Ken Karcher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ken Karcher | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Title | Quarterbacks coach | |
| College | University of Toledo | |
| Sport | Football | |
| Born | 1963 | |
| Place of birth | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 21-46 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1994-1996 1997-1999 2000-2005 2006-2007 2008-Present |
Pittsburgh (Asst) Rhein Fire (Asst) Liberty Fellowship Chr. HS (Asst) Toledo (Asst) |
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Ken Karcher (born 1963, in Pittsburgh) was an American football player who briefly played quarterback in the NFL in the 1980s, largely in a backup role. Currently he serves as quarterbacks coach for the University of Toledo.
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 Denver Broncos. He played in a total of four NFL games; three of those games came when he played as a scab while many other NFL players were on strike. The Broncos retained him for the rest of the year, and Karcher backed up John Elway while the team played in Super Bowl XXII.
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."[1]
But winning wasn't the only thing for him. 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.
Before heading to Toledo, Karcher was the offensive coordinator at Fellowship Christian High School in Roswell, Georgia. He also served as the school's athletic director, and taught a 9th grade Bible class at Fellowship Bible Church. He is married with children. His son Austin is a quarterback at Geneva College.
[edit] Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | TSN[2]# | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty Flames (I-AA Independent) (2000 – 2001) | |||||||||
| 2000 | Liberty | 3–8 | |||||||
| 2001 | Liberty | 3–8 | |||||||
| Liberty Flames (Big South) (2002 – 2005) | |||||||||
| 2002 | Liberty | 2–9 | 1-2 | 3rd | |||||
| 2003 | Liberty | 6–6 | 2-1 | 2nd | |||||
| 2004 | Liberty | 6-5 | 3-1 | 2nd | |||||
| 2005 | Liberty | 1–10 | 0-4 | 5th | |||||
| Liberty: | 21-46 | 6-8 | |||||||
| Total: | 21-46 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| Preceded by Sam Rutigliano |
Liberty Flames Head Football Coach 2000—2005 |
Succeeded by Danny Rocco |
[edit] References
- ^ Liberty Flames
- ^ Final poll standings are from The Sports Network.
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