By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan senior Israel Ford passes the eye test.

Ford’s physical presence — he’s a rugged-looking cornerback at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds — hurt his interception totals because coaches saw him on film and game-planned to throw the ball somewhere where the imposing corner wasn’t.

“We usually played Ford on the far sideline and he was rarely challenged just because of how he looks,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “He’s long, he’s rangy, he’s got all the physical tools to be a high-level college player.”

Ford will get the chance to play high-level football. He has committed to North Carolina A&T University. Located in Greensboro, N.C. A&T is one of the first schools you think of when it comes to HBCU football, but the Aggies stepped out of their MEAC comfort zone in 2023 and now compete in the Colonial Athletic Association against schools such as Richmond, Rhode Island, Villanova and Elon. Hampton is the only other HBCU school in the league.

Ford said N.C. A&T has shown interest in him for a long time.

“There was a day at school when they called me out of class to go to the office,” Ford said. “The recruiting coordinator from A&T was there to see Evan Kennedy, Brant Graham and me. A&T stayed in touch with me after that with texts. But at that time, I wasn’t thinking about college recruiting yet. I was focused on two things — having a great senior football season for West Rowan and keeping my grades high.”

Grades are no problem for Ford. He takes challenging courses and makes A’s and B’s.

He had the solid senior football season he wanted, although he had only one official interception. He’s counting two, though.

“I had a diving interception against Davie,” Ford said. “The other one was against East Rowan. They ruled I intercepted the ball out of bounds, but the film doesn’t lie, and I was inbounds. Coach (Tim) Dixon is our DBs coach, and he’s really coached me up a lot. He looked at that play on film and said, ‘Yeah, you can count that one.'”

Ford went to Southeast Middle School. He grew up believing basketball would be his game. That was still the case when he got to high school at West Rowan. His freshman year of school had started, and he still had no plans to play football. Joe Robinson, one of West’s assistants, had Ford in his PE class, took one look at him and talked him into joining the football squad.

“Coach Rob told me that if I played football and worked at it, we’d make some good things happen,” Ford said. “I never would have played football if not for him.”

Ford only got to play in a handful of football games as a freshman, but as a sophomore he stood out on a West jayvee team that won the conference championship. He also was introduced to the speed of the varsity game on Fridays as an 8-quarter player.

Ford got better each year. He became a starter as a junior and maintained that role as a senior.

“I had some good games as a senior, tried to do my job,” Ford said. “The Mooresville game wasn’t a good outcome for us, but I made a lot of solo tackles. The Northwest Cabarrus game was a very tough loss for us, a game we should have won, but that was probably my best game. I covered an outstanding receiver and held him to two catches for 23 yards. I always studied film and checked out the stats of guys I would be covering. Receivers come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have strengths and weaknesses. I tried to find out what my man’s weaknesses were. The goal was to hold guys under their normal stats and to make them work for every yard.”

Ford said he didn’t allow a touchdown catch as a senior. He made 7o tackles.

“I got quite a few tackles against the run game, but I also had a lot on special teams, especially kickoffs,” Ford said.

Ford was one of those guys who showed up for every workout, every practice and did extra work on his own once practice was over. He also was a good guy to have in the locker room.

He continued to play basketball for the Falcons and recently finished his final season on the hardwood. He was in the rotation for coach Dadrian Cuthbertson, mostly as a defensive stopper. But by his junior year, he had switched to a football-first mentality. There aren’t many college scholarships for 6-foot-2 forwards, but the market for 6-foot-2 cornerbacks is always bullish.

Wingate offered Ford a roster spot, but Wingate has a ton of DBs on the roster. Ford appreciated the offer, but when North Carolina A&T put in a call to him it was an easy decision to make.

“In my eyes, North Carolina A&T was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Ford said. “It’s the chance to play Division I football and to go to a great school that has the information technology major that I wanted. Even if football wasn’t involved, North Carolina A&T would have been a school high on my list of schools I wanted to go to.”

Kraft believes he’ll do well.

“He’s not afraid to tackle and he loves hard work,” Kraft said. “There’s so much potential there. One day that light bulb will flick on for him and it’s going to be like, ‘Holy Smokes! Where did this guy come from?’ I think he’s going to surprise some people, including himself, with what he can do. In a few years, he’ll be contributing to Aggie success.”