“First, I would like to thank my wife Shannon and my kiddos for being the support system most dream of,” Thomas Ford Jr. said in a Vandal Athletics news release. “I would also like to thank Terry Gawlik and Scott Green for the tremendous opportu nity they have provided. I couldn’t be more excited to be coming back to the Palouse.”
Dec 12, 2024, was a day that every Vandal fan looked forward to. The Vandals traveled to Bozeman to take on the Montana State Bobcats in the FCS quarterfinal.
A few minutes before kickoff, reports began to surface that Head Coach Jason Eck was drawing interest from the University of New Mexico and that he may leave UI. Idaho was dominated by Montana State 52-19, their worst loss of the season. As the sun rose above the mountains on the Palouse, the reports and rumors were confirmed that Eck was indeed leaving for the University of New Mexico.
The Vandals went from potentially reaching the semi-finals to having their head coach leave in just 24 hours.
After the departure of Eck numerous Vandal players also began to head for the exits, including his son and starting linebacker Jaxton Eck, followed by QB Jack Layne, RB Deshaun Buchanan and DE Keyshawn James-Newby. Wide receiver Jordan Dwyer who ended up at TCU and Mark Hamper took his talent to the University of Wisconsin, followed suit and before you know it, over 20 players for the Vandals had entered the portal and left the program.
With Vandal fans restless, UI Athletics heard the noise and penciled in Ford Jr. as the team’s 37th head coach to begin a new era of Vandal football.
Two days after being hired, on Friday, Dec. 20, Ford Jr. walked into the ICCU Arena donning his tan suit jacket and his yellow and black Vandal-themed tie and spoke to the media for the first time since the job announcement. Sitting with his wife Shannon and his kids Zoey and Kingston, Ford listened as Athletic Director Terry Gawlik introduced him as the head coach.
“We are excited to welcome coach Ford,” Gawlik said. “It was clear during our interview process that Thomas is the man to lead Vandal football into the future. He knows of Vandal football as we look forward to working with coach Ford and his staff.”
Ford Jr. stood up and began to speak, emphasizing that the 2025 Vandals look to continue on the foundation set by previous Vandal teams and the legacy that Eck had left. “I just want you guys to know that we are planning to stay the course and elevate what’s been built here. I do not plan on slowing down; this is not a rebuild.”
While he was at UI from 2021 2023 as the RB Coach, the Vandals excelled. With Anthony Woods and Roshaun Johnson, to name a couple, the Vandals had numerous talented options at RB, and they will expect the same under Ford Jr. as head coach.
As Ford Jr. becomes the head coach, one thing is clear: he cares a lot about the Vandal athletes and is excited to be the team’s head coach.
“I care about these kids,” Ford said. “I support that for any player in our program that has those opportunities. I would caution any player in the portal who doesn’t have those opportunities to [reconsider]. It doesn’t make sense to leave the University of Idaho unless someone’s paying you a lot of money.”
Before he was at the podium in Moscow, Ford Jr. was on the football field in Seattle, Washington, dreaming of being a coach. He grew up in Seattle and attended Mount Lake Terrace High School. While attending Mount Lake Terrace, Ford Jr. excelled both on the gridiron and on the track. In the 1999 season, Ford, a senior, rushed for 1,103 yards and scored 10 TDs, leading to him receiving a scholar ship to Linfield College in Linfield, Oregon.
He played running back and ran track at Linfield College. In 2003, Ford Jr. set the Wildcats’ single-game rushing record (237 yards against Redlands). Linfield’s record during Ford Jr.’s tenure was 41-4. He is still fifth all time on the career rushing list with 2,333 yards.
Ford was a two-time Northwest Conference all-star, a member of four straight Northwest Conference championship teams and team captain of Linfield’s 2004 NCAA Division III national title team that was inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Ford Jr., a natural and excellent recruiter, brings his elite recruiting connections and ability to Moscow. His goal is to dominate the Northwest and make a couple of pit stops in California and Texas.
“If you take a circle and draw a 200-mile radius around Moscow, it covers Seattle, Boise and Portland. So [there is an] unbelievable amount of talent in those three states alone,” Ford Jr. said. “It’s another part of this process that we put together as a staff. Owning the state. Owning the Northwest.”
As Ford Jr. fills out his recruits and transfers, he has also been filling out his staff. He started with Idaho’s former quarterback and quarterback coach Matt Linehan, naming him the offensive coordinator, a choice that Linehan called a no-brainer in staying with the Vandals.
The Vandals look to follow the same offensive game plan but promise to add a few of Linehan’s own wrinkles to spice up the offense. They will be able to prove how good they are from the start as they kick off the 2025 season with the Battle of the Palouse, when the team travels to Pullman, Washington to face Washington State, a game that Ford Jr is excited about.
“When I looked at the 2025 sched ule and saw that it was Week 1, I said, ‘Let’s go.’ That is an opportunity for us to show that not only do we have really good players here, we have players who can play at that (FBS) level,” Ford said.
Ford may be a risky hire, not having experience as a D1 head coach, but all the early signs point to Ford Jr. being the right person to continue the Vandals’ freight train on the tracks. With loyalty, passion and unwavering charisma, Ford Jr. will lead the Vandals to new heights and bring them that elusive national championship that Moscow and the Vandals desire.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at Arg-sports@uidaho.edu