Connect with us

Football

Thomas Harper Receiving High Praise as Young, Under-Recruited Corner

OSU may have found its next diamond in the rough on the defensive side of the ball.

Published

on

STILLWATER — The Cowboy coaching staff seems to have struck a gem with Thomas Harper.

Harper, the younger brother of Oklahoma State linebacker Devin Harper, enrolled early this spring and has caught many the attention of OSU’s coaching staff. Gundy named dropped the 5-foot-11, 175-pound corner in the spring, and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and corners’ coach Tim Duffie brought him up at Monday’s media golf outing.

Harper was labeled an athlete out of Karns High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and he wan’t all that highly recruited. At the end of January, Harper was the 2,680th-ranked prospect in the country. He is ranked 1,430th now. His offers apart from OSU were Navy, Austin Peay, Chattanooga, Eastern Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Tennessee-Martin and Wofford — not exactly college football powerhouses.

But when he got on campus, that not-so-impressive recruiting profile didn’t matter.

I think his ball skills are phenomenal,” Duffie said Monday. “He played receiver, he returned kicks, but probably the most exciting thing for me about Thomas is he’s low-maintenance. He came here when he should’ve been at his prom; he was here this spring, and he didn’t miss a beat in the midst of older guys who have been in the system. It wasn’t like an acclimation period in the weight room with Coach (Rob) Glass. He’d kind of get thrown in there with those older guys, and he swam; he didn’t drown. I’m really excited about the maturity of him.”

A.J. Green and Rodarius Williams have had OSU’s starting corner spots locked down for a few years now, but behind those two, a battle rages. There is depth there with the likes of Harper, Kemah Siverand, Bryce Balous and Gabe Lemons.

Green, Siverand and Balous are seniors, so OSU will need a younger guy or two to step up sooner or later.

“We can’t ever let up on developing corners,” Knowles said. “We just can’t do it in this game and in this conference. We need to be constantly looking at guys to come up in the system. Thomas Harper came in here in the spring when he should’ve been going to his senior prom, and I thought he was fantastic. That’s just one young guy who I know made an impression this spring as someone who’s gonna be developing into a great corner.”

Harper fit his athlete label at Karns. As a senior, he had 1,279 receiving yards and 18 receiving touchdowns off 80 receptions. On defense, he had 92 total tackles his senior season to go with seven pass breakups, two forced fumbles and an interception that he returned 95 yards for a touchdown. In May of 2018, he recorded a 4.50-second 40-yard dash, a 4.27 shuttle and a 40.10-inch vertical, according to 247Sports.

Duffie said determining where a prospect labeled as an athlete plays usually starts with where the player wants to play, and luckily for him, Harper ended up on the defensive side of the ball. Duffie said kids usually grow up wanting to score touchdowns, and it’s seen at OSU’s camps. He said the lines at wide receiver can be 90-players deep, but lines with corners are usually shorter, and it gives him a chance to look thoroughly at those prospects.

Very seldom do you find a kid like Thomas, who it didn’t matter because I promise you, Thomas would be good if he was at any position with time and effort and consistency and patience because he really loves playing,” Duffie said. “Offensively, if they ever go over there, you may not get them back. I was just glad he wanted to be a defender. I knew he could play offense, but I think his mentality is to play defense. I’m just excited to coach him.”

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2023 White Maple Media