Campbell associate head coach Braxton Harris will be the next head coach at Houston Christian, sources told FootballScoop on Monday. The news was first reported by Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston.
The move is a return to the Motherland for Harris, a former quarterback for Division III power Mary Hardin-Baylor who started coaching at his alma mater as a student assistant and recruiting coordinator.
Harris was part of a major turnaround at Division III Texas Lutheran where, as assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator, he helped the program rally from an 0-10 season to a 25-5 stretch with consecutive conference championships from 2013-15.
That success spurred Harris to the head coaching job at Division III Howard Payne, also in Texas, from 2017-19. The team improved from 1-9 to 5-5 under Harris's watch.
Harris then jumped to the Division I level at Football Championship Subdivision program Campbell, where he coached linebackers and served as recruiting coordinator in addition to his associate head coach duties. Harris served as the point man on Campbell's record-breaking 2022 recruiting class.
Working under former NFL standout Mike Minter at Campbell, Harris helped the Camels draw national attention for the program. Campbell is on track for another top recruiting class, and Minter was quick to praise Harris in speaking with FootballScoop earlier this fall.
“I’ve got great people, starting with Coach Harris as recruiting coordinator," Minter said, "and we’ve got great people who can recruit and who find these guys to go recruit out there. Now we have a brand and we can go talk to anybody about. It doesn’t matter if you’re a five- or a four- or a three- or a two-star (prospect) or whatever. We can talk to you about Campbell football, and you can be a part of history.”
Though the Camels fell short of their goal to win the Big South Conference and reach the FCS Playoffs, they notched key victories this fall -- most notably their first-ever win against Charleston Southern -- and nearly upset Jackson State, coached at that time by Deion Sanders, in a 22-14 defeat to Coach Prime's Tigers on the road in mid-October.
Harris will have plenty of in-state talent to recruit at Houston Christian, but he helped Campbell adopt a national approach in its expanded recruiting efforts thanks to the relationships both he and safeties coach Patrick Miller had cultivated.
Campbell's past two recruiting classes featured notable commitments from California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, among others.
Harris helped kick-start his coaching career at Waco (Texas) High School, and he also served as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at his alma mater.
Houston Christian, formerly known as Houston Baptist, began playing football in 2013. The program has yet to post a winning record in 10 tries. Vic Shealy, the program's founding head coach, stepped down in November after posting a 2-9 mark this season.
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