Bryant Harper Jr. arrived in Tucson in Feb. of 2024, joining the Wildcats as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with football after serving as an assistant sports performance coach with Texas A&M from spring of 2022 through 2023.
Prior to Texas A&M, Harper spent the 2021 season with Wake Forest serving as a Sports Performance Coordinator with the Demon Decons football program. Before coaching at Wake Forest, Harper Jr. coached for two years at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served as an assistant strength & conditioning coach for football and the head strength & conditioning coach for men's soccer and men's tennis. He also worked as an assistant strength & conditioning coach for the Midshipmen's wrestling program.
Before his stint at the U.S. Naval Academy, Harper Jr. served as an assistant strength & conditioning coach at Southeastern Louisiana for football and the head strength & conditioning coach for women’s volleyball. He began his career as an administrative strength & conditioning coach with the University of Florida football team.
A former student-athlete, Harper Jr. played football at both Penn State and California University of Pennsylvania. He earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology movement science from Penn State in 2016 and went on to earn his master's degree with a dual concentration in exercise science & health promotion and performance enhancement & injury prevention/rehabilitation science from California University of Pennsylvania.
The McKeesport, Pennsylvania native is a certified strength & conditioning specialist with the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA). He also holds certifications as a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
