Jerry Miller
Bengal Adviser
There was hardly a fan of ISU football that knew who Jakori Ford was until the fifth game of the 2014 season with Simon Fraser.
Ford came in after Xavier Finney and Danny McSurdy had carried the ball for 122 and 40 yards respectively.
After Ford carried the ball just three times in the fourth quarter, gaining 144 yards and scoring two touchdowns, everybody wanted to know who he was. This year Finney is still the Bengals’ number one back, but with the graduation of McSurdy, now it’s Ford’s turn to be number two. With Finney playing less than a half against Black Hills State, Ford carried the bulk of the ground game load after that, gaining 201 yards on 22 carries, making him the leading rusher in the nation after week one. Unfortunately, he did cough up the ball for ISU’s lone turnover in the game, and that’s a “no-no” with Coach Kramer. It’s a shortcoming that Ford had better overcome.
Fans may remember former Bengal Tavoy Moore, a player who returned a punt 84 yards and a kickoff 100 yards for touchdowns against Montana in Missoula in 2010, and who was as exciting a player as you’d ever see. But Moore coughed up the ball too often in 2011, Kramer’s first year as head coach. One day in practice Moore fumbled one too many times and was kicked out of practice, never to return.
Undoubtedly, Ford has already gotten the message from the head coach.
Like Xavier Finney, Jakori Ford has his own story too. He was born in Riverside, California, but grew up in the Sacramento area from about age 11 on.
Jakori never had the experience of growing up with both parents as his father died when he was just two years old. He comes from a big family, too, but says he’s only close now with his mom and grandmother, his twin brother and his older brother and sister, who are also twins.
Ford’s introduction to football came much later than Finney’s did, and he says he didn’t start out as a running back.
“I was 14, a freshman in high school, and I played quarterback.” Like most young boys putting on the pads, he had dreams, too, “I thought I was going to be a quarterback at USC!”
When asked if he was any good at quarterback, he laughed before giving his response.
“I was okay, I was okay. I ran a lot. I was just an athlete playing quarterback.”
But he admits he gave up on the dream of being a mobile quarterback like Michael Vick when he hit his junior year in high school and was only 5 feet 7 inches tall.
Even though he gave up on the quarterback thing, he found out he loved carrying the ball from the backfield, and he seems to be pretty good at it if his ISU experience so far is any indication.
Jakori says he loves the fact that football teaches the values of camaraderie and discipline.
“My dad died when I was two, and I wasn’t playing football growing up because we couldn’t afford it. But having a father-figure in a coach, leading me in the right direction at all times, and things like that. I love the opportunity it provides for you as far as getting a free education and things like that.”
Ford says once he did start playing ball, his mom was a great fan, and both he and his twin brother made it through high school without any serious injuries.
After finishing his high school career, moving on to American River Junior College seemed like a natural move for the shifty back
“ARC was a local powerhouse, and I felt if I was gonna’ be any good, I had to go where the good players are.”
Jakori says the transition to JC ball was a little rocky though.
“I put it on me. I brought a lot of unnecessary problems to myself, and different issues.”
But Ford says being around some of the other players helped him, like Devontae Booker, the powerful running back now at the University of Utah, who helped teach him a good work ethic and how to stay focused on the goal.
Then, he had another setback during the 2012 season at American River, blowing out his knee and not being able to finish out the year. He says he did some heavy rehab to get ready for the 2013 season and had been medically cleared when his situation once more took a sharp turn.
“I had to get custody of my daughter…I had to make a decision.”
Jakori decided that if it was football or his daughter, his daughter was priority number one. He had to go through the court system and all of its frustrations, but he eventually gained full custody of his baby girl.
He was now a full-time dad.
But now he had missed a full season of playing football, and wasn’t sure how he could get back into it. He began to work out again with former teammate James Sample at a new training facility.
He says one day, out of the blue, ISU Defensive Coach Spencer Toone walked in.
“I thought he was there to see James because he was a defensive back, and I wasn’t really in on the loop.”
But Ford says he saw it at least as an opportunity to be seen, so he worked hard that day.
It was an opportunity well-played.
After a short time, he got a phone call from ISU Assistant Coach Roger Cooper who told him they were interested in him, but also laid out all of the hoops he would have to jump through to get into school at ISU. Then later, another call from Coach Cooper telling him that Head Coach Mike Kramer wanted to give him a chance to walk-on and maybe earn a scholarship.
Despite the fact that there were no guarantees, Ford jumped at the opportunity, packing up his daughter and what little he had and heading for Pocatello.
He reveals that being a walk-on is no piece of cake,
“It’s tough. It’s stressful, you know? You’re not getting things paid for. You’ve got to figure out ways how to borrow money from family or take out loans and different things like that to pay for schooling.”
But a positive attitude and some skills paid off for Ford, plus the fact that he’s got a daughter to take care of, the most important person in his life.
“There’s no role bigger. She’s everything. The motivation. The only reason why I’m here. I’ll say that again. When I got hurt, I was done with football. But then my daughter was born and I had to keep going.”
He says he figured football was going to allow him to get an education which would allow him to take care of his daughter, get a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, and use them to help set her up for future success. If there is one thing little Kari Ford, who will be three in February has, it’s a dad who wants to be there for her.
Ford is studying physical education with a sport management emphasis for his undergraduate degree and says he’ll use the extra year of eligibility he was granted this summer to play another year and enroll in the master’s program in athletic administration.
“That’s a blessing, man, I can’t say nothing else.”
He says doing all the paperwork for the NCAA to get his missed year back was an experience he doesn’t want to go through again, but it was worth it.
“I was juiced, because I knew I was gonna’ get my master’s paid for!”
And like most other college players, Jakori says he never wants to quit playing, but when he does, he wants to coach and help young men like his coaches have helped him.
“Most definitely, that’s what I want to do.”
He says from his high school coach right up to Coach Kramer and his assistants, they’ve all been incredibly positive influences, teaching him how to tough it out through the hard times. Ford says he will owe every coach he’s had for the degrees he’s working on and for every dollar he will make because of his education, because they’ve all kept him on track towards a life he hopes will bless others as their lives have blessed him.
Now, if you’re at an ISU football game watching the running backs having a big game and someone says “Who are those guys?”, you can tell them. “They’re our 1-2 punch!”
