‘Not a rebuild:’ new Idaho football coach Thomas Ford Jr. reintroduced to Vandal fans

It was a matter of when, not if, Thomas Ford Jr. would return to Moscow.

That “when” became Friday when Ford, his wife Shannon, daughter Zoey and son Kingston walked into a packed ICCU Arena Alumni room as Idaho athletic director Terry Gawlik introduced Ford as the Vandals’ 37th head football coach.

Wearing a black and gold tie, black shirt, tan jacket and pants and an Idaho Vandal pin, Ford outlined his vision for the Idaho football program — a vision largely aligned with his predecessor and former boss, coach Jason Eck.

In three years at the helm of Vandal football, Eck led Idaho to three straight Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances, including two quarterfinals, before departing to coach the New Mexico Lobos.

Ford served as running backs coach and special teams coordinator on Eck’s staff for his first two seasons in Moscow. Last season, Ford was the running backs coach at Oregon State.

“Jason (Eck) did an amazing job here,” Ford said. “I was extremely blessed to be a part of his program in 2022 and 2023 but I plan on excelling. We do not plan on slowing down. This is not a rebuild.”

Ford’s first hire

Ford wasted little time laying the foundation for his program when he called Matt Linehan, Eck’s wide receivers coach for three years and a former Vandal star quarterback, to be his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

“He’s an incredible football mind,” Ford said. “I think that I’m getting him right at the right time. I’m getting him before everyone in the country tries to steal him.”

Linehan said that it was “a no-brainer” to take the job, despite several other opportunities he had elsewhere.

“He called me and said, ‘Hey, are you ready to do this?' And I was like, ‘What happened? What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘They just hired me, man.’ And I kind of sat there in shock for a second, like, ‘Oh, wow,’” Linehan said. “I was like ‘Hey, give me a second to breathe a little bit.’ He’s like, ‘All right, yeah, big decision,’ I called him back about an hour later. I said, ‘Let’s do this, man.’”

The Vandals will run a similar offense under Linehan to what they ran in Eck’s tenure, though the new OC said he will add several of his own “wrinkles” to it.

Ford’s hiring of Linehan also helps Idaho retain players who are in the portal.

The new coach hosted a Zoom meeting on Wednesday with 85 members of the 2024 roster, including some of the 20-plus Vandals in the portal.

After hearing Ford’s vision for the program, some of the transfers told Ford that they intended to return to the Vandals.

Idaho had 15 All-Big Sky Conference players in 2024, including wide receivers Jordan Dwyer and Mark Hamper and defensive tackle Dallas Afalava.

Hamper committed to Wisconsin on Friday while Dwyer visited UW in Seattle.

Ford said he supports former Vandals who have the opportunity to earn name, image and likeness money from other schools.

“I care about these kids,” Ford said. “I support that for any player in our program that has those opportunities. I would just caution any player that’s in the portal that 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.”

Linehan said that it is a reality of college football that guys will transfer for bigger opportunities, but that the chance to develop at UI can help sell future Vandals on the program’s value.

Ford said that Idaho’s recent pro football alumni, including Detroit Lions long snapper Hogan Hatten and New Orleans Saints returner Jermaine Jackson, prove that Idaho’s program works.

The new Vandal regime will interview coaching candidates all day today.

Back to Moscow

Ford said that he first visited Moscow for Idaho’s high school football camps as a student at Mountlake Terrace High School and that these visits made him “want to be a Vandal.”

Tracy Ford, Thomas Ford’s younger brother, played at Idaho, but Thomas Ford Jr. played football at Linfield College in Oregon where he also ran track and visited Moscow again for track meets in the Kibbie Dome.

The Seattle native’s journey took him to coaching, first at Linfield from 2007-08 and then at SE Oklahoma from 2009-11.

He served as University of Puget Sound’s defensive coordinator in 2014 and as Stadium High School in Tacoma’s head coach from 2014-17.

He took the helm of Simon Fraser University football in 2018-19, leading the program to its first win in three years.

Ford returned to his home state in 2020, where he served as a Washington Husky offensive analyst before moving to Moscow to help Eck transform a Vandal football program — which had two winning seasons in the 22 years prior — into a consistent playoff contender.

Finally, he led the Beavers’ running back room this past season.

Given the continued success of Eck at Idaho, Ford said the chance that the Vandal job might be open sooner rather than later was in the back of his mind.

He received head coach offerings in the past but did not accept them because he was looking for the right fit.

Ford said he felt like he was a part of the Vandals’ 2024 season despite coaching at Oregon State — a feeling affirmed by his key role in recruiting and coaching the majority of the roster the two seasons prior.

Even attending the Nutcracker ballet during Idaho’s quarterfinal game versus Montana State on Dec. 13 did not stop Ford from watching the Vandals, he said during his news conference as he imitated watching his phone in his seat.

“That’s how much I care about this program,” Ford said. “That’s how much I care about the coaches that were here, the players that were here, and that’s why my heart will always be a Vandal.”

“Own the Northwest”

As a college football coach and player throughout the I-5 corridor on the West Coast, Ford brings an immense range of experience and recruiting connections back to Moscow.

His recruiting prowess helped bring guys like Dwyer of Puyallup, Wash., and Afalava of Rainer Beach High School in Seattle to the Palouse. The pair each entered the transfer portal after this season and received offers from Power Four schools.

In stark contrast to former Washington State coach Jake Dickert — who lamented recruiting in the Pacific Northwest in his Wake Forest introductory press conference earlier this week — Ford said that Idaho is surrounded by talent.

“If you take a circle and you 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 said. “It’s another kind of part of this process that we put together as a staff. Owning the state; owning the Northwest.”

Ford said he will rely on his Arizona and Texas connections to grow the Vandals’ recruitment footprint while also relying on Idaho’s historic ties to California.

He also said that he does not intend to limit his recruitment.

“If anybody that’s listening to this (news conference) right now is in North Carolina, Wisconsin, wherever,” Ford said. “We’ll find you. We want you.”

“More player leadership”

Rising senior running back Nate Thomas, who transferred to Idaho from South Dakota last season, said he had heard a lot of great things about Ford, particularly from his teammates in the running back room.

The press conference was Thomas’ first time meeting Ford in person, although he was on the Zoom meeting on Wednesday.

Thomas said he will meet one-on-one with Ford this week and sees the coaching change as a chance to step into a leadership role.

“We’re two weeks shy of making a championship so we at least have to get two weeks better to get us back or get into that spot that we want to be in next year. I think the main thing we need is more player leadership and a new level of just commitment to this program and just a whole ‘nother side of things that we need to tap into. So I’m very excited,” Thomas said. “I decided I’m gonna try to be a leader for this program, you know, try to help Ford out and help Ford change this program and build it.”

Ford era to begin with Battle of the Palouse

The on-field Ford era at Idaho will officially begin on Aug. 30, when the Vandals visit their Palouse neighbor Washington State, eight miles west at Gesa Field in Pullman.

WSU is yet to hire a coach following Dickert’s sudden departure on Wednesday. For Ford, who was on a staff that beat WSU last month in Corvallis, the game is more than just his first game at the helm.

“When I looked at the 2025 schedule and saw that 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. “Hopefully they hire a coach soon so I can know who we’ve got to beat.”

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.