On Saturday, redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jalen Harvey will trot out onto the field with the first team offense and line up in ASU’s Pac-12 opener at Sun Devil Stadium against a program he once considered home.

Cal head coach Sonny Dykes initially recruited Harvey, an El Cerrito, Calif., native who was a 4-star recruit on Rivals and the No. 41 receiver in the 2014 class.

Harvey said he immediately fell in love with Cal. It felt like home, and that wasn’t just because the campus was five minutes from his childhood home — USC was actually his dream school growing up and he had only been to one Golden Bears game. Still, he didn’t want to go anywhere but Berkeley.

After being committed for all of his junior year and half of senior year, Harvey found out his SAT scores were not up to par with Cal’s standards.

He eventually called Dykes, filled him in on the situation and decommitted.

“It was devastating,” Harvey said. “I sat there; I told my mom that I didn’t really apply myself on taking them. Even my ACT scores, I didn’t really apply myself. I just stuck it out and I was looking at other schools.”

Harvey admitted that it was difficult to detach himself from his love for Cal. His family would have been able to attend every game. He had the opportunity to visit home whenever. It felt like a great fit.

But when he visited ASU, one moment stuck out. While the two were speaking, head coach Todd Graham looked Harvey in the eye and said this:

‘If you come here, I’m going to make you better.’

Harvey eventually committed to ASU, the only school he visited other than Cal.

“When I came here, Coach Graham was really just talking to me about being around the school environment too and how it was a family,” he said. “I just felt like I needed to be around a family, so I came here.

I’m here, so that’s all that matters. I can’t talk about what I did in the past, but I’m in the present now so I’m loving where I’m at now.”

Understandably, he said the transition was difficult. When the day came to leave for ASU, he was sad because not only had he never been away from his family for an extended period of time, but they had just welcomed his baby brother into the world.

“Being out here, you find yourself sometimes,” Harvey said. “A 17-year-old or 18-year-old going somewhere far, you kind of find yourself and start being more responsible about what you have to do.”

It seems Harvey has found himself in more ways than one as he is also a “scholar baller,” an athlete with a 3.0 GPA or above.

On the field, Saturday’s matchup holds a bit of extra weight, Harvey said. The opponent is a program he knew well. One he had spent so much time around.

But he also aims to keep his motivation balanced for the team’s sake.

“It means a whole lot because I was committed there, but at the same time, I just want to get this win with the team,” he said. “It’s kind of personal, but I’m not going to go out there with a whole lot of negative energy and be like ‘F the other team.’ I’m going to play respectfully with my team and try to get that win.”

Harvey’s journey to cracking the first team rotation has not been easy, though. After redshirting his freshman year, he was having a great fall camp until he broke his collarbone on the final day of Camp Tontozona.

Following the injury, Harvey said he remembers Graham telling him to stay focused and ready because the coach hoped to have him back in the middle of the season.

Harvey admitted that he did not believe he would have a chance to return in 2015, but he studied film and worked out his lower body while injured. When he was cleared to practice, he took it to another level — his signature moment came when he caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from former ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici.

He said last year was also difficult because he felt some coaches did not give their full effort back to the players.

This year feels much different, Harvey said.

“This year, it’s just new coaches coming in and actually taking the time to learn with the players,” he said. “Not just putting it out there and (expecting) the players to learn, even though we’re out here by ourselves to make it happen.”

He said he has also noticed an improvement in his ability to read coverages.

“Keeping your eyes alive on the signals and all that,” Harvey said. “It’s just football stuff because football is another form of school that I had to realize too. You can’t just go out there and play if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Last spring, both Graham and receivers coach Jay Norvell praised Harvey’s competitive spirit.

Norvell said nothing has changed, and noted that Harvey’s competitiveness has seemingly increased this fall.

“Jalen is just a very competitive person,” Norvell said. “He comes out every day, works really hard and he competes like it’s a game. That’s a great quality to have for a football player. He makes a real contribution on special teams and he just tries to do whatever he’s asked to do, whether it’s blocking, making plays in the passing game and just a generally very hard worker…Always comes with an edge and has something to prove every day, and those are all qualities that we look for in our kids.”

Added receiver Tim White: “(Jalen) is a great player. He’s obviously one of the most competitive guys out there, and he’s fun. He loves to compete and he just goes out there and plays football.”

White is part of a group of “big brothers” that also includes former ASU receivers Jaelen Strong and Gary Chambers, as well as current redshirt senior receiver Fred Gammage. Harvey said the group often advised him on how to improve, and he soaked it all in.

ASU is 3-0 and set for its Pac-12 slate. Harvey recalled the team’s narrow 32-28 win over UTSA and the adversity faced during the game.

He relished it because he has never had the chance to experience something like it.

“I couldn’t really be a part of that last year and the year before that because I wasn’t really playing, so I didn’t really know how it felt,” he said. “The offense didn’t give up, we were just keeping a smile on our faces and we just had to compete.”

While this season is a new experience for Harvey, his signature competitive spirit has been years in the making.

“It’s been shaped throughout my whole life,” he said. “Growing up, just stuff that happened in my past — injuries and all that. I just feel like I gather all my energy up and go out there with a great passion.”