Behind the Scenes: Trace Ford commits to Oklahoma State
Trace Ford is an Oklahoma State Cowboy.
The three-star defensive end announced his commitment Friday morning at a prep rally for his Edmond (Okla.) Santa Fe team’s season-opening game against Edmond North. Ford could scarcely imagine this situation just a year ago, when he had no scholarship offers and little college attention. This is the story behind his recruitment that led to Friday's commitment.
THE RECRUITMENT
“I always thought I was going to play baseball in college and go to the MLB. Those were the dreams I had as a kid. Baseball is still my true love. I’ve been playing it since I was four. I’ll never get over baseball. That sport is my love, but football has really developed where I love it just as much.
“I never started playing football until the seventh grade. I didn’t really take it serious. I just played around because my friends played it. I was a running back. It was fun, of course. I like sports, so no sport is boring to me. In the last year when I started getting playing time on varsity, that’s when I really started feeling a passion for it. That’s when I started really buying in to the process.
“Memphis was my first offer. They came up to school to see me and they called me out of class. That happened every day – schools would come up to see me, call me out of class. I’d say ‘Hi’ and go back to class.
“I was sitting in class right after I met the (coach) from Memphis and Coach (Kyle) White, our football coach, comes and pulls me out. I go in the hallway and he said, ‘Call this guy, he’s going to offer.’ I called him and they offered me. The whole class was pretty much watching me from the windows. I never smiled so hard in my life.
“I couldn’t stop smiling. The rest of the day I was just hyper. Everyone was calling me ‘D1’ and yelling my name down the hallways. I felt like a king. It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my life.
“I would go to OU or OSU football games or I’d watch Florida State on TV and thought, ‘one day that’s going to be me,’ but it was never a serious thought. It was a dream. I never really thought about it being a real thing. It was extremely new to me and I was caught off guard. I thought ‘Wow, this is really happening,’ and I was shocked. I started getting advice from coaches and friends, like Calvin Bundage and other people who had been through the process. It was all brand new to me and I was super scared, didn’t know what to do. I had to figure it out.
“It’s always exciting. How could it not be? You have major colleges coming to tell you they want you to play football there. It’s awesome. Every time a school called me, I was excited. Eastern Michigan, I was super excited. Florida State, super excited. It’s a free education and an opportunity to get better in the sport I like.
THE DECISION
“At first it was really just the education that was all I cared about. Then, as time went on, I started realizing it was more about family and location more than education. Education is still major, but it was more about: will my family be able to see me every other week for a couple of games a year, or is it going to be where they will only be able to see me one time a year? So, it really started to become about family and how many times I would see them. That really started changing my decision in the past couple weeks.
“Oklahoma State offered me pretty early into this process and we started a connection right away. I’ve been up there a couple times and we just really hit it off. They are really family-oriented. (Mike) Gundy is a cool coach. He’s not one of those coaches who hides behind doors. He’s out there with everybody else, talking with everybody like he’s just another dad. I really like that about them. It’s close to home, I have a lot of friends going there and a lot of people I know going there. I know I could really make a change on their defense."