North Carolina State University Athletics
Beyond the Game Plan: Kurt Roper
8/21/2019 7:25:00 AM | Football
By Chad Wylie, Special Contributor
RALEIGH, N.C. - When the 2019 NC State football schedule was released, first-year quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper could not help but be a little disappointed.
Cross-division rival Duke was nowhere to be found on the Wolfpack's list of opponents. Although he is looking forward to his first season at NC State, he might sometimes look ahead to 2020, when he will have an opportunity to renew his friendliest rivalry in the game against his brother.
Zac Roper has been on the Duke football staff since 2008 and is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks' coach of the Wolfpack's rival in Durham.
"We live in the same neighborhood," Roper said. "We still talk a lot of football together, and now we have some trade secrets, so it's not quite as open as when I was at other places. But blood is thicker than water. I can't wait to play him."
It will be an unusual sight for Roper to see Zac coaching on the opposing sideline. From 1999-2004 at Mississippi and from 2008-2013 at Duke, the brothers coached together under current Blue Devil head coach David Cutcliffe.
"When Coach Cutcliffe hired me to coach quarterbacks at Mississippi, my brother was actually a student coach at Oklahoma," Roper said. "He ended up switching to Mississippi and was a student coach at Ole Miss. We were apart for a few years when I went to Kentucky, but we were fortunate that when Cutcliffe was hired at Duke, he brought both of us on.
"It's so rare to get to spend time with family during the football season, so having my family coaching with me was a blessing that I will always appreciate."
How two brothers ended up on the same professional career path begins with Bobby Roper, their father. Bobby began coaching as a graduate assistant under Paul Bear Bryant at Alabama. During his two decades of coaching, Bobby coordinated the defense for the 1976 national championship team at Pittsburgh and raised his two boys to love football and follow in his footsteps.
"I always knew from the time I was little what my dad was doing," Kurt Roper said. "I knew I wanted to play college football and then coach college football. That was all I wanted. I had that plan from the beginning."
Roper played his first two years of prep ball at Denison High School in Texas, before moving to Oklahoma and enrolling at Ardmore High School, where he won the state championship playing quarterback in 1990.
After signing a scholarship at Rice, Roper found little opportunity to start at quarterback for his first three years, so he transitioned to defensive back. When Ken Hatfield took over the Rice program before Roper's senior season in 1994, Roper finally got the chance to play quarterback, running the triple-option offense.
After graduating, Roper knew exactly what his next step would be.
"I just wanted to be like my dad," Roper said. "Like many young boys, I looked up to my dad and what he did. He was a football coach and that created a passion for the game in me. Football just gets in your blood, and so while it started with me trying to be like my dad, I quickly found my own love for the game."
After starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, Roper was hired by Cutcliffe to coach quarterbacks at Mississippi in 1999. When he stepped into the quarterbacks' room, a future No. 1 NFL Draft Pick and two-time Super Bowl Champion, Eli Manning, was waiting for him.
"It was unbelievable," Roper said. "It was a pleasure but also a challenge because he could understand so much and he prepared so well. I couldn't go in there without answers. He made you be detailed in your planning and detailed in your answers because he was going to be able to take on more information and he was able to find a lot on his own when looking at the tape. He was going to question what you were doing if you missed something that he noticed about the game."
Manning in many ways set the standard for the type of quarterback Roper looks for when recruiting for his school.
"Every QB coach has their list of characteristics, and I've tried to make mine smaller over the years," Roper said. "The non-negotiables are that he's a serious guy, a quick processor and is accurate, but on top of that I'm always looking for the best athlete."
During a career that has taken him to programs like Florida and South Carolina, and even a year in the NFL with Cleveland, Roper has thrived in the family business. Now he brings that experience to the Wolfpack, a program looking to replace the production of three-year starter Ryan Finley.
"Any coach wants the opportunity to win," Roper said. "That is what makes this profession really enjoyable. Coach Doeren has been able to do that for a long time here, and that's what I'm most excited about being part of."
Roper wants to live up to the legacy of his father and win a national championship at NC State, and beat his brother along the way.
