When Harris took over at the University of Pittsburgh in 1997, the Pittsburgh Panthers football program was in decline. They had won just 12 games in the previous four seasons. He eventually led Pitt to five consecutive bowl games. In 1997 Harris won Big East Coach of the Year honors when he led his team to the Liberty Bowl, their first postseason game since 1989. Harris led the Panthers to back-to-back 7–5 seasons and bowl appearances in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, Pittsburgh finished 9-4 after beating Oregon State, 38–13, in the Insight Bowl. That year, he won the American Football Coaches Foundation Region I Coach of the Year. The Panthers went 8–5 after losing to Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl in 2003. Harris coached both Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald to the Fred Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation's outstanding receiver at any position. In 2004, Harris led the Panthers to their first Bowl Championship Series bowl game in school history. Pitt lost to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl that season. Despite winning the Big East Coach of the Year award, Harris was pushed out of Pittsburgh. After Harris left, Pitt did not make another bowl game for three years.
Stanford
Harris was the head coach of the football team at Stanford University. In his first season as head coach there he posted a record of 5–6, including a 20-17 loss at home to UC Davis of the Great West Conference. In his second season as head coach the team posted a 1–11 record, the school's worst since going 0–10 in 1960. Harris was notorious for the extremely rare and bizarre decision to punt on 3rd down while trailing UCLA 7-0 on October 1, 2006 during his second season. He was fired on December 4, 2006, two days after Stanford's regular season ended. By the end of his tenure at Stanford, Harris had surpassed Jack Curtice with the lowest winning percentage in the history of Stanford football, with a.261 mark.
Harris has been viewed by some players as difficult to work with. One article about his departure from Stanford called him a "disciplinarian" and reported that a player briefly quit the team in protest of his coaching style. Harris also has a questionable history of play calling, particularly when it comes to his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh. In a controversial series of calls he had Tyler Palko quarterback punt on third down a number of times in a 2004 game against Nebraska which the Panthers lost. Harris was also criticized after the 2003 Continental Tire Bowl for under-utilizing Heisman Trophy runner-up and eventual third overall NFL draft pick Larry Fitzgerald.
