8/24/03

Two-Minute Drill: Rufus Harris

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What do you like to do when you're away from the field?
"I like to watch TV. Some people put it as a hobby, but I would consider it a sport the way I watch TV. I'm easily amused, so I'll watch pretty much anything - VH-1, Discovery Channel, PBS - all that good stuff. I'm a video game fanatic, too, and I hang out with E-Hall (Eric Hall), my suitemate. There's never a dull moment with E-Hall around."

What are your favorite shows?
"King of the Hill" and VH-1, it's underrated. They should get more credit than MTV. MTV is music television, but there's no music on there. With "Behind the Music" you get to see how the strings work, I like to see how things work. And E! (Entertainment Television), they cancelled the "Anna Nicole Show," and that broke my heart. I love that show. It was really funny and some comic relief."

Do you have a favorite episode of "Behind the Music?"
"Honestly, I really don't. There was Eminem's, and Metallica was on there. I didn't know who Metallica was until then."

You watch VH-1 a lot, what kind of music do you watch or listen to?
"If it has a nice beat, I'm going to listen to it. If it has a nice beat, a nice melody, I'm going get my head bobbing. My favorite is Sugar Ray. I heard one of the guys was from Texas, and I heard in one of the videos they did a guy was wearing a Texas shirt."

If you were going to be as good at anything as you are at football, what would it be?
"Cooking, staying off campus by myself during the summer, I burned pancakes and anything else imaginable. Food you couldn't even burn, I burned it. I'm one of the guys that can't boil water. I can microwave some stuff, popcorn, and hot pockets, until you get them too hot and they burn the roof of your mouth. That's horrible."

What is your favorite food?
"I can put cheese on anything and it will be my favorite food. I think cheese is an accessory, but it should be a food. Cheese on top of broccoli, cheese nachos, nachos wouldn't be nachos without cheese. They'd just be chips. Cheese with anything."

Who are you closest with on the team?
"We have a great family atmosphere here and I try to get to know all of my teammates, but honestly, Sloan (Thomas). That's kind of ironic because of the scrimmage. That little scuffle, that was more of a brotherly fight, but everything aside, we're still cool. "

You made a great stop on a 4th and 1 play at the last scrimmage, describe that.
"Basically, I was just trying to save face right there. I was trying to redeem myself. I got embarrassed a few plays earlier, so I had to redeem myself. I was just trying to make a play and the opportunity arose, so I took a chance and made the play."

What's something unique that you've done?
"I tried boxing in the off-season. I was boxing back home in Houston at a local gym. You watch it on TV, and they're throwing punches, and you think, 'I can do that too.' The shadow boxing stuff, I was like, 'That looks easy, I can be Roy Jones, Jr., easily, because I play football. I bench 300-something pounds.' So I go in the ring, I mess around, we're throwing air punches and fighting air. I'm doing pretty good, I'm pumped up, I have a lot of confidence under me. We started sparing, and I was pretty good at that, too. I got to my first belt, and I got the snot beat out of me. It was not fun. I think the guy was smaller than me, too. That was kind of embarrassing, because the dude was about 5-8 or 5-9."

How long did you box?
"About two and a half weeks, it was not fun. I got a crash course in boxing and I got my face crashed on."

Have you ever talked to Garnet (Smith) about boxing?
"Yes, I commend him, because he has Golden Gloves or something like that. He has my utmost respect, because I really didn't respect boxers up until that point where I actually did it. That's one guy I won't mess with. I will never throw a punch at Garnet. Never."

Do you have any nicknames?
"Ruru is the one that has stuck. The off-season of my freshman year, somebody said Ruru one time and it stuck, everybody just started using it."