Jerrick Harper Archives

Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: cornerback. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.

The corner room is going to be brand new in 2025, something Rice football hasn’t had to experience in quite some time. Fortunately, the Transfer Portal has allowed for some veteran leadership to be injected into this position group during the offseason, but that hasn’t removed all the question marks in the crucial defensive spot. How well will this new-look room adjust to so many moving parts?

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

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The first transfer portal addition in the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class is in the fold. JUCO CB Jerrick Harper has committed to the Owls.

JUCO corner Jerrick Harper is the first transfer addition of the 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class and the first non-high school signee of the Scott Abell era. Abell made it clear his focus when he arrived was keeping the high school class intact. Once he achieved that, signing a dozen players during the early signing period, he moved to the portal where he landed this pledge from Harper.

In Harper, Rice is getting a prototypical outside corner (6-foot, 185-pounds) who should be able to step in and fill a hole on the roster left by departing Sean Fresch, who completed his final season of eligibility this past fall. Harper didn’t seen daunted by the high standard left by those before him.

“I loved the defense because I can play a lot of man coverage,” he told The Roost. “Guys on the back end can play fast and fly around.”

Harper had reported offers from Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Alcorn State, Eastern Michigan and Louisiana Tech, among others. He has multiple seasons of eligibility remaining after spending the past two years at Trinity Valley where he averaged just under one pass break up per game.

Quality cover corners with the necessary skillset and athleticism to play on an island on the outside aren’t in abundance in the Transfer Portal. That Harper is the type of player who can do that speaks highly of him and the Owls recruiting efforts to land him even before finalizing their coaching staff. Harper cited corners coach Jeremy Modkins as a reason for his decision.

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Harper’s film is a fun watch. He does a good job staying aware of where the ball is an positioning himself to have the right leverage in coverage. Some of the JUCO quarterbacks leave a lot to be desired when it comes to accuracy, but you can still see Harper’s good hands and quick feet setting him up for success.

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