Who is Phil Ford? The 6-6, 330-pound offensive lineman sent out some highly interesting tweets for BYU fans. Ford is a Kansas commit, but just redshirted at Iowa Western Community College after being unable to qualify academically. Since that time, Ford made a huge life decision that has him re-thinking his college destination:
I might be living in the State of Utah a lot sooner than a lot of people may thing! #BYU
— Phil Ford (@PhillyFontanaaa) May 12, 2012
"@stantonmac: @PhillyFontanaaa Tell us #BYU fans more!" well right now I'm committed to KU, but since I became LDS my eyes hve really opened
— Phil Ford (@PhillyFontanaaa) May 13, 2012
@stantonmac up and I know the Lord wants me to be in Utah at BYU and once I graduate I am going to serve my mission!! I Love this church!!
— Phil Ford (@PhillyFontanaaa) May 13, 2012
The Lord is truly amazing and I wouldn't ask for anything else to have happened differently in my life! Being apart of the church is amazing
— Phil Ford (@PhillyFontanaaa) May 13, 2012
@OchoZaco I would love to be on that field and after my ball days are done serve a mission and preach our heavenly fathers word!!
— Phil Ford (@PhillyFontanaaa) May 14, 2012
His tweets led Brandon Gurney, Deseret News recruiting guru, to contact Ford to get his story.
"Jake (Heaps) says that he misses BYU a lot for a lot of reasons and that it was very hard for him to transfer," says Ford. "He talks about how it's a great environment for LDS people and he really does miss a lot of those things about BYU."
Ford sent off an email to the football program about two weeks ago and is anxiously awaiting word from the coaching staff.
"BYU sounds like the perfect school for me," said Ford. "Everyone I talk to absolutely loves the place and now that I'm a member of the church, I want to go there and play football for them more than anything. I'm hoping that the coaches there get in touch with me and offer me a scholarship because it's really the only school I want to play for right now."
Since that article was written, Ford was able to call coach Joe Dupaix and speak with him, and BYU is very interested, according to Gurney. Gurney tweeted that Ford should have three years to play three seasons. He is set to graduate from IWCC this December.
Ford was a three-star recruit out of high school, according to Scout.com, and it's easy to see why BYU would be interested. Ford is a massive body mover who could really be an impact player once refined. We'll have to stay tuned to see if BYU is able to get him a scholarship offer.
His story highlights an interesting facet to BYU recruiting. Out of state, BYU is able to get many recruits who otherwise would not consider playing in Provo -- names like Brandon Bradley, Ross Apo, and Damarcus Harrison. It's not a huge recruiting boon, but a small trickle of talented athletes come BYU's way due to membership in the LDS Church.