Cornell Ford, who has been on staff in each of Barry Odom's seasons as a head coach, will continue alongside Odom as the assistant head coach of Purdue Football. Arriving in West Lafayette after the two seasons at UNLV, the Gary, Indiana, native is in his first season coaching the Boilermaker wide receivers.
Ford is a versatile coach, having served as a position coach for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, safeties and cornerbacks.
While at UNLV with Odom, Ford coached the Rebel running backs that produced stunning results. During his two seasons combined, UNLV ranked fifth in the country with 68 rushing touchdowns and seventh with 5,838 rushing yards.
In 2024, the UNLV rushing attack ranked eighth in the country with 243.5 rushing yards per game led by a pair of Second Team All-Mountain West selections, quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams and running back Jai'Den Thomas. Thomas had 918 rushing yards, and Williams followed closely behind with 851. The balanced attack was one of five FBS programs to have two players with at least 850 rushing yards.
Buoyed by a fresh-legged committee of runners during his first season in Las Vegas, the UNLV offense finished sixth in the nation in third-down conversions at 49.3 percent, posting more third-down conversions than any team in the nation with 101. The Rebels finished 22nd in the nation in scoring with 34.4 points per game and tied for eighth in the nation for red-zone offense at 93.1 percent. A trio of backs ran for at least 450 yards apiece, as Thomas set a school record for rushing touchdowns by a freshman in both a game (four) and season (12). In fact, his dozen scores were tops among all freshmen in college football. Seniors Vincent Davis Jr. and Donavyn Lester both earned Honorable Mention All-Mountain West as UNLV finished tied for second in the nation with a school-record 39 rushing touchdowns.
Ford joined UNLV after spending the previous two seasons coaching cornerbacks at his alma mater Toledo, mentoring 2024 NFL First Round Draft Pick Quinyon Mitchell, who went 22nd overall to the Philadelphia Eagles. He spent the 2020 season as a volunteer assistant at Toledo before rejoining the staff full time.
Ford previously coached for the Rockets for seven seasons under former head coach Gary Pinkel and spent 19 seasons as an assistant at Missouri under Pinkel and then as assistant head coach and running backs coach under Odom when he led the Mizzou program from 2016-19.
Ford was a graduate assistant coach with the Rockets from 1991-92 before joining the staff as an assistant coach at Marietta from 1993-95. He returned to Toledo in 1996 to serve as the wide receivers coach, then followed Pinkel to Missouri when he took the head coaching job with the Tigers in 2001.
Ford was a part of Rocket teams that went 39-18 and won a MAC West Division title in 1997. Toledo set 10 passing records in 1997 and finished with a 10-1 record in 2000. Ford mentored one of the top receivers in Rocket history, Mel Long Jr., who caught 175 passes from 1997-2000. At Missouri, Ford coached the outside safeties from 2001-03 and the cornerbacks from 2004-15. During Ford's tenure at Missouri, the Tigers won three Big 12 North Division titles and two SEC East Division crowns.
A native of Gary, Indiana, Ford earned his bachelor's degree in physical education (1991) and master's degree in sports administration (1993) from Toledo.
Ford and his wife, Dawn, are the parents of a son, Devin, and a daughter, Taylor.
