Walter William Harris (born November 9, 1946) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. Harris served as the head football coach at the University of the Pacific in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

from 1989 to 1991, the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

from 1997 to 2004, and at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

from 2005 to 2006, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

record of 69–85.

Playing and coaching career

Harris attended El Camino High School in

South San Francisco, California South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially known as "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. ...

. Harris received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master's degree in 1969 from the University of the Pacific, where he played

. Harris served as

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

under

Johnny Majors John Terrill Majors (May 21, 1935June 3, 2020) was an American professional football player and college coach. A standout halfback at the University of Tennessee, he was an All-American in 1956 and a two-time winner of the Southeastern Confe ...

, helping the

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

win four of five

bowl games In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I Fo ...

while there. In 1989, he became head coach at the University of the Pacific. As head coach of Pacific, his staff included future

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

head coaches

Jon Gruden Jon David Gruden (born August 17, 1963) is a former American professional football coach who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He held his first head coaching position with the Raiders franchise during thei ...

and

Hue Jackson Hue Jackson (born October 22, 1965) is an American football coach who is the head football coach at Grambling State University. An offensive assistant at both the collegiate and professional levels, he held coordinator positions in the Nationa ...

. Harris was the quarterbacks coach for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

from 1992 to 1994. A noted quarterback tutor, he helped

Boomer Esiason Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (; born April 17, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in the ...

return to form and earn a trip to the 1993

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

Pittsburgh

When Harris took over at the

in 1997, the

Pittsburgh Panthers football The Pittsburgh Panthers football program is the College athletics, intercollegiate American football, football team of the University of Pittsburgh, often referred to as "Pitt", in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Traditionally the most popular sport a ...

program was in decline. They had won just 12 games in the previous four seasons. He eventually led Pitt to five consecutive bowl games. In 1997 Harris won

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

Coach of the Year honors when he led his team to the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

, their first postseason game since 1989. Harris led the Panthers to back-to-back 7–5 seasons and bowl appearances in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, Pittsburgh finished 9-4 after beating

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

, 38–13, in the

Insight Bowl The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 through 2001, then ...

. That year, he won the American Football Coaches Foundation (AFCA) Region I Coach of the Year. The Panthers went 8–5 after losing to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in the

Continental Tire Bowl The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2002. The game currently features a matchup between a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (AC ...

in 2003. Harris coached both

Antonio Bryant Antonio Bryant (born March 9, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for University of Pittsburgh, and was recognized as an All-American and Fred Biletnikoff Award ...

and

Larry Fitzgerald Larry Darnell Fitzgerald Jr. (born August 31, 1983) is a former American football wide receiver. Fitzgerald played in the National Football League for 17 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. He played college football at University of Pittsburg ...

to the

Fred Biletnikoff Award The Fred Biletnikoff Award is presented annually to the most outstanding receiver in American college football by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc. (TQCF), an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The award was creat ...

, given to the nation's outstanding receiver at any position. In 2004, Harris led the Panthers to their first

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

(BCS) bowl game in school history, and their first major bowl appearance in 21 years. Pitt lost to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl that season. Prior to the Fiesta Bowl it was rumored that Harris had accepted a head coaching position at Stanford. After winning the Big East Coach of the Year award, Harris made it official, using his rising profile to leave Pittsburgh for Stanford.

Stanford

Harris was the head coach of the football team at

. In his first season as head coach there he posted a record of 5–6, including a 20-17 loss at home to UC Davis of the Great West Conference. In his second season as head coach the team posted a 1–11 record, the school's worst since going 0–10 in 1960. Harris was notorious for the extremely rare and bizarre decision to punt on 3rd down while trailing UCLA 7-0 on October 1, 2006 during his second season. He was fired on December 4, 2006, two days after Stanford's regular season ended. By the end of his tenure at Stanford, Harris had surpassed

Jack Curtice Jack Camp "Cactus Jack" Curtice Jr. (May 24, 1907 – August 19, 1982) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. Curtice served as the head football coach West Texas State (1940–1941), Texas Western (1946–1949), Uta ...

with the lowest winning percentage in the history of

Stanford football The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. The team is known as the Cardinal, adopted prior to the 1982 ...

, with a .261 mark.

Akron

In February 2009 he joined the

University of Akron The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified ...

coaching staff as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, but the team struggled and head coach J. D. Brookhart lost his job at the end of the year.

California (PA)

In April 2010, Harris became the offensive coordinator at California University of Pennsylvania. He was replaced after one season.

Coaching style

Harris has been viewed by some players as difficult to work with. One article about his departure from Stanford called him a "disciplinarian" and reported that a player briefly quit the team in protest of his coaching style. Harris also has a questionable history of play calling, particularly when it comes to his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh. In a controversial series of calls he had

Tyler Palko Tyler Palko (born August 9, 1983) is a former American football quarterback. Palko was the starting quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh from 2004 to 2006. The left-handed thrower was not selected in the 2007 NFL Draft, but was signed by ...

quarterback punt on third down a number of times in a 2004 game against Nebraska which the Panthers lost. Harris was also criticized after the 2003 Continental Tire Bowl for under-utilizing

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

runner-up and eventual third overall NFL draft pick

Head coaching record

References

External links

California (PA) profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Walt 1946 births Living people American football cornerbacks Air Force Falcons football coaches Akron Zips football coaches California Golden Bears football coaches California Vulcans football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Michigan State Spartans football coaches New York Jets coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Pacific Tigers football coaches Pacific Tigers football players Pittsburgh Panthers football coaches Stanford Cardinal football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches High school football coaches in California People from South San Francisco, California Coaches of American football from California Players of American football from California Sportspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area