Gerad Parker
Gerad Michael Parker is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for Troy University, a position he has held since 2024. He was previously the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at the University of Notre Dame and the offensive coordinator at West Virginia University. Parker played as a wide receiver at the University of Kentucky from 2000 to 2004 for head coaches Hal Mumme, Guy Morriss, and Rich Brooks. He served as the interim head coach at Purdue University for six games in 2016.
Early life
Gerad, a native of Louisa, Kentucky, was born the son of Rick and Laura Parker. Parker graduated from Lawrence County High School, where he was a member of the basketball team, track and field team and the football team as a record-setting wide receiver. As a freshman and sophomore, Parker teamed up with Jason Michael to form one of the best passing attacks in the state of Kentucky. A 2000 graduate, Parker was Kentucky's all-time leader with 4,814 career receiving yards in high school. His 65 receptions, 1,504 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior made him a finalist for the 1999 Kentucky Mr. Football Award, losing out to eventual teammate Travis Atwell. Parker ran the 400-meter dash, 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay for the track and field team.College career
In January 2000, Parker accepted a scholarship to the University of Kentucky to continue his football career. He chose Kentucky over offers from Marshall and Western Kentucky. During Parker's career at Kentucky, he went through three head coaches, two broken collar bones and a leg injury.Statistics
Source:Coaching career
Early coaching career
Parker coached wide receivers and defensive backs at Raceland-Worthington High School from 2005 to 2006. In 2007 Parker took a graduate assistant job at Kentucky, where he worked with wide receivers and the offensive scout team. The following year Parker was hired by UT Martin, where he was the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2011, Parker became the wide receivers coach at Marshall.Purdue
On February 11, 2013, Parker was hired by Darrell Hazell as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Purdue University. In 2015, Parker took over as the wide receivers coach and maintained his role as the recruiting coordinator.Parker mentored standout receiver DeAngelo Yancey during his time at Purdue. Yancey earned second team All-Big Ten Conference football team|All-Big Ten] honors after recording a career-high 49 receptions for 951 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2016, and wrapped up his four-year collegiate career ranking among the top receivers in Purdue history, finishing with 141 career receptions for 2,344 yards and 20 TDs.
After a loss to Iowa on October 16, 2016, Purdue fired head coach Darrell Hazell and named Parker the interim head coach for the final six weeks of the season.