He served as the head football coach at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee from 1909 to 1916 and Howard College—now known as Samford University—in Marion, Alabama from 1922 to 1923, compiling a career college football head coaching record of 48–28–12.

Cope worked for a short time as a business man in Cartersville before returning to Sewanee to coach in 1909.

[4] In Cope's first year at head coach he led the Sewanee Tigers to a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship in 1909, beating previous season's champion LSU and handing Vanderbilt its first loss to a Southern team in six years.

Former Sewanee player Bob Taylor Dobbins assisted Cope at Howard.

Cope died of pneumonia in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 24, 1924, just before the start of Howard's football season.