Thomas Ford Jr. was named the 37th head football coach on Dec. 18, 2024, making his return to Moscow where he was the running backs coach from 2022-23.
Ford spent the 2024 season as the running backs coach at Oregon State University. In 2024, the Oregon State rushing attack racked up 2,270 yards, led by Anthony Hankerson who had 1,082 yards and 15 touchdowns.
He spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as Idaho's special teams coordinator and running backs coach. Under Ford, Idaho's special teams and running back units were among the best in the FCS.
In 2023,
Anthony Woods ran for 1,155 yards and 16 touchdowns, leading an effort that saw Idaho rush for 2,077 total yards and 22 TDs and 2,057 yards and 22 TD in 2022.
Two players who played special teams under Ford, long snapper
Hogan Hatten and returner
Jermaine Jackson, earned NFL Roster spots in 2024.
Ford leveraged his connections in the Pacific Northwest to establish Idaho as a go-to destination for recruits in the I5 corridor. Dozens of players have come to Idaho from Western Washington and the Portland area from connections to the Idaho staff established by Ford.
In his first season, the Vandal rushing attack gained 2,057 yards on the ground and averaged 4.4 yards per carry. Roshaun Johnson tallied 12 touchdowns on the year while Anthony Woods added three and Elisha Cummings scored four. Woods, a freshman, earned Big Sky All-Conference Second-Team honors and Hero Sports Freshman All-American honors after racking up 872 yards on the ground with an average of 5.9 yards per carry.
On special teams, Idaho blocked a punt and a field goal on the season, while not allowing a single blocked kick all year. First-year kicker and punter Ricardo Chavez was ranked in the top-30 in the FCS in both field goal percentage and field goals per game. Jermaine Jackson was one of a handful of FCS players to return both a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown.
He was key in recruiting in his native Western Washington and in Arizona during the 2023 cycle.
Prior to coming to Idaho, Ford served as a quality control analyst for the University of Washington for two years. He was the Head Coach at Simon Fraser in 2018-19. In just his first season at the lead at Simon Fraser, he led SFU to its first win in four seasons and was named the 2018 GNAC Coach of the Year.
Before his time at SFU, he was the head coach at Stadium High in Tacoma from 2014-2017. He took an 0-10 team that had not seen a winning season in over two decades and to the playoffs in 2016 and 2017.
He was the Defensive Coordinator at the University of Puget Sound during the 2013 season. Ford's defense improved in almost every statistical category and finished second in the Northwest Conference and ranked 35th nationally in fumble recoveries.
He served as the Wide Receivers Coach and Special Teams Coordinator at SE Oklahoma State from 2009-2012. He coached Running Backs at Linfield from 2007-2008.
He played running back and ran track at Linfield College in Oregon. Ford set the Wildcats' single-game rushing record (237 yards against Redlands) in 2003. Linfield was 41-4 during Ford's playing career. He ranks still ranks 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.
He played four years of professional indoor football, winning a National Indoor Football League championship with Tri-Cities Fever in 2005.
Ford’s brother Tracy Ford played for the Vandals in the 2000s.
He earned his B.A. from Linfield and his master's degree at SE Oklahoma State.
Ford and his wife Shannon have two children, a daughter Zoey and son Kingston.
