CHAPEL HILL – Josh Harris is a defensive tackle for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He is also married and has two children, with another on the way. ‘

He’s a grown man still playing a college game, and he thinks it gives him perspective unique to a college football player. And he loves it.

Harris is also thoroughly enjoying his one year at UNC. Granted a sixth year because he redshirted one season at NC State and also got the Covid year back, Harris is concluding his college career 28 miles from where he started it.

A Wolfpack defensive lineman for four years, he then spent last season at Ole Miss, and as a college graduate, The Roxboro native is back in his home state playing for the Tar Heels.

Harris brings experience, maturity, a needed loud voice in the defensive line room, and at 338 pounds, is a load in the middle whom teammates say “eats blockers.”

At 6-foot-4, Harris weighed 350 when he arrived at UNC in June but has dropped 12 pounds. He met with a few members of the media following practice Friday to discuss his early influence on Carolina defensive front, and about being married with children, and how that helps him on the football field.

Above is the video of our Q&A session with Harris, and below are some notes and a few quotes from what he had to say:

*2023 season: 136 snaps; 13 tackles; 4 hurries; 6 STOPs, and a PFF grade of 54.8.

*College career: 542 snaps; 62 tackles; 4.5 TFLs; 1 sack; 14 hurries; 2 missed tackles; and 19 STOPs.

*Last season at Ole Miss, 94 of Harris’ snaps came in a stretch spanning games against Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, and Georgia. He played 26 snaps in a loss at UGA.

*Having a chance to be coached by Ted Monachino is one of the reasons Harris chose UNC when he was in the transfer portal in the spring. Monachino’s history coaching some NFL stars and reputation as a teacher are outstanding, and Harris is thrilled to be working under him.

“It’s been an honor to be able to work with those kinds of guys that he’s worked with, and the experience he has. So, for me to be able to take that all in for my last year of college ball, it’s been great.”

*One of the surprising developments of fall camp has been how quickly Harris ascended to a leadership role on Carolina’s defensive line considering he arrived in June and not long ago played four UNC’s most hated rivals on the gridiron.

“I felt like it was a role that weas bestowed upon me. When I first got here, they all said, ‘we need a leader and we see you as a leader.’ So, I felt like me coming already playing college ball for five years, having two kids (and) another one on the way a lot of people don’t know about yet, so I figured I’d get that out there.

“That’s another reason I decided to come back home… It was a role that I felt like that was needed in that position. So, as a defense with me being a big guy, a lot of guys respect me.”

*His teammates gravitated to him pretty quickly.

“For sure. I don’t know if y’all noticed, but I’m loud. Like at practice, I got this little slogan like, ‘we getting better.’ So, any time I beat anybody in a rep or anything like that, I’m yelling that.”

*Some of the Tar Heels call him “Unc,” short for uncle. Some even joke that he’s “Pops.”

*Harris clearly loves talking about his wife (Taylor) and kids (Joshua Jr. and Ayla June). He has two, a girl and boy, and his third child is due in November. He started dating his wife when he was a sophomore at Person High School in Roxboro, NC. He said she was trolling him, which is how they met, and the “rest ius history.”

While the team was in the hotel for fall camp, Harris couldn’t go home to see his family, but the coaching staff allowed his wife to bring the kids to the team hotel a few times.

“I was blessed enough to have my own room, so they would come and see me and I was able to see my kids, my wife would bring them. Like I said in the last interview, having a great wife is what makes it all work. She makes it work, and I’m able to come here and not have that in the back of my head, ‘what’s going on with my kids?’ I know that they’re taken care of.”

*Harris believes having a family and being a father helps him on the football field. It provides perspective, and that’s something not always the case with college athletes.

“I would say it gives me more of a purpose to what I’m doing. Because I’m out here, and when I get tired and when I’m thinking that I can’t just think that I don’t have nobody to provide for, I’ve got somebody I’ve got to provide for. I’m not just doing this for me.

“Now that I have two kids, and a wife, and another one (kid) on the way, I feel like I’ve got to get this, you know?”