As the 2025 college football season quickly approaches, Idaho head coach Thomas Ford is currently preparing for his first season with the Vandals. His past record in this same position is truly horrendous but it is not all that meets the eye.
Maybe the third time is the charm?
We’ll see. Idaho is not a college football powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination so expectations are not high but I certainly have my doubts about this hire based only on optics. I hope he proves me wrong!
Where did Thomas Ford come from?
Ford played college football at Linfield University from 2001-2004. The Washington-native later played three seasons of professional indoor football with the Tri-Cities Fever and the Alaska Wild.
He began his coaching career at his alma mater in 2007 and worked his way up through the ranks.
- 2007-2008: Linfield, running backs coach
- 2009-2011: Southeast Oklahoma State, special teams and wide receivers coach
- 2012: Puget Sound, special teams and defensive backs coach
- 2013: Puget Sound, defensive coordinator
- 2014-2017: Stadium High School, head coach
- 2018-2019: Simon Fraser, head coach
- 2020-2021: Washington, offensive quality control analyst
- 2022-2023: Idaho, special teams and running backs coach
- 2024: Oregon State, running backs coach
Thomas Ford was named as the next head coach at Idaho in the middle of December when Jason Eck left for the same role at New Mexico State. It is his first opportunity as a head coach since 2019.
Wins and losses come a dime a dozen.
The last two times Ford served as a head coach did not go particularly well in terms of win-loss record.
Stadium High School went 13-28 in four years. The Tigers went 0-10 during his first season. They finished above .500 just one time during his tenure.
Simon Fraser, the only Canadian college football team under NCAA jurisdiction, hired Ford as head coach after he went 4-6 at Stadium in 2017. The Clan, as they were known, went 2-18 in two seasons.
Thomas Ford has an overall record of 15-46 in six seasons as a head coach on the high school and Division-II levels of football. Not great.
But here’s the thing!
To win just one game at Simon Fraser was a huge deal. Ford was actually named as the GNAC Coach of the Year in 2018 because he led the Clan to its first win in four seasons. They did it again in 2019.
And it’s not like Stadium was any kind of powerhouse either…
I don’t really understand how this happened but Thomas Ford seems to be the guy that lower-tier programs hire to redefine the culture. His horrible win-loss record does not reflect his potential. Idaho will hope the third time is the charm.