After spending five years at UCF, RJ Harvey is unfortunately out of college football eligibility and is moving onto the NFL as long as a team takes him, which ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. believes will definitely happen.
Harvey right now is ranked No. 7 on Mel Kiper's running backs list and is projected as a third-day draft guy, maybe even an undrafted free agent. However, Kiper says that teams should be looking at Harvey as a player who can help them offensively as soon as next season.
"RJ Harvey is a kid compact, low base, strong runner, explosive runner, can catch the ball out of the back, and got better in terms of ball security as his career went along," Kiper said on his First Draft show.
Harvey really broke out in 2023 and 2024 with over 1,400 rushing yards in both seasons, with at least 15 rushing touchdowns in both seasons as well. In 2023, Harvey had 1,416 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns and added 238 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns to his season stat line. In 2024, Harvey was the true workhorse for a struggling UCF offense that went through four different quarterbacks throughout the season.
Harvey finished his 2024 campaign with 1,577 rushing yards, which ranked sixth in college football, 22 rushing touchdowns, which ranked fourth in college football, 267 receiving yards, and three receiving touchdowns.
Harvey was getting 25 to 28 carries a game for UCF as he was just a dynamic back who could break tackles and turn on the jets in the second level. No team this season held Harvey below 4.7 yards per carry in 2024 and he had a run of over 20 yards in nine of 12 games this season.
"He's a proven entity at running back, he is a workhorse who can do everything you want him to do," Kiper said. "He's got that running style I like; he attacks the line of scrimmage, and he hit the homerun, so I am an RJ Harvey fan, probably an early Day 3 guy, but he's gonna be a running back that plays in the NFL for awhile, helps a team as a rookie in 2025."
UCF fans certainly know the explosive ability of Harvey as they have seen it for years now. Harvey has been up in Mobile, Alabama, for the last few days preparing for the Reese's Senior Bowl and is impressing NFL executives and scouts just like he impressed every single UCF fan who ever saw him run the football.