New coach seeks first win since 2014 for SFU Clan

We’ll get a better idea of Thomas Ford’s plans with the SFU Clan come Saturday.

Ford, a Seattle man who was hired as Simon Fraser University ’s football coach in January from the Washington state high school ranks, leads the Clan out against the Willamette Bearcats on Saturday (3 p.m.) at Terry Fox Field, looking for the program’s first win since Oct. 18, 2014.

The Clan have lost 33 games over that span.

Ford has brought in 28 new players to his 79-man roster and has used his U.S. connections extensively. SFU’s fact sheet for the media lists 13 key freshmen or transfers and 10 of them are Americans.

“Energy and discipline is what I’ll be looking for,” Ford said in an SFU news release.

“I don’t want the moment to be too big for them or have them worrying about things we can’t control. I just want to focus on us, and that energy, that positive energy, and being excited about playing football again.”

SFU is an NCAA Div. II team, while Willamette is one level lower at NCAA Div. III. The Salem, Ore., side went winless last season as well, going 0-9 while being outscored by an average of 39-18.

SFU went 0-10 and were outscored 55-11 on average.

The Clan had a 21-17 lead in the fourth quarter on the road against Western Oregon in their season finale on Nov. 11, but surrendered a touchdown at the 7:26 mark of the quarter and ended up losing 24-21.

SFU moved from U Sports and Canada West to the NCAA in 2010. They were 5-6 in 2012 under Dave Johnson, but they’ve gone 5-45 in their last five seasons.

Athletics director Theresa Hanson was quoted as saying that she received 200 applications for the job after the school announced it wasn’t renewing Kelly Bates’ contract as coach after three winless campaigns.

Ford had been a star running back at Linfield College, helping the McMinnville, Ore., program to a 41-4 record during his time there, which included the 2004 NCAA Division III national title. He went on to assistant coaching jobs at Linfield, Division II Southeastern Oklahoma State and Division III Puget Sound before taking on the head job at Tacoma’s Stadium High in 2014.