OXFORD — Tre Harris was a high school quarterback who moved to wide receiver when he signed with Louisiana Tech.

Three years later, after he’d begun to perfect his craft in Ruston, Harris was ready to step up to a higher level. Harris has proven he was ready to play at the highest level.

Entering Saturday’s showdown with No. 1 Georgia (6 p.m. CST, ESPN), Harris has 38 catches for 749 yards and seven touchdowns, one of three receivers on the 10th-ranked Rebels to have at least 600 receiving yards, joining Jordan Watkins and Dayton Wade.

“I’ve always had real good confidence in myself,” Harris said. “There’s definitely a little chip on my shoulder. I didn’t have all the stars or anything like that coming out of high school. Going into the game every week, I am trying to prove that I’m one of the best receivers in the country.”

Last week, in the Rebels’ 38-35 win over Texas A&M, Harris caught 11 passes for 213 yards, including a dramatic one-handed grab that he said reminded him of a similar catch he made last season at Louisiana Tech. Asked if he practiced one-handed grabs, Harris laughed and talked about the hours of drills catching ball from the jugs machine.

“That’s not something you just go up and do,” Harris said.

Ole Miss gets a shot to shake up the college football world Saturday in Athens, facing a Georgia team that has won 26 straight games and two consecutive national titles. The BCS rankings aside, Harris is excited for the opportunity on the big stage. After all, that’s why he left Ruston — to play at the highest level against the best competition.

“We know it’s a big game regardless of the conference stuff and the playoffs or anything like that because we’re going against the defending national champions,” Harris said. “We’re going into their house and we’re going to ball. We’re going to do what we have to do out there. We soon’t really talk about the college football implications or any of that because we know at the end of the day we don’t really control it. It’s really other guys doing some other things watching us and we don’t have much control of that other than to go out there, put the ball down and play.”

Harris was one of three Ole Miss players to meet with the media Tuesday, joining safety Trey Washington and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris.