He ranks 8th all-time in Texas high school football history with 12,532 yards, 3rd in career touchdown passes with 167, and 4th in single-season touchdown passes with 67 in 2003. He is Graham Harrell of the Ennis Lions.
Graham Harrell
High School-2001 2003:
Harrell passed for 3972 yards and 53 touchdowns in 2001. In 2002, he had 3403 yards passing, 46 touchdowns, and six INTs, and gained 1055 yards rushing and 17 TDs. He was named Class 4A All-State and Offensive Player of the Year.
And in his senior year of 2003, he passed for 4825 yards and the aforementioned 67 TDs in just 13 games. For his efforts that year, Harrel was named:
- Gatorade Texas Player of the Year
- Offensive Athlete of the Year by the Dallas Morning News
- Texas Top 100
- #7 Pro-Style QB by Rivals
- Class 4A All-State
- Class 4A Offensive Player of the Year
Harrell was 41-3 as a starting quarterback for the Lions and led an offense that averaged 53 points per game.
Some Teams Have Cowbells, Texas Tech had Air Raid Sirens
Harrell signed with Mike Leach and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He saw limited action in his first year as he was behind QB Cody Hodges on the depth chart. Hodges was a 4,000-yard passer in 2005.
The Air Raid offense utilizes four wide receivers, all running different routes: shallow crossing routes, slant routes, and deep fly routes up the sideline.
This offense creates mismatches for the defense: slower defenders trying to cover faster receivers. The fly route clears out the cornerbacks and draws the safety’s attention. This allows the speedy receivers on the crossing routes and slant routes to create plays in space.
Watching this offense on the field is like watching the Keystone Cops running around. Receivers running routes, footballs flying all over the field.
But from 2006 to 2008, Harrell was an immortal throwing the football.
Texas Tech-2006:
Harrell had a breakout season, passing for 4555 yards and 38 touchdowns, and 11 INTs (on a whopping 617 pass attempts). He completed 66.8% of his passes and had nine games over 300 yards passing:
- 342 vs SMU
- 376 vs UTEP
- 392 vs Texas A&M
- 342 vs Missouri
- 368 vs Iowa State
- 519 vs Texas
- 483 vs Baylor
- 353 vs Oklahoma State
- 445 vs Minnesota
Texas Tech-2007:
In the ’07 season, Harrell led the Big 12 and the NCAA in passing with 5705 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 14 INTs (in 713 pass attempts). He passed for over 300 yards in all 13 games that season.
He had 10 games with 400 yards or more passing, one game of over 600 yards passing (646), and two games of 300 or more passing yards. Harrell completed 71.8% of his passes.
He won the Sammy Baugh Trophy that year.
Texas Tech-2008:
Harrell led the Big 12 and the NCAA once again in passing his senior year in Lubbock. He passed for 5111 yards and 45 TDs, and only nine INTs (in 626 pass attempts). He completed 70.6% of his passes.
He posted five games of 300 yards or more passing, one game of 536 yards, and five games over 400 yards passing. He won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and finished 4th in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Graham Harrell-Coaching in College
After a very brief stint with the Green Bay Packers, Harrell coached two seasons under Mike Leach at Washington State, where the Air Raid passing offense was ranked in the Top 5 nationally.
He then coached two seasons at North Texas (2017-2018), where the Mean Green passing offense was ranked 21st in 2017 and 12th in 2018.
In 2019, USC Head Coach Clay Helton hired Harrell to be his Offensive Coordinator and he brought the Air Raid to SoCal.
As a result, the Trojans ranked 6th in passing offense in 2019 averaging 335 passing yards per game. Freshman QB Kedon Slovis directed it on the field. He had taken over the offense after JT Daniels suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1.
In 2020, USC ranked 11th in passing offense nationally, averaging 319 yards per game. Slovis passed for 300 yards in 4 of the 6 games played by the Trojans in an abbreviated PAC-12 schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tony Thomas is a freelance writer. He also writes about college football on his own site,
