MIKE FORD headed to USF!!!

[tampaboi07]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061228/SPORTS/612280450/1006

What a great pick-up!!!

[Guest AstroBull]

What a great pick up by our Bulls!

[South_Florida_Flip]

Nice Christmas present right there.

[cptkid570]

"The 6-2, 220-pounder has been timed at 4.37 seconds in the 40-yard dash"

Very nice!  And he has 4 years of eligibility!

[TampaTower]

I cant wait to see a Ford Tough USF running game!

[TampaTower]

Will he be in spring practice?

[mattegunz]

Will he be in spring practice?

If he enrolls in the second semester (Spring) like the article says he will be eligible for spring football which is awesome for us.

[Velcro]

WOOOOHOOO!  Hopefully all works out well with the enrollment process..

All of a sudden, we have quite a good bit of depth at RB, with a potential stud.

Ford/Plancher/Ponton & the full back recruit if he follows through on his verbal.

Merry Christmas Bulls!

[E.T.]

And he has 4 years elgibility !

Ford headed for South Florida

The ex-Sarasota High star, who had intended to go to Alabama, decided he'd rather be close to home.

BY ALAN DELL

TAMPA -- When Mike Ford was smashing all kinds of football records at Sarasota High, he earned the nickname "Ford Tough." After graduating high school in 2005 and accomplishing what only one other running back in state history had done, Ford found the road off the field was tougher than anything he encountered on it.

He was coveted by the top football programs and verbally committed to Alabama. However, he didn't qualify and spent a year a Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia, where he straightened out most of his academics and played on the school's postgraduate team.

Ford was set to join Alabama this winter. But after head coach Mike Shula was fired, he turned in a different direction. He wants to be close to home and near people he can trust. For him, that means playing for the University of South Florida and rooming with his cousin, Bulls wide receiver Amarri Jackson.

Ford has been accepted at USF and plans to enroll for the second semester with a football scholarship, his mother, Dondra Walker, said Tuesday. She also said his academics are in order and he has been cleared by the NCAA to play. Ford was not available for comment.

"We are very excited and looking at Mike to enroll in January," his mother said. "Originally, he wanted to go to Alabama, but now that Coach Shula is gone he doesn't want that. USF is No.1 for him now because I live in Sarasota and will be able to come to all his games. He is cleared and eligible to play."

Sarasota High coach Bob Perkins said Ford gives USF something it covets: a big, strong back with a breakaway speed. The 6-2, 220-pounder has been timed at 4.37 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

Ford is the most prolific running back this area has produced. He holds the single-season area rushing record with 2,836 yards, averaging 236 yards per game his senior season (2004), while racking up 37 touchdowns and 222 points. His single-game high came against Naples Lely, when he ran for 368 yards.

Ford became only the second player in state history to rush for more than 200 yards in 11 straight games during his senior year, when he was named the Class 5A Player of The Year. The only person to better that mark is Frostproof High's Travis Henry, now with the Tennessee Titans and the second-leading rusher in state history.

"Alabama said Mike was already qualified and he was going there because of the people who recruited him, but that changed. Mike has been on a long road and been through a lot and wants to be close to Amarri and his family," Perkins said. "Any coach in the country would be excited to have him. He is big and strong and bruising, and, when he is in the open field, they never catch him."

The best thing for USF is that Ford has four years of eligibility. The year he spent at Hargrave does not count against his college time.

While at Hargrave, he shared the running back job with Keilanda Williams, who is a freshman tailback at LSU.

"Mike was like a man playing against boys in high school. When he starts playing in college, he will be in a similar situation because he is an older freshman and is bigger and stronger then he was in high school," Perkins said.

[dabull80]

all I got to say is wow.  This is what we were all hoping for.  Impact RB.  OK, lets hear from the recruiting experts.  How big is this and how good is he.