Most Penn State fans don't remember former Nittany Lions running back Aaron Harris.

If it wasn't for a debilitating knee injury in his junior season, all Penn State fans would've remembered Harris. That's how good he was until he tore an ACL midway through the 1998 season.

After that point, a promising career that by all means indicated he would become the next in a great line of Penn State tailbacks, fizzled and Harris pretty much became a role player.

Eerily, his little brother Arlen has taken a similar path at Virginia.

The younger Harris was a highly touted back out of Downington H.S. in eastern Pennsylvania who accounted for 6,364 yards from scrimmage and 68 touchdowns in his scholastic career, which ended in 1997.

With stats like that, it wasn't surprising that Arlen was receiving notice from almost every top-notch program in the nation, including Penn State.

But by this point, big brother was already making a name for himself in Happy Valley. Arlen wanted to stake his own claim to fame.

"Penn State pursued me very hard," the younger Harris said. "They want to get the top players in state. But I definitely wanted to go a different route and check out some other schools."

In addition, the Penn State offense was more geared to a big, bullish back, much like Aaron was. However, Arlen was more of a slasher that relied on his quickness and speed.

"I didn't think that particular offense was the best to suit my abilities," Arlen said. "The ACC uses their backs in a lot of different ways than the Big Ten does as far as banging the ball in between the tackles. We do that when we have to but I line up as receiver sometimes."

That's why Arlen chose Virginia and essentially, that's where the brothers' paths first began to parallel.

When Aaron arrived at Penn State, he knew his time was going to be limited because of the presence of Curtis Enis in the Lions' backfield. Likewise, Arlen was going to have to watch and learn from All-American Thomas Jones, who went on to be a first-round draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals.

But what made the Harris' situation slightly different was that an equally talented recruit was brought to Charlottesville two years before Arlen headed south while Aaron appeared to be the clear-cut favorite to replace Enis once the hulking tailback

was done with his career in Happy Valley.

After Jones departed at the end of the 1999 season, Arlen had to fight it out with Virginia high school legend, Antoine Womack, for the Cavaliers' top spot at tailback.

Thus, the battle for Jones' replacement began. And while the fight for the position remained nip and tuck throughout, Welsh named Harris the starter for the 2000 season.

And from the get-go, it appeared Welsh made the right decision as Harris bolted for a 28-yard touchdown on the Cavaliers season opening drive against Brigham Young.

Harris continued to dominate the game until early in the second quarter when a horde of Cougar defenders tackled the Cavaliers' tailback -- some Virginia followers swear it was a late hit -- near the sideline. Harris got up but had a noticeable limp.

He played sparingly throughout the rest of the game. What's worse was that the injury wasn't a twisted or sprained knee.

It was a torn meniscus, which required surgery and kept him out of eight other contests.

"It was tough because when I came in, I was redshirted and played behind one of the best backs in the country," Harris said. "Then I won the starting job only to wind up getting hurt."

But what was even more painful to Harris was the fact that Womack wound up being the ACC's leading rusher.

So the duo's roles reversed. Coming into this season, Harris was the backup and Womack was the starter. But in an eerie twist of fate, Womack went down in the Cavaliers' season opener against Wisconsin and Harris was been called upon again to be Virginia's main man.

And for a while, all was well with Harris as he became the Cavaliers leading rusher through the Wahoos' half of the season.

But unfortunately, Arlen was bitten by the injury bug again. During the Cavaliers game with Florida State, Harris came up gimpy with a bum hamstring and since then he really hasn't climbed back into Virginia's tailback rotation.

Now he only has one year remaining to make a name for himself. And he's hoping he doesn't come across the same bad luck that his brother faced after his bout with injuries.

But Aaron thinks Arlen has the mindset that's necessary to bounce back from such adversity. He saw it in him since the days when they played together at Downingtown.

"When he came up to play in high school, I was on the starting defense and he was running on the scout team offense," Aaron said. "I tried to hit him as hard as I could on every play. People were asking me if I didn't like him. But I told him that you have to play against the big boys if you want to get better. He had to take his licks and become a man."