Ailym Ford never cheated the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program.
The 5-foot-9, 215-pound running back from Florence, South Carolina, fell in love with Chattanooga — the city and the school — in 2018 while being courted by a different UTC coaching staff than the one he’d ultimately play for. Tom Arth, after two seasons leading the Mocs, left in mid-December that year to take the head job at Akron, and that left Ford with his own big decision to make.
Still, he felt good enough about his recruiting visit to follow through on his commitment during the NCAA’s early signing period that month, just as former UTC player Rusty Wright, twice an assistant at his alma mater, returned to take over the Mocs.
Despite not knowing what his future at the school would look like, Ford believed in himself and his ability to contribute to whatever that might be. Which, as it turns out, was a lot of personal and program success.
The Mocs haven’t had a losing season during Ford’s five years, a 38-game career that has now come to a close. After the Mocs’ 34-3 home win over East Tennessee State University on Saturday, Wright revealed that Ford had undergone surgery for a torn ACL, the second such injury of his career (his 2019 freshman season ended after 10 games).
Ford, who played his final two games as a Moc (against Western Carolina on Oct. 7 and at Mercer on Oct. 15) knowing about his knee injury, finished with career rushing totals of 3,928 yards and 36 touchdowns, falling just short in his quest of eclipsing former UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman’s school-best totals of 4,051 yards and 43 touchdowns.
“He’s done playing football at Chattanooga,” Wright said Saturday. “We had a good, long talk, and he maybe could have played some more, but it wasn’t worth it for his future. I love him, I love everything he’s ever done here, he’s given his body, his heart, his soul to this program, and we wish him nothing but the best from here on out.
“If I could give him a piece of my body, I would for him to go finish it and figure it out. I’d give him my left knee if that’s what it took for him to go finish and figure it out, but you know what? The good Lord has a plan for him, and I’m just thankful he came in our lives at some point in time.”
Ford is not only a team captain, he’s the face of the UTC program.
It’s fitting that when one clicks on the football roster on the school’s official website for athletics, gomocs.com, Ford is the first person listed (due to him wearing jersey No. 0). He was a Football Championship Subdivision All-American third-team selection in 2022, finished fifth in voting for the Jerry Rice Award for FCS national freshman of the year in 2010, and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award — the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy — a year ago, when he had 1,199 yards in 10 games.
Those are just a few of the many accolades from his time with the Mocs, but his contributions go beyond statistics.
“It’s been a blessing. He’s the definition of grit,” said All-American edge rusher Jay Person, who transferred to UTC ahead of the 2019 season after spending his first year of college at Appalachian State
“He keeps his head down all the time, he won’t say too much, but he’s always working. It’s not too much joking around with him; I cut up with him sometimes, I get him to laugh with me, but he’s really all business and he means what he says when he does something, that’s what he’s going to do.
“It hurts not having him now, but I feel like we’ll be all right – he’s going to be out there with us.”
Despite those personal and program successes of recent seasons, there are things the Mocs were unable to accomplish before Ford’s final run.
UTC hasn’t won a Southern Conference football championship since 2015, and it hasn’t made the FCS playoffs since 2016. Wins in the next two games — the Mocs (6-2, 5-1) visit Virginia Military Institute (3-4, 2-2) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, then host Furman (6-1, 4-0) on Nov. 4 at Finley Stadium for senior day — will accomplish both.
With first-year UCLA transfer Chase Artopoeus at quarterback and a reliable group of receivers and tight ends among his targets, the passing game has become a more noticeable aspect of UTC’s offense this season — the Mocs threw for 259 yards while rushing for 159 yards against ETSU — but running the ball remains important.
In that regard, the Mocs will now turn to senior Gino Appleberry, juniors Chris Houston and Lance Jackson, and sophomore Reggie Davis at running back, a quartet who combined for 151 yards on the ground against the Buccaneers. Appleberry leads the Mocs with five touchdown runs this season, and his 336 rushing yards trail only Ford (485).
“Ailym is our guy, so not having him was a bit unfortunate. But I thought we had guys step up today,” Artopoeus said Saturday. “I thought Gino did pretty good, I thought Reggie did really good, Chris did good, too.
“Having that stable of running backs definitely helps us.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.