Cade Harris has grown accustomed to going unnoticed.

Air Force was his only offer as a recruit. And even as he’s developed into a dependable contributor for the Falcons, the 5-foot-8, 185-pound senior flows so anonymously around the academy and Colorado Springs that it has drawn laughs among the slot receivers.

“Coach (Jake) Campbell in our meeting room jokes about it all the time,” Harris said of his position coach, a former standout in the program. “He said back in the day he used to go out and people would recognize him left and right. So he asked me and I said, ‘No, actually I do not get recognized anywhere.’”

That is rapidly changing, most notably with the announcement Wednesday that the committee behind the Biletnikoff Award announced it would be keeping an eye on Harris as part of the award’s official watch list – a rarity for a program that runs an option-based offense and hasn’t produced a 1,000-yard season from a receiver since 1970.

The recognition comes as Harris ranks second in the nation in all-purpose yards per game (170), fourth in receiving yards per game (109.9), and fourth in yards per catch (27.44). This goes with his 176 rushing yards and 6.3 career yards-per-carry average that have him tied for 10^th in Air Force history, a few spots behind Campbell (6.6).

Harris and the Falcons (1-3) travel to Navy (4-0) on Saturday for a 10 a.m. MT game nationally broadcast on CBS.

Harris’ pace has him in line for the second-most prolific season for an Air Force ball carrier in terms of yards per scrimmage and all-purpose yards, trailing only Chad Hall’s 2007 season that made him a Heisman Trophy candidate.

But with all the eyeballs on him – at least while he’s wearing Air Force’s No. 21 – that pace figures to grow more difficult to maintain.

“I’ve noticed that the past few games where I run at they’re kind of pointing me out, trying to locate where I’m going to be,” Harris said of the attention he’s garnering from defenses. “But I think we can use that to our advantage, maybe set up some things that they’re going to expect, maybe they’re not. I trust our offensive staff and our coaches. They always have a good game plan and they’re going to put us in the right spots to be successful.”

Coach Troy Calhoun was also at the helm during the 2007 season when Hall amassed 2,002 yards from scrimmage. He understands opponents will make adjustments if Harris’ production continues to be similar to what Hall was able to do.

“Naturally you’re going to identify, or at least try to, defensively any time there’s a player that’s pretty well involved,” Calhoun said. “Boy, if the Patriots are playing the Rams in the Super Bowl and Marshall Faulk, I bet the Patriots coaches are going to go say, ‘No 28,’ in preparing for that Super Bowl.”

Harris believes any focus given to him will open opportunities for other players. The Falcons are thriving offensively, averaging 37.8 points with the No. 7 rushing attack nationally and the second-ranked passing offense as measured by efficiency.

In the receiving game, Quin Smith has nine catches for 260 yards and three touchdowns, tight end Bruin Fleischmann has six catches and two touchdowns and fullback Liam Carson has rushed for 224 yards. Orchestrating this has been quarterback Liam Szarka, the breakout sophomore who has passed for 638 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 296 yards and four scores.

Even with all this going on, Harris has risen to the top of the pack in his fifth year in the program.

But will this draw any additional attention to Harris? After all, he readily admits he doesn’t “look like your typical college football player” and rarely wears Air Force gear that would make anyone suspect he was part of the team.

He wouldn’t be opposed to reversing his long-standing trend of being overlooked.

“It would be cool,” he said. “I’d like to think it wouldn’t affect my mindset. Each and every day I try to be me, not someone I’m not. I would hope that whatever may come I can still be the same person I am today as I was yesterday or moving forward, just treat each and every day as an opportunity to get better.”

Yard work

Cade Harris is on pace for 1,845 yards from scrimmage (1,317 rushing/528 rushing) this season, which would place him second in a single season in Air Force history.

Player  Year      Yards   Rush/Rec.

Chad Hall         2007    2,002   1,478/524

Brad Roberts  2022    1,737   1,728/9

Brian Bream    1970    1,513   1,276/237

Brad Roberts  2021    1,356   1,356/0

Ernie Jennings  1970    1,313   24/1,289