Harper family is thrilled for game back home in Tennessee
The Liberty Bowl will provide a unique first and a longanticipated last for the Harper family.
Oklahoma State linebacker Devin Harper, a redshirt sophomore, will get to play his first college football game in his home state of Tennessee when the Cowboys face Missouri at 2:45 p.m. on New Year’s Eve in Memphis.
His younger brother, Thomas, will be watching the Cowboys from the stands for the last time on Monday. A 5-foot-11, 165-pound do-it-all star for Karns High School in Knoxville signed his letter of intent with OSU and will be on campus in January.
Signed as a cornerback after a standout season on both sides of the ball, Thomas has been coming to OSU games since Devin joined the team three years ago.
But having a game a little closer — Memphis is still nearly 400 miles away from Knoxville on the opposite end of Tennessee — is exciting for the whole family.
“I think a lot of the players probably wanted to go to Phoenix for the bowl,” Thomas said with a laugh. “But our whole family was hoping for Memphis. I think we have about 20 people going.”
Devin, a 6-1, 231pound linebacker, has mostly played as a backup this season, with the occasional start, but is still 10th on the team in tackles with 42, five of them for loss, and 2.5 sacks. He also has one of OSU’s five interceptions.
Looking past the Liberty Bowl, the next time the Harper brothers step on a football field, it will be as teammates — something else they’ve never done before.
Thomas played one season of football at age 7, then stopped. He wanted to give the game another shot as a freshman at Karns, but broke his thumb in summer basketball. He passed up football that year, when Devin was a senior, to get healthy for basketball, his sport of preference at the time.
But he gave football another shot as a sophomore.
“My brother and all his friends, they encouraged me to play, so I tried it out, and I turned out to be good at it and liked it,” Thomas said. “After my sophomore year, with what I did, I kinda felt like it was meant for me to play football and see where it goes.”
Now, it’s bringing him to Oklahoma with his brother. But Thomas still has one more game with the family in the stands.
Many of the 20-plus family members coming to the Liberty Bowl have never seen Devin play for OSU in person.
“West Virginia’s not that far from where I’m from, but other than that, I’m always playing over here in Oklahoma and Texas,” Devin said. “It feels good to play out there for once.”