Where have you gone Danny Ford?
You don’t hear too much about Danny Ford these days. He’s living the simple life on a farm near Clemson. But if you are wondering if he has expunged all memories of Arkansas, he hasn’t. The former coach who was known for his malapropisms (”scientific rocket”) actually provides some interesting observations about life in Fayetteville during the 1990s, when football took a backseat to basketball.
“The main thing different from when we were there now is, the facilities are a lot better,” he said. And not just renovated Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
“Then, Fayetteville was hard to get to,” Ford said. “Teams flew into Missouri or Oklahoma, some of them stayed there, too. It was a long trip for them, (and) that was a big advantage for Arkansas.
“Now with the new airport, they’ll be 25 miles to the stadium. They’ll probably stay in Springdale, about 10 minutes away. It’s a nice trip for fans now — unless they drive; it’s 18 hours if you drive.”
Ford posted a disappointing 24-30-1 record in five seasons, but there were highlights, notably an SEC West title (Arkansas’ first) in 1995 and trip to the SEC title game. As for USC, Ford was 2-0 in Fayetteville; in 1995, his 8-5 team laid a 51-21 whipping on the Gamecocks.
Typically, Ford recalls instead a 39-13 loss in 1997 (in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium), part of a 4-7 season that ended his tenure. But the former coach says he has no regrets about his brief time in the Ozarks.
“Lord, no,” Ford said. “They were good people, kind of like South Carolina people. They love their football. But they had been so terrible for a while, so they didn’t have much to brag about.”
Ford says he was dismayed at the condition of the program in 1993, from the facilities to the players.
“When we got there, the facilities were terrible, and the players weren’t very good,” he said. “There’s not many of them (players) out there, and they had quit recruiting east Texas, were getting nothing out of Oklahoma City. The high school football there was not very good, and they got nothing recruiting out of Little Rock, the biggest city there.
Ford says things have changed since he left Arkansas. The football team is better and so are the facilities. But Ford never got to enjoy the fruits of his labors as he tried to rebuild a program left in shambles following the ill-fated Crowe-Kines era. He was canned after a 4-7 season in 1997. The next year, Houston Nutt helped the Razorbacks achieve a 9-3 record.
2 Responses to “Where have you gone Danny Ford?”
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ya know… given the extreme competitive nature involving the SEC, as well as past tense experiences with crowe, kines and ford, i am starting to come back to nutt’s corner. for one thing, he has a strong ‘08 recruiting class. and seriously, although the razorbacks should be better than 5-3 right now, florida has lost 3 times. alabama goes against LSU this weekend for west division supremacy - and alabama has lost twice, already. this conference feeds upon itself. let’s run the table and win out. GO HOGS.
Danny Ford
He compiled a 96-29-4 (.760) record at Clemson, including a 6-2 bowl record. He was the third winningest coach in the country on a percentage basis after the ‘89 season. Ford also coached 21 All-Americans and 41 players who went on to play in the NFL, during his 11 seasons in Tigertown.
In 1981, Ford helped Clemson reach the summit of college football by winning the National Championship, the first by any Clemson team. His Tigers, who were unranked in the preseason, downed three top-10 teams during the course of the 12-0 season that concluded with a 22-15 victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Ford, national Coach of the Year in ‘81, is still the youngest coach to win a national championship on the gridiron. He also led Clemson to a 30-2-2 record between 1981-1983, best in the nation.
Clemson won three straight ACC titles under his guidance between 1986 and 1988. In 1989, Clemson registered a 10-2 season and top-12 national ranking for the fourth straight season. Ford, who always wore a block “C” cap and chewed tobacco on the sideline, closed his career with a 27-7 win over West Virginia (and their All-America quarterback Major Harris) in the Gator Bowl. In the decade of the 1980s, Clemson had the nation’s fifth-highest winning percentage.
While at Clemson, Ford defeated many College Football Hall of Fame coaches. These include Joe Paterno, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Bobby Bowden, Vince Dooley, and Woody Hayes
Not to mention Houston Nut benefited and inherited the talent from Ford’s recruiting for his best back to back seasons in Arkanasas. Arkanasas football program was in shambles when Ford arrived and he was the one to upgrade their talent, not to mention Danny Ford was the first coach in Arkansas football history to lead the razorbacks to a victory over Alabama in football on Alabama’s home field in Tuscaloosa