Charles Harris first stepped onto the football field not to join a team but to defy it.

Basketball was his real love, and he poured everything into it. That meant autumns were spent running cross-country, rather than suiting up in pads and a helmet, so he would be in peak condition for the start of the hoops season. That's the way it was until his junior year at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, a magnet school in Kansas City, Missouri. Then one day, a friend who happened to be the football team's manager asked Harris to accompany her to the coach's office.

"And I was like, 'Yeah, for sure,'" recalled Harris, the quick-footed Missouri defensive end who is projected to be a first-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft, in a conversation with ESPN. "So I went to his classroom with her, and I didn't know the whole team was in there. And [Coach Lee Allen] was like, 'Why are you in here?' ... And I said, 'I'm in here with her. That's my friend.' And he said, 'Aw, man, I thought you were here to play football.' And then someone on the team was like, 'Nah, he's too scared.' And the room started laughing. I walked out of the room, and my pride was just hurt. I felt embarrassed. Through that embarrassment, I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to go out for football.' And the next day, I was out there running and doing everything that they did."

Before long, he was doing it better. He was named league defensive MVP as a senior after recording 12 sacks, 60 tackles and a pair of forced fumbles. Still, he was a relative unknown. The Kansas City Star referred to him as a prospect who was "generating zero buzz on national signing day" and noted that he didn't have a Rivals.com profile. But the Missouri coaches took a flier on Harris after getting a look at him up close, and Harris jumped at the offer.

Charles Harris didn't join the football team until his junior year of high school, but a standout career at Mizzou has him on the verge of an NFL payday. AP Photo/L.G. Patterson

Fast-forward just a few years later, and he is holding a lottery ticket as one of the most sought-after pass-rushers in the draft.

"It's not that crazy to me because I feel like I've worked ... people don't know the hours I've put in to be great," he said. "The things that are coming are coming to fruition based on how much work I've put in, so it's not that surprising to me as it is for somebody looking in from the outside."

Harris (6-foot-3, 253 pounds) burst onto the scene as a sophomore at Mizzou while operating in an attack 4-3 scheme that asked him to "get upfield and create havoc off instincts." He used a quick first step and a wicked spin move to rack up seven sacks, 18.5 tackles for a loss and two forced fumbles. He credits his basketball background for his signature pass-rushing technique.

"The spin move comes from basketball," said Harris, who played mostly power forward and center en route to all-league and player-of-the-year honors as a junior in high school. "That was my favorite move playing ball. I remember one day, I was on a fast break, and somebody was coming up behind me -- he was trying to block me from behind -- and I stopped on a dime, spinned behind him and jumped into the air, and everybody was like, 'Wow, where did that come from?' Definitely came from basketball."

This past season, Harris was asked to "read and react" more as part of the change in defensive philosophy. While his sack total climbed from seven to nine, the approach was still a bit of an awkward fit for his skill set.

"I feel like I'm better-suited for just getting upfield, and that's where most of my production came from my sophomore year," he said.

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The Philadelphia Eagles, under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, run a scheme that asks their defensive linemen to do just that. Per Harris, the Eagles worked him out in Columbia a little while back. That was led by defensive line coach Chris Wilson, who briefly held a position as Missouri's defensive line coach before he left for Philadelphia last offseason.

"That was just a great workout," Harris said. "I was working out with him and talking to him and him just telling me how he wish[ed] he would have been able to coach me and how he feels like he really wants to coach me at the next level and stuff like that."

The Eagles are due to draft 14th overall. Most mocks have Harris going in the second half of the first round, though Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman has noted that in the past, pass-rushers tend to go off the board quickly.

Still new to the game, Harris believes he has "barely even scratched the surface of my potential" and just needs "that coach and that program to help me flourish."

"If I'm picked sixth or I'm picked 29, it doesn't matter," he said. "I'm going to maximize whatever investment that team makes on me."