Shadarian “Dripp” Harrison has come a long way from his days of winning a state championship in high school. His journey at Pitt hasn’t been even close to what he expected. He utilized a redshirt freshman year and then spent a majority of his second year dealing with injuries.
But you would’ve thought he hadn’t missed a snap with how he played in the Panthers’ spring game at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday.
Harrison picked off the literal second snap of the day. Talk about starting with a bang.
There was no hesitation as he snagged Eli Holstein’s pass. It was early so it wasn’t necessarily game changing in the moment, but the significance was two-fold. 1.) It started the blue team off with some momentum that carried them to a 17-14 win. 2.) These were some of Harrison’s first in-game snaps at cornerback since coming back from injury.
“The most impressive thing about him is he missed a lot of reps with the injury,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said. “But the way he fought in the off season to get better at everything. The guy must have been watching tape on his own, because he came out at spring ball and just knew what he was doing. The knowledge of just going out there and playing that position. He had a heck of a day.”
The redshirt sophomore injured his shoulder at the beginning of training camp in 2024 and had limited reps all throughout the season. When he was on the field it was often helping with special teams.
It was a hard pill to swallow. Harrison was a highly-decorated two-way player coming out of high school. He was first team All-Polk County and led Lakeland High School in Lakeland, Fla., to a 14-0 record and the Florida Class 4S championship.
He got to Pitt and spent more time standing on the sidelines than on the actual field for his first two seasons. He’s played in just eight games, totaling five tackles with a season-high two stops at Boston College on Nov. 30.
“It definitely was a setback,” Harrison said. “I would say mentally draining, just trying to get back mentally and physically. It was pretty tough two years just coming in with all the confidence in the world. …Just coming back with a positive attitude.”
Harrison had a lot of down time whether it was during his true freshman season or his limited usage as a redshirt freshman.
He found the best way to spend that time was to watch film. Of him. Of former Pitt cornerbacks. Of current plays. He simply wanted to learn.
“There's times where you go out there and I’d be puzzled by a play and have to go back to the drawing board and have to go look at it and see what I did wrong,” Harrison said. “Going back and looking at films and seeing what I did wrong definitely helps.”
All that film work he did paid off during Saturday’s scrimmage. Harrison had four total tackles against the gold team, which was just one short of tying the team-high. He read starting quarterback Holstein like a book and put himself in a good position for not just one, but two interceptions.
Holstein didn’t play particularly well all game with 17 completions on 33 attempts and the two interceptions. He also was sacked at least twice, but even Narduzzi said that doesn’t take away from Harrison’s heroics.
“It wasn't a great pass, but it was a great catch by him,” Narduzzi said. “We see DBs not making plays on the ball, Dripp has ball skills, so I'm happy for him. He really was down to his knowledge. It was just shocking. We've had other guys come back [from injury] and it's like Groundhog Day. They have to start all over again. He picked up like he had had a lot of snaps.”
Even before the game, his progress was recognized. Harrison was named the defensive recipient of the Ed Conway Award, which is presented to the most improved players of spring drills.
He’s been talked about frequently throughout spring availability by Narduzzi and many of his teammates. When it was time to walk the walk — at least during the spring season — Harrison showed up.
“It's exciting to see,” Linebackers and blue team coach Ryan Manalac said. “You have a bunch of guys getting up. One for sure, on the blue team, Dripp Harrison, made some big time plays out there, which was fun to see. We need to continue to see guys step up. I think football's greatest game in the world and gives guys an opportunity to challenge ourselves to be dominant and be champions. We got a good group of young guys to push and help us win championships.”
First Published: April 13, 2025, 8:00 a.m.
Updated: April 13, 2025, 11:30 p.m.
