
Former San Francisco 49er Eli Harold began his first year at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2012 in the Gooch Dillard suites, like many first years. Unlike many first years, he had committed to UVA as the number one ranked football player in the state of Virginia. His time as a Cavalier did not disappoint. He would start in all twelve of UVA’s football games that year. He was so good that, despite a rough patch in UVA’s football program, Harold had NFL teams calling his third year. Harold would forgo his senior season and enter the NFL draft in 2015. During his time as a Cavalier, Harold made 141 tackles, 17.5 sacks, and two interceptions. What was the highlight of his illustrious career in Hooville? A game against BYU in his second year. “[It was] my coming out party… I kind of cemented my name in UVA’s history of great pass rushers that game.” Harold was “19 at the time,” the guy he was lining up across from: “he was 22 years old.” Harold remembered thinking that he was lined up across from a full-grown man. That did not stop him. He went off for 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles. “We won, we stormed the field, it was raining. I stretched my arms out and put my head to the sky and I was falling and someone took a picture.”
Harold was taken 79th overall in 2015 by the San Francisco 49ers. He overcame lots of adversity during his time at UVA, dealing with the loss of his parents, which prepared him well for the transition from college to the NFL. “Going through so much in my adolescence… I would always just go back to the things that hurt me so badly compared to whatever I was going through in that moment.” When he made that comparison, what he went through “always trumped [what he was facing].” While in San Francisco, he faced a lot of coaching turnover. He played under two defensive coordinators at UVA, but it was a whole different animal to play three seasons under three separate head coaches. “That’s a lot of philosophy.” He compared learning a new scheme to building a house and a coaching change to watching that house burn down to rebuild again.
During his final year with the Niners, Eli Harold played under coach Kyle Shanahan, who still coaches the Niners today. Even though he would get traded before the 2018 season, two years before the previous meeting of the Chiefs and Niners in the Super Bowl, he had nothing but good things to say about Shanahan. “He has to be the brightest person I’ve ever been around, that dude is a walking football encyclopedia.” Shanahan, the son of the legendary coach Mike Shanahan, has effected a dramatic change in the 49ers organization, taking them from the worst team in the NFC West to the best team in the NFC. “Kyle Shanahan is amazing [and] he’s a fantastic guy,” Harold said, “he’s a good coach.” Harold even went further in his praise of Shanahan: “I ain’t got nothing bad to say about him and he traded my ass to Detroit.”
When asked who he was rooting for in last week’s NFC Championship Game matchup featuring two of his former teams, Harold answered in under a second: the 49ers. Harold did not like his season in Detroit. Despite great fans and players, coach Matt Patricia was a serious downgrade from Shanahan. “He ain’t letting us be men.” Patricia would end up getting fired by the Lions after an unsuccessful career as a head coach in 2020 and now works as the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Harold believes that Super Bowl LVIII will end differently than Super Bowl LIV, where the Chiefs beat the 49ers 31-20. While Harold thinks that the offensive side of the football will take care of business with “Christian McCaffrey leading the way,” he predicted that the 49ers defense would catch fire and “play their best game of the year on Sunday.” He made an even bolder Super Bowl prediction: “I know we’ll score a defensive touchdown.” Fans of the Niners may think that Drey Greenlaw, who had the game-sealing pick against the Packers, maybe the one to score, but Harold disagrees: “I think Nick Bosa is going to get a strip sack and it’ll be a scoop and sore.” Despite fireworks from Patrick Mahomes, Harold predicts that the 49ers will hang on to win 31-27, on the back of the scoop-and-score fumble forced by Nick Bosa.
Harold has since retired from playing football. He has become the assistant football coach at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake Virginia. He is now one of the premier defensive end, rush, and linebacker trainers in Virginia. During the summer, he uses his talents to help train the defensive ends and linebackers of the future. Harold learned a lot about being a coach during his time at UVA and in the NFL, seeing what worked well and what did not. “I knew what I wanted more in a coach.” He decided to be the type of coach that players could talk about anything. He wants to be approachable to his players and grow them into the best versions of themselves. Coach Harold had advice for aspiring football players, “No matter where you play.. scouts see you.” He also had some advice for those outside of football: “Believe in yourself.” He says that it is important to rely on your friends and family. Harold has accomplished great things as a Cavalier, NFL player, and coach. This Sunday, the Chiefs and the 49ers will compete to be winners of Super Bowl LVIII. As a 49ers fan myself, I hope his prediction is right.
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