South Carolina WR Nyck Harbor embraces the process as he gets more playing time

Nyckoles Harbor cannot hide on game day.

Even as he meanders the sideline, it takes all of two seconds for anyone in Williams-Brice Stadium to spot the Gamecocks’ 6-foot-5, 241-pound freshman wide receiver. He looks like LeBron James in pads. Hulking. Towering. Intimidating.

Without the protection, without the jersey, he looks like a kid. A very tall, very muscular kid. But still a kid. And, like a kid, he is growing. His face is youthful. His voice is soft. He says things like, “We could play in the ocean. We could play in the sky. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“This child, no matter how big he is, is still a child,” said Harbor’s father, Azuka.

But youth isn’t supposed to apply to people like Harbor. To five-star prospects. To 6-foot-5 teenagers. To those who can sprint 100 meters in Olympic time.

It was easy to think Harbor — 247Sports’ No. 15 prospect in the 2023 class — was going to walk onto campus and look like Alshon Jeffery. Or at least become quarterback Spencer Rattler’s favorite target. With Harbor’s stature and speed, it would be fun to think Rattler could just loft a jump ball to Harbor every play and find success.

And, perhaps, he could. We just haven’t seen it yet.

“For people to just sit there and say, ‘Oh, this guy is a five-star recruit, so just throw him out there and let him go.’ I wish it was that simple, guys,” USC coach Shane Beamer said of Harbor. “People that think that don’t always have a great understanding of what playing football is like. There’s a lot. And every offense in the country is a little bit more complex than, ‘Hey, line up on the right side and run a 12-yard curl.’”

Added Azuka Harbor: “It’s like you have a small mom-and-pop company and now you’re going to a Fortune-500 company. It’s a different situation.”

Still, Harbor’s emergence has been slower than many fans expected.

He played a handful of snaps in the opener against North Carolina. He had one catch (a seven-yard touchdown) a week later against Furman. He then went three weeks without a reception before the Florida game on Saturday. Harbor played a career-high 29 snaps against the Gators, according to Beamer, while hauling in a 45-yard rainbow from Rattler in the first half of the Gamecocks’ loss.

“(The game against) Florida was probably the cleanest game I’ve had all year. It was the most snaps I played, too,” Harbor told the media on Tuesday. “Everything is just starting to slow down.”

All season, Azuka Harbor had waited for Rattler to loft his son something he could just go snatch. When it finally came to fruition, he could hardly contain his excitement inside Williams-Brice.

“Oh my God, I was about to jump on the field,” Azuka Harbor told The State, laughing. “I was expecting him to do something. Like I said, just throw some softball to him just to get his confidence (going) then you can use him how you want to use him.”

Robert Harris, Harbor’s coach at Archbishop High School in Washington, D.C., was not naive to think his uber-talented phenom was going to get adjusted to college football in a week.

“I knew it was going to be a process for him to learn how to run routes against college defenses,” Harris said. “When you’re that type of athlete and don’t don’t see that type of athlete every weekend, you have to grow into becoming that. And you’re talking about a kid playing against what I call grown men.”

And playing against grown men requires a grown-up playbook. Fans want guys to be able to recite every play and every adjustment like first-grade flashcards, but rarely does that happen in just a few months.

Just weeks ago, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders was asked why five-star freshman cornerback Cormani McClain wasn’t getting playing time. After criticizing McClain’s lack of time spent watching film, Sanders said something interesting.

“You would be a fool to put someone out there and they’re unprepared,” Sanders said. “Can’t do it. Won’t do it. Can’t do it. I’m old school. I’m sorry.”

The point is this: Coaches need proof in practice that a youngster is ready before they start letting them see action. That takes time. And Harbor is on board with the process.

“Coach Beamer said these last two weeks have been my best weeks (of practice),” Harbor said. “And the better I get, the more I play. It just takes me knowing how to practice every day.”

Added Beamer: “I’m glad that Nyck said that. It is a process.”

The longer process also makes more sense when you know that Harbor started his high school career as a defensive lineman, before also lining up tight end later in his career. Then he got to South Carolina and moved to wide receiver. He is not just adjusting to college football, he is adjusting to a new spot, too.

“Going from the defensive to offensive side, it wasn’t going to be like (me) coming in and getting 100 yards a game,” Harbor said. “I thought that’s how I thought it was gonna be. ... I see different freshmen doing what they’re doing and then my time is coming. I’m slowly building to it.”

“Sometimes, you have to give guys time to develop,” said Harris, his high school coach. “He understands that it’s definitely a process. And he understands the process just doesn’t happen overnight.”

Azuka Harbor has always preached patience to his son.

“No matter the circumstances, if your day is going bad,” Azuka would tell his son, “be patient. That’s all I’m gonna say to you”

Azuka has sat in person at every South Carolina game this season. As you know, Harbor cannot hide on game day. So it is rather easy for his father to spot him on the sidelines, pacing from one side to the other. Azuka will just watch him — and perhaps it’s the fatherly instincts, but “I can tell what’s going on with him,” Azuka said.

“I said to him at the end of the (Florida) game, ‘You need to learn. Learn. That’s what you’re here for,’” Azuka said. “’It’s going to be difficult for you next year and stuff like that. This is your year to be able to learn a lot of stuff.’”