Notre Dame hosting Oklahoma State transfer Thomas Harper on visit
A five-day window to host mid-year enrolling transfers for visits opened Wednesday. Notre Dame did not even wait 24 hours to get one of its portal targets on campus during it.
Thomas Harper, a grad transfer safety from Oklahoma State, arrived at Notre Dame for a visit Wednesday. A source told BlueandGold.com the visit will last until Friday. He is a grad transfer with one year of eligibility left.
Harper was an opening-day starter for Oklahoma State and played in seven games this season. His 30 tackles were eighth on the team despite missing five games due to injury. He added 1.5 tackles for loss, 1 interception and 2 pass breakups. His last appearance in 2022 was in an Oct. 29 loss to Kansas State.
PROMOTION: Join for only $29.99 to unlock premium access until the start of the 2023 football season
In four years at Oklahoma State, Harper (5-foot-11, 180 pounds) went from unheralded freshman to senior-year starter. He was a three-star prospect out of Knoxville (Tenn.) Karns High School and the No. 1,271 player in the On3 Consensus. Oklahoma State was the lone Power Five school and one of just two FBS teams to offer him. The Cowboys staff was familiar with an anonymous recruit from SEC territory because they signed his brother, Devin, three years earlier.
Harper, though, earned a special teams role as a freshman and had 13 tackles in 2019. He broke into the safety rotation in 2020 and played in 11 games, with one start. He made 31 tackles that season and 20 in 2021.
RELATED: More Notre Dame football:
Lucky Charms: Notre Dame eyeing potential transfer portal additions
Notes, quotes & observations from All-American Bowl: Notre Dame players day two
All told, Harper had 93 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 7 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery in four seasons with the Cowboys. He has played 1,170 defensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus. He did not redshirt at Oklahoma State, but gained a fifth year when the NCAA awarded the COVID-19 blanket waiver to all 2020 FBS players.
Safety became a pressing portal need for Notre Dame when 10-game starter Brandon Joseph declared for the NFL Draft Dec. 31. He’s not the only departure. Grad student Houston Griffith is out of eligibility. Fellow grad student DJ Brown – who led all Irish safeties in snaps this year – has not announced if he will return for a sixth year in 2023, but was part of Senior Day ceremonies.
Rising seniors Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson headline the Irish’s group of returning safeties. Watts started the final four games of 2022.
Notre Dame begins spring semester classes Jan. 17.
