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).