Idaho introduces head coach Thomas Ford: ‘People want to be a part of this program.’

MOSCOW, Idaho – Thomas Ford said that he began coming to the University of Idaho to attend high school football camps in the late 1990s.

He later ran indoor track at the Kibbie Dome when he competed for Linfield College. He also watched his brother Tracy play football for the Vandals before serving as Idaho’s running backs coach and special teams coordinator in 2022-23.

His latest return was at a news conference Friday when Ford was introduced as Idaho’s 37th head football coach. He succeeds Jason Eck, who led the Vandals to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs from 2022-24 before leaving to become head coach at New Mexico.

Eck endorsed Ford’s hiring as his successor on Wednesday.

“It seems this place, I can’t get away from it. I don’t ever want to get away from it,” Ford said of his return to UI.

This trip back to the Palouse comes with a whirlwind of must-do jobs. One of the first things Ford did was to promote Vandals receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Matt Linehan to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. As a quarterback , Linehan led Idaho to its last bowl win as a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, the 2016 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

“We are getting him at the right time,” Ford said, before other schools had an opportunity to pursue Linehan.

“It was a no-brainer for me to take this job,” Linehan said. “I had a couple of opportunities to go elsewhere.”

Ford also said he has nine interviews scheduled Saturday with assistant coach candidates.

“We will build an excellent coaching staff,” he said. “People want to come here. People want to be a part of this program.”

One hire Ford likely must make is a head strength and conditioning coach. Ford praised Caleb Heim’s management of Idaho’s strength and conditioning program – which has been lauded by Vandals football players and athletes and coaches from other sports. But Heim in almost certain to follow Eck to New Mexico, Ford said.

“This is one of the most important positions we hire,” he said.

More than 20 members of Idaho’s 2024 team entered the transfer portal after Eck left. On Wednesday, after he accepted the job, Ford said he had a Zoom call with 85 members of Idaho’s team.

“The No. 1 thing is to retain the roster,” he said. “We don’t need to blow this thing up and get a bunch of new kids.”

Ford said he was heartened by texts of support he received from players, including some in the portal, whom he hoped might reconsider a decision to leave.

“After Christmas, if you are still in the transfer portal, we will assume you do not want to come back,” Ford said.

Ford said the transfer portal and opportunities for players to be paid have resulted in fundamental changes to college football. But he promised he will have a good plan to negotiate those changes. This will include a strategic effort to increase support among donors to fund revenue opportunities for players. A collective to raise money for players was established last May.

“We need for our supporters to see the value in it,” Ford said. “We have to show them the value of (name, image and likeness) and how it helps to create momentum. That’s when special things start to happen.”

Ford also said of freshmen recruits who make money a condition of coming to Idaho: “This is probably not the right fit for you.”

His plan is to help players who have established excellence on the field to find revenue opportunities.

“That is more the model that I would like to continue here,” he said.

Idaho Athletics Director Terry Gawlik praised UI President Scott Green and the search committee that she said made Ford’s hiring “a timely, thorough and sometimes smooth process.” She also noted Ford’s formidable reputation as one of the top recruiters in college football.

For his part, Ford expects to continue to make the Northwest the bedrock of Idaho’s recruiting. A 200-mile circle with Moscow at the center takes in Seattle, Boise and Portland, he said, and those population centers are well stocked with potential Division I college football players.

“We are absolutely going to make our name in the Northwest,” he said.

Idaho will also continue to recruit in California.

“A lot of really good Vandal players have come from that state,” Ford said. “I definitely want to keep our inroads in Arizona,” andexpand Idaho’s recruiting to Texas.

A vision that Eck promoted was that UI should offer athletes a memorable, lifelong experience and a degree as well as the chance to play winning football, Ford said. He said he plans to continue that.

After starring in football and track at Linfield, where he captained the 2004 Division III football champion, Ford played four years of professional indoor football before beginning a coaching career.

He coached running backs at Linfield from 2007-08.

He was also wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator at Southeast Oklahoma State from 2009-12; defensive coordinator at the University of Puget Sound in 2013; head coach at Tacoma’s Stadium High from 2014-17; and head coach at Simon Fraser University in 2018-19.

He spent the next two years as a quality control analyst at the University of Washington before coming to Idaho.

He left the Vandals to be running backs coach at Oregon State in the 2024 season.

During the year he was gone, Ford said he continued to follow Idaho’s success.

He pointed out he recruited many of the players who took the Vandals to the FCS quarterfinals the past two years.

From his time as a head coach at Simon Fraser, Ford said he learned to become more of a program CEO.

“When I was at Simon Fraser, I was really trying to call plays,” Ford said. “That’s why I hired Matt Linehan to call plays.”

Building on that theme, Ford said the most valuable thing he learned from Eck at Idaho was how he empowered his coaches.

“He made me feel like I was the best special teams coach in the country,” he said.

Ford said he will do that at Idaho with his own staff and players. But he was also firm that, for him, the Vandals’ recent success is a starting point.

“Shout out to Eck,” Ford said, “but I plan on (accelerating) this thing.”