Ken Karcher joins the Wabash College football staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, bringing more than three decades of experience as a head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at the collegiate, professional, and high school levels.
Karcher comes to Wabash after serving as assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at Albertville High School in Alabama from 2023 to 2024. His responsibilities included coordinating the offensive system, coaching quarterbacks, and assisting with overall program leadership and game preparation.
Prior to Albertville, Karcher spent nearly a decade as head football coach at East Central Community College in Mississippi from 2013 to 2022. He managed all aspects of the program, including hiring and supervising staff, recruiting scholarship student-athletes, overseeing budgets, coordinating marketing and public relations, and directing fundraising efforts. Under his leadership, East Central enjoyed one of the most successful stretches in program history, highlighted by South Division Coach of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016. His teams captured the school’s first South Division championship, recorded its first back-to-back playoff appearances in 35 years, and produced the program’s first winning season, playoff appearance, bowl appearance, and bowl victory since the early 2000s.
Earlier in his career, Karcher served as head football coach at Liberty University from 2000 to 2005, where he was tasked with building the program from the NCAA I-AA level toward NCAA I-A status. During his tenure, he managed more than 20 staff members and 100-plus student-athletes, recruited 63 scholarship players, and oversaw a two-million-dollar football budget. Karcher also played a key role in advancing Liberty’s football infrastructure, helping raise $4.5 million for a new football complex while coordinating the program’s marketing, public relations, and external engagement efforts. In addition to directing practices and game planning, he served as the primary offensive play caller.
Karcher’s collegiate offensive coordinator experience includes Eastern Michigan University (2009–12), where he coordinated the offense and coached quarterbacks, and the University of Pittsburgh (1993–96), where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach following earlier duties as pass game coordinator. He also coached quarterbacks at the University of Toledo in 2008 and worked with quarterbacks and wide receivers at the University of North Texas and Idaho State University.
At the professional level, Karcher served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe from 1997 to 2000, helping guide the team to a World Bowl championship in 1998 and multiple league offensive honors. He also coordinated the offense for the Orlando Thunder in 1992, leading the team to a league championship and a World Bowl Finals appearance.
In addition to his coaching career, Karcher is the founder and executive director of The WIN Awakening, a nonprofit sports ministry network that supports coaches, athletes, and leaders through faith-based development.
A former quarterback, Karcher played collegiately at the University of Notre Dame and Tulane University before earning professional opportunities with the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, and New Orleans Saints. He was a Parade All-American as a high school player and participated in Super Bowl XXII with Denver.
Karcher holds a Master of Biblical Counseling (2021) and a Master of Arts in Theology (2016) from Global Grace Seminary and earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University.
