BOISE — Ben Ford has been waiting a few years for this opportunity, now he plans to make the most of it.
The redshirt junior finds himself competing in a deep, wide receiver room but is doing all he can to make sure he stands out to the Boise State coaches and appears on track to have some sort of role on the field for the Broncos this season.
“Going into the fourth fall camp that I’ve had, being able to grow into a bigger role, hopefully, for the season is a huge deal,” said Ford. “I just praise the coaches for giving me opportunities and letting me extend my role as I get better at football.”
Ford, an Eagle High graduate who spurned a baseball offer at the University of Washington to compete in football for his hometown team, admits that this chance might be coming a little later than he expected when he joined the Broncos in 2021 — a lengthy recovery from an ACL tear kept him out a season and a half. But now healthy, he’s ready to show what he can do, and coaches have taken notice.
On Saturday, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson recognized what he called “a big catch” Ford made in the Broncos’ first closed scrimmage of fall camp.
“Ben Ford has got a ton of reps, he’s made some big-time catches and some big-time plays,” said Danielson. “We’re going to need Ben Ford, and he did a really good job today. He’s super consistent, he catches everything you throw at him. We’re going to need him in a major way.”
No doubt anyone familiar with Ford from his time at Eagle High knows what he’s capable of on the field. As a dual-threat quarterback for the Mustangs, he passed for 977 yards and rushed 1,056 more yards, accounting for 26 total touchdowns during the COVID-19-shortened senior season in 2020. He was the Idaho Press’s 2020 Football Athlete of the Year award winner and also earned Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year honors.
He was also a proficient player on the baseball diamond, verbally committing to a scholarship offer to play at Washington. But leading up to National Signing Day in February 2021, he decided he wanted to play football at Boise State, instead.
After redshirting in 2021, things started trending his way at the beginning of the 2022 season. Being a young player, he was still working his way up the depth chart, but was able to get into two games, against New Mexico and Fresno State. Then during a practice midway through the season, an injury to his left knee ended his season.
“We were doing routes on air, and I tore my ACL,” Ford said. “It was the middle of the season, so I was obviously out the rest of the year. I was able to come back for the following season in 2023, but stuff with rehab didn’t go as planned.”
For some reason, the injury wasn’t healing the way Ford had wanted it to, and that dumbfounded him. He had suffered a similar issue on his right knee towards the end of his junior season at Eagle, but was fully ready for the 2020 season opener against Kuna, where he accounted for more than 400 total yards and six touchdowns.
This time, however, he had to sit out the entire 2023 season.
“Going through that season, obviously the goal being on the team and being injured is trying to get back,” Ford said. “Having to go through a whole season sitting on the sidelines is tough. But it also gives you a different perspective on trying to be a good teammate and trying to see others succeed.”
Through that 2023 season he continued to envision not only making it back for 2024, but getting a chance to get on the field as well.
“He’s a very smart football player,” Danielson said about Ford. “He’s athletic, he’s consistent and he’s hard to cover. He has the radius, he’s an explosive player and a guy that knows exactly what he’s going to do. He’s tough and he’s going to make plays when we need him to.”
Where exactly he will be in the rotation remains to be seen. The Broncos return Prince Strachan, who showed deep threat potential as a true freshman last season, and Austin Bolt, a former Borah quarterback who had a strong end to the 2023 season after overcoming his own injury issues. They also get back Latrell Caples, who was out the entire 2023 season due to injury and add transfers Chris Marshall, Cameron Camper and Cooper Jones.
But Ford knows he’ll get a chance to earn his spot in that rotation, and right now, he says that’s all he can ask for.
“I’m still looking for my role on the team, and I’m totally okay with that,” Ford said. “The opportunities they’ve given me so far is exactly what I expected. They haven’t seen me practice in two years. They gave me a shot to show what I can do, and I think I’ve proved myself that I know what I’m doing and can do my job. Now it’s just finding that role in the season and seeing what happens.”
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