Now the 6-foot-3, 345-pound Harkless is back in Lexington after transferring to UK in the offseason.
“One of the main reasons I came back was for family. I missed them,” Harkless said. “I just wanted to be closer (to home).”
He said a lot of schools reached out to him once he entered the transfer portal but “proximity to home” was important and Kentucky and Louisville were the only schools he really considered. He said he was close to Vince Marrow, UK’s former recruiting coordinator who is now at Louisville, but basically had a “whole different mindset” in high school.
“I wanted to go out and explore other places. Most every OV (official visit I took) was four plus hours (from Lexington),” he said. “I picked Purdue because of the relationship with the staff but I visited Auburn, Ole Miss. I was just trying to get as far away as possible.”
Kentucky coach Will Stein, defensive coordinator Jay Bateman and line coach Anwar Stewart had a strong selling point for Harkless to get him back home.
“They looked over my film and saw how good of a run stopper I could be. They said I could be one of the best in the nation and if you come here the scheme you get will give you a chance to get one on ones and dominate the line of scrimmage and that sold me,” the junior defensive lineman said. “Obviously coach Stewart is a great guy and the guys he got to leave (for the NFL) built like me, no other coach is really doing that.”
