Advertisement

Why USC track coach Curtis Frye deems 2-sport athlete Nyckoles Harbor ‘generational’

Nyckoles Harbor joins South Carolina as the first five-star football recruit Shane Beamer has landed with the Gamecocks. But as a track athlete, Harbor might be equally as — if not more — impressive.

Let long-time USC track and field coach Curtis Frye tell it: He’s “generational.”

Frye brought up legendary track athletes like Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis and Marion Jones he described as “gifted” when speaking Wednesday about Harbor.

“It took 30 years between Bolt and Carl Lewis,” Frye said. “It didn’t take 30 years to see this guy.”

Frye entered his 27th year at South Carolina this season, having coached 500 NCAA All-Americans. He’s had 122 SEC champions and 60 NCAA champions in his tenure with the Gamecocks. He’s coached 28 Olympic athletes.

Fyre likes the conditioning Harbor will have since he’s playing both track and football. He said there’s always a “benefit” to doing both and that Harbor won’t get tired as easily because of the training he’d be asked to do as a football player.

Harbor told The State that he was looking to trim some pounds off his weight in efforts to play wide receiver. USC listed him at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. At his current frame, it doesn’t take him as many strides as it takes other athletes when sprinting.

Frye cited the 40-yard dashes football players do as useful acceleration practice, and it’s helpful that they run them with a degree of fatigue.

“That means I can run him a lot more (100 meters) without him getting hurt because he won’t be tired,” Frye said. “Football can run him a lot more routes in practice and he won’t be tired. The quarterback gets tired before he gets tired.”

Harbor looked at college programs for both football and track when making his commitment decision, and he ultimately sided with USC. Along with Beamer’s staff, Frye kept communication with Harbor as well.

Beamer credited the role Frye and his staff played in helping the Gamecocks land Harbor.

“Nyck was not choosing a school unless he had a track program and a football program and an academic institution that could allow him the opportunity to accomplish all of his goals, and he certainly feels that way about us,” Beamer said.

Frye said Harbor is knowledgeable about track as a whole, inquiring about the best athletes the USC program currently has and showing an understanding of what Frye’s accomplished as a coach.

“This guy’s a bright guy,” Frye said.

Harbor ran in the 55-meter, 60-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter and 300-meter events in high school.

He went viral for his 20.79-second 200-meter time last month — the fourth-best mark of all-time by a high schooler, according to Flo Track.

Harbor has Olympic potential as a runner. If he lives up to his billing, there’s also NFL potential in football. Beamer and Frye will both get a top-flight athlete for their programs — and like he did throughout high school, Harbor will navigate both worlds at USC.

“I want to make sure that we maximize his abilities as a football player, but we also maximize his abilities as a track athlete,” Beamer said, “for our program and our country in so many ways.

“We’ll sit down and map it out as well, but it won’t be an issue.”