New coach helps SFU end 33-game losing skid
The most exciting thing for fans of the Simon Fraser University Clan football team after winning its first game in four years should be how even-keeled new coach Thomas Ford is about it.
Don’t get us wrong. He hit all the talking points you’d expect in regards to the Clan’s 54-7 seasonopening romp over the Willamette Bearcats on Saturday at Terry Fox Field, which was the program’s first win since a triumph on Oct. 18, 2014, and ended a 33-game losing skid.
He lauded his players’ perseverance. He talked about how it helped get players to buy in to what Ford and his staff want to do. He’s keen on the buzz that the victory created with alumni and staff.
His main take-away was simple, though. “We did what we were supposed to do,” said Ford.
Ford didn’t dance around the fact that Willamette, a Salem, Ore. school, is an NCAA Div. III program, which is one level below SFU’s NCAA Div. II. He didn’t try to skip over that the Bearcats have had their struggles, too. They were winless last season, and were 5-23 in the three years leading into this one. This was a winnable game, and SFU won it going away.
Ford is trying to rebuild the culture, he’s trying to create an expectation. He’s not going to miss a chance to try to set guidelines, and that’s even in a newspaper story.
“This year is about focusing on the process,” Ford said.
The Clan do take a step up in opponent this week, heading to California to face the Asuza Pacific Cougars. The Cougars received some votes in the NCAA Div. II national rankings this past week, and they scored 83-7 and 61-0 wins over the Clan a season ago.
Asuza Pacific was 7-4 last season and 9-3 in 2016.
“Our players understand. They see the task at hand. They know we are playing a very good program, with a lot of good players. They’ll be ready for the challenge,” Ford explained.
The win did seem to engage the Clan alumni, going off the response on social media. Former SFU offensive lineman Angus Reid, who went on to a stellar career with the B.C. Lions, has been promoting what Ford’s trying to do atop Burnaby Mountain in particular.
Getting the alumni invested again is one of Ford’s main goals.
“We want to be like a University of Miami or a USC, with the alumni on our sidelines for games,” he said. “Angus and I had lunch recently and he’s been really wanting to get back involved. Guys like him are special people. To be able to have them come talk to our guys and tell their stories is huge.
“He has been banging the drum for us. He likes what we’re doing. It makes it easy for him.”
They know we are playing a very good program, with a lot of good players. They’ll be ready for the challenge.
SFU lost its season-opener in Phoenix last year by a 34-28 count to the Arizona Christian Firestorm, an NAIA team. The NAIA is the American small college loop that SFU played in prior to moving to Canada West against the likes of the UBC Thunderbirds in 2002. They jumped from there to NCAA Div. II in 2010. They went 5-6 in 2012 under coach Dave Johnson, but they’ve now gone 6-45 since.
Ford was hired in January to replace Kelly Bates, who was let go by SFU after three winless seasons.
A native of Seattle, Ford has coached in the NCAA at Puget Sound (Div. III), Southeastern Oklahoma State (Div. II), and at his alma mater, Linfield (Div. III). Immediately prior to SFU, he had been coaching in the Washington state high school ranks at Tacoma’s Stadium High.