Marvin Harrison Jr. is a smooth route runner with a catch radius large enough to deserve an area code.

It’s why NFL evaluators see Harrison as a generational talent, a perspective that could lead him to become the highest-selected wide receiver in nearly a decade when the league’s draft begins Thursday.

But this level of buzz surrounding Harrison is a relatively new phenomenon. When he enrolled at Ohio State three years ago, he rode a smaller wave of hype.

How was Marvin Harrison Jr. ranked coming out of high school?

Harrison was hardly unheralded as a high school prospect. A four-star at St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia, he picked up scholarship offers from all the usual suspects within the Big Ten, but his ranking never befitted his potential.

None of the major recruiting websites ranked Harrison among the top 10 receivers in the nation in the recruiting class for 2021.

Those ahead of him encompassed a wide spectrum, from Oregon’s Troy Franklin and Texas’ Xavier Worthy, all-conference pass catchers who project to be taken in the draft’s second round this week, to Jayden Ballard, who backed up Harrison with the Buckeyes.

Among the sites, ESPN put Harrison as the highest at No. 13, while 247Sports left him as low as No. 21. Most evaluations were tempered.

“The Marvin that we saw at Ohio State wasn’t the Marvin that we saw in high school,” said Adam Friedman, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.

There’s no question the recruiting industry coped with unusual challenges when assessing Harrison and other prospects in his class.

COVID pandemic, Harrison Jr.'s 40-Time impacted value as WR prospect

The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 shut down camps and showcases that might have allowed Harrison to raise his profile as a prospect in the spring and summer leading into his senior year at St. Joe’s Prep.

“Because of COVID, it was hard to see how much he was developing at that stage,” Friedman said. “When we’re able to see how much players develop year over year at the high school level, it gives us an indication of, ‘Well, are they going to be able to continue to develop, or are they not going to develop?’ ”

Perhaps the biggest concern surrounding Harrison while in high school was his speed. He checked a lot of other boxes.

His 6-foot-4 length and body control allowed him to pull in an array of passes lofted in his direction. As the son of a Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver, he also understood a variety of route concepts.

But would he be fast enough to burn top-shelf defensive backs?

The question lingered in the recruiting process. Harrison posted a 4.64-second 40-yard dash at a camp as a freshman in April 2018, according to times that were verified by 247Sports, before missing out on later opportunities to reveal more of a burst.

The lack of events at a critical stage in his evaluation as a recruit allowed the issue to simmer.

“Was he going to be fast enough to be the elite kid that he turned out to be?” said Brian Dohn, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports. “At least from my perspective, that was the big question. It wasn’t that he was slow, it’s just that we were looking for that next level of speed.”

If Harrison had dropped his time in the 40-yard dash by a couple tenths of a second or ran fast in the 100-meter dash in track and field, Dohn added that “it would have changed things.”

The pandemic’s impact in 2020 extended into the fall as it shortened the season for St. Joe’s Prep.

The Hawks played half the number of games they did a year earlier and did not schedule schools outside of Pennsylvania for high-profile matchups that promised to draw more eyeballs and build fanfare.

“Without question, if we had a full slate of games his senior year, the national recognition would have been insane,” said Ryne Morrison, the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at St. Joe’s Prep.

As one of the top programs in the Northeast, the Hawks have often met other regional or national powers in televised games.

When Harrison was a junior the previous season, ESPN aired their opener at Marietta High School in Georgia, and before the pandemic, they were working to schedule Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., a program that was led at the time by Caleb Williams, the future Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Southern California and this draft’s projected No. 1 overall pick.

“We had a pretty aggressive schedule lined up,” Morrison said.

Harrison Jr.'s work ethic positions him as a top NFL Draft prospect

One factor behind Harrison outperforming his recruiting ranking should not be overlooked. It’s that he got better.

In Harrison’s three years at Ohio State, he drew as much praise for his work ethic as his spectacular catches, most evident by all the extra reps in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center catching passes from Monarc’s Seeker machine.

Brian Hartline, the Buckeyes’ co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, likens his drive to the famous relentless dedication shown by the late Kobe Bryant during his two decades in the NBA.

“Every rock was turned over and purposeful,” Hartline said.

When Hartline began recruiting Harrison as a sophomore at St. Joe’s Prep, he appreciated his physical gifts, but also valued his mental makeup.

Hartline noticed an uncommon maturity, a teenager who was deliberate when he practiced and handled conversations like a college athlete. His grasp of the intricacies to route running was advanced for a 16-year-old, a product of the years of tutelage led by his father.

“At the end of the day, you can’t predict the real outcome,” Hartline said. “That’s just silly. But you can try to scope out the relative limits of the athlete’s potential. How much can he maximize? What is his athletic ceiling? What is his mental ceiling?

“If those can line up together, that’s when you have a real chance for a great player. That’s simple math. He possessed all of that.”

The emergence of Harrison followed. He burst onto the scene at Ohio State as a freshman in 2021 when he caught three touchdown passes in a thrilling back-and-forth victory over Utah in the Rose Bowl.

In the following years, he posted consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons, a first for a Buckeyes wide receiver, and individual accolades piled up. Unanimous All-American. Biletnikoff Award winner. Heisman Trophy finalist.

His drive propelled a development that never stalled.

“It was steady and consistent,” Hartline said. “There were really good things he would do in practice. I’m not minimizing that. But the level he continued to grow every six months was excellent. It was one solid stride with another solid stride after that and so on and so forth.”

Those who have coached or evaluated Harrison in recent years have seen him develop across a range of areas.

Some point to his route running becoming more polished.

“Without a doubt, that's where he took his game to the next level at Ohio State,” Friedman said.

Hartline, a receivers coach with a reputation for the finer details of the position, undoubtedly had an influence and made an ideal pairing with Harrison and his own attentiveness to technique.

Others see Harrison as a more sure-handed pass catcher, especially in coverage that was tighter than what he faced in the Philadelphia Catholic League.

“There was not a lot of contested catches,” Morrison said. “He was always so open.”

It would be revisionist history to portray Harrison as a high school recruit who flew under the radar. He was underranked, not overlooked. If recruiting sites missed on him, it was not by much.

If anything, the episode might serve as a reminder of how difficult it can be to sort through a pool of prospects at any level.

“The NFL spends billions of dollars in scouting and what's the hit rate for the draft?” Dohn said. “If it was easy, I’m sure NFL teams would be gobbling up people who can get everything right.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch and can be reached at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 2024 NFL Draft: Marvin Harrison Jr., from underranked to top prospect