and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
Being “the passenger in the car ride with them,” as he puts it, has been special for Roken, but it’s bigger than football for him.
“The Prep is a special place, and I’m sure Marvin would tell you that. A lot of these guys look back on their experiences, both in the community, in the classroom, as well as on the football field and their teammates. Not many of them will tell you the scores in certain games, but they’ll remember the relationships that they built and the lifelong lessons that they carry with them,” Roken said.
“(I’m) proud of those guys that not only achieved their dreams of getting to the NFL, and the guys playing at a high level or anywhere in college, but also the guys that have taken those same life lessons that we’ve been able to develop through the great game of football to go on and be great fathers, and great husbands, and great leaders of our country, and being doctors and lawyers and businessmen throughout the country.”
For Hartline, who played seven seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns from 2009 to 2015, his goal is to help his players achieve and eventually surpass the success he experienced in his career.
Marvin Harrison Jr. poses for a portrait at St. Joseph’s Prep. (Photo courtesy of St. Joseph’s Prep)
“It’s so satisfying to see these guys reach their dreams,” Hartline said. “It’s so satisfying to help them chase it week in and week out, and then to be in a green room, or to be at a game, and watch these guys after the fact. It’s hard to put into words.”
All coaches take pride in how their players live their lives off the field as well, and Harrison is no exception. By all accounts, his reputation outside of the game is just as pristine as his on-field pedigree.
“He’s just a fantastic young man,” Morrison said. “He was raised the right way. His parents did a great job making sure that he’s extremely respectful, he’s professional, he’s not going to have any off-the-field issues. He’s just such a tremendous person, and he cares so deeply about winning.”
As far as winning is concerned, Harrison certainly attended the right schools. Historically speaking, Ohio State and St. Joe’s Prep are both decorated powerhouses. The Buckeyes are eight-time national champions, and the Hawks have won eight PIAA 6A State Championships in the last 11 years.
Now, for the first time, Harrison is playing for a team he didn’t choose. He dons a red and white jersey and takes the field every Sunday for an organization that has never even sniffed that level of success. The Cardinals famously own the longest active championship drought in North American sports, which currently sits at 77 seasons and counting. Cardinals fans hope that Harrison can continue his winning tradition in the Valley. Maybe he’ll even lift the Lombardi Trophy, which has eluded the Cardinals since they moved to Arizona in 1988.
The prevailing message his former coaches want to send to Cardinals fans, though, is that Harrison is hardwired to bring a team to that promised land, even if it’s through sheer force of will.
“(He’s) just a true professional. He’s going to be a young man that’s going to invest in the community,” Roken said. “He’s going to show up every day. He’s going to be the first one in there on the JUGS Machine. He’s going to be the last one to leave, probably, on the JUGS Machine. He’s a student of the game … just a true professional in how he’s going to carry himself each and every single day, both on and off the field.”
Hartline said that beyond Harrison’s eye-popping numbers on the field, he is “a person that you really want to root for.”
“You hope the person is as great as the stats. And I can assure you that the person is much better than the stats. And the stats will continue to grow. He did the epitome of college football and won the Biletnikoff (Award), but he’s still a better person than that,” Hartline said. “If you like Marvin for the stats, that’s excellent. But he’s a really, really, really easy person to root for because of the person he is. And you guys are blessed to have him.”
Even as he’s still finding his footing, Harrison is already finding success in the NFL; after six weeks, he leads all rookie wide receivers with four receiving touchdowns. He is built for success, and if he can’t find it, he will make it happen. It’s in his blood, after all.
“He’s only scratching the surface. Like, if you’re excited now, just hold on to your seat, because he’s spectacular in more ways than one, and he’s wired in all the ways you need to be wired to be great,” Morrison said.
“So as long as the Cardinals don’t mess it up and ship him off somewhere at some point in his career, he’s going to be making people wearing red and white happy for a long, long time.”