Ken Karcher

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Ken Karcher (born 1963, in Pittsburgh) was an American football player who briefly played quarterback in the NFL in the 1980's, largely in a backup role.

He spent his pro-career with the Denver Broncos, backing up John Elway in 1987 while the Broncos played in Super Bowl XXII.

Out of Shaler Area High School, in Pennsylvania, Karcher was a highly-recruited QB and eventually went to the University of Notre Dame for two years. There, he was a third-string QB behind Steve Beuerlein. He decided to transfer to Tulane University, where he finished out his collegiate playing career.

Karcher went undrafted by NFL teams, and bounced around training camps before going to the Broncos. He played in a total of 4 NFL games. He later decided to try his hand in coaching, eventually becoming an offensive coordinator for the University of Pittsburgh from 1994-1996. Later, he became the offensive coordinator for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe from 1997-1999, a position he occupied until accepting the head coaching job at Liberty University.

At Liberty, Karcher's teams underachieved for six seasons, and he posted a career record of 21-46, by far the worst losing percentage ever for an LU coach. Despite this, Jerry Falwell resigned Karcher to a 5-year contract after the 2004 season. But in 2005, the Liberty Flames went 1-10, and Karcher was fired.

Currently, Karcher is the offensive coordinator at Fellowship Christian High School in Roswell, Georgia, and also teaches a 9th grade Bible class at Fellowship Bible Church. He is married with children.

As a coach, Karcher stressed building character in his players through football. One such player was Samkon Gado, a reserve while playing at Liberty. Karcher helped Gado get his foot in the door of an NFL team, and within the year Gado was the starting running back for the Green Bay Packers.