Harper, a 31-year coaching veteran, brings a wealth of experience to Allen University in his second season in 2025.
Rejoining the collegiate ranks after the 2023 season as an assistant at Springfield High School in Springfield, Ohio, Harper’s history with Allen head coach Cedric Pearl spans decades. When Pearl served as head coach at Central State, Harper was a member of his defensive staff for all five seasons. From 2014-2017, he was the defensive line coach and associate head coach, and for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Harper continued to serve as the associate head coach while also being named defensive coordinator and coaching linebackers.
Prior to Central State, Harper was the defensive line coach at Alabama A&M from 2012-2014. No strange to Columbia, SC, Harper was the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Benedict College during the 2011 season, and linebacker coach in 2010. In the four seasons prior to his time at Benedict, Harper was the defensive line coach at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff from 2006-2009, winning the 2006 SWAC Western Division Championship. Prior to UAPB, Harper was at Savannah State in Georgia, where he served as the defensive coordinator in 2002, and later associate head coach from 2003-2006.
With prior experience in the SIAC, Harper spent two separate tenures at Tuskegee University, serving as defensive coordinator from 1993-1996, and again as an assistant coach in 2002. While fulfilling his football duties at Tuskegee, Harper was also the head track coach for men and women for three seasons.
Between his two stints at Tuskegee, Harper was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Morris Brown College in Atlanta from 1996-2000. Before rejoining Tuskegee, Harper coached defensive line at South Atlanta High School in the 2001 season. Harper also spent time in Perkinston, MS coaching at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College from 1988-1991, following a two-year stay at Southwestern Oklahoma State University as a graduate assistant football coach and head men’s track coach from 1984-1986. With the successes of his track program, Harper was named the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Coach of the Year in 1985.
Harper’s first job in coaching came in 1983 at Widefield High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This followed a stand-out playing career at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where Harper was an NAIA First Team All-American middle linebacker and was later inducted into the SWOSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Harper is married to Karla Harper.
