The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Poona Ford’s winding journey to The University of Texas
09.28.2017 | Football
From a small town in South Carolina to Austin, Ford has defied expectations from an early age.
By James Rodriguez
Poona Ford strode into the California sunlight at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where he and his fellow team captains were promptly greeted with a resounding chorus of boos. As the taunts and jeers from the stands grew louder, a wide grin broke across his face.
The USC faithful didn't know it at the time, but Ford had reason to smile. As the fans that packed the stadium and the millions more watching at home soon realized, the Trojans' offense had few answers for Ford and the rest of the Texas defense.
"They were booing us bad," Ford said. "That's just funny to me. In my mind, I was just like, 'They don't know what's about to hit them."
Ford recorded four tackles, paved the way for nine more tackles for a loss and contributed to a defensive front that ceded just 71 yards to a potent USC running attack. USC would eventually escape in a double-overtime thriller. But if not for the last-minute theatrics of USC quarterback and Heisman hopeful Sam Darnold, sports talk shows and fans would likely have spent the last week discussing how the Texas defense ultimately proved to be the undoing of the highly-ranked Trojans.
Ford, a senior defensive lineman, believes the defense's performance set a standard for the rest of the season. Still, he has only one goal for his time left on the Forty Acres.
"I just want to win," Ford said.
Roots in South Carolina
Ford grew up in Pritchardville, South Carolina, a tiny community that occupies a stretch of highway in the southeast corner of the state. Born Kaylon Ford, he isn't quite sure how his grandmother came to call him "Poona." But there is one theory that he usually tells people.
"It used to be just "Pooh," like Winnie the Pooh," Ford said. "And then it just kind of transitioned over to that."
He found football at an early age. At six years old, he was not yet old enough to compete on teams that consisted of seven- and eight-year-olds. He was big enough, though, and joined a team as a fullback.
Ford moved to nearby Hilton Head to live with his grandmother before he began eighth grade, and would go on to play football for the local high school. At the end of his tenth-grade year, the school fired its longtime head football coach, and B.J. Payne arrived.
Payne moved him from linebacker to defensive line, and promised Ford that under his tutelage, he could reach the next level.
"He said, 'If you trust me, I can get you where you want to be at,'" Ford said. "I believed him. I was like, 'Alright, let's do it.' Before that, I never really thought I was going to college, really. I didn't know what I was going to do after graduating high school."
A football career that almost never was
Ford figured he would end up in a uniform following graduation — he just wasn't sure what kind it would be. A member of the ROTC, he put serious thought into a career in the military if football didn't pan out. For Ford, the path he didn't take still serves as a reminder of just how different his life could have been.
"I think about it a lot actually," Ford said. "More than I should. Just really how different I would be as a person."
Soon after the first home game of Ford's junior season, Payne arrived on his doorstep one rainy evening bearing good news. With Ford's family gathered in the living room, Payne announced that Poona had earned his first athletic scholarship offer from Toledo.
"Everybody was just happy," Ford said. "I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the night. It was really just a blessing. There's only one other person in my family that graduated from college, and that's my aunt. That was just really special to me."
Throughout his recruitment, reports that he was too small to play defensive line dogged Ford.
"I really think that's why some schools didn't offer me, because they just felt I was too short," Ford said. "That's still talked about today, I'm sure. But what I put on film should speak for itself."
It would take a turn of fate for Ford to end up at Texas. If Charlie Strong had not been hired in 2013 to lead the Longhorns, Ford might be finishing his senior season at Louisville, where he originally committed to play football.
Ford was at his All-American game in California when he got the news that Strong had taken the top job at Texas. Ford had never even stepped foot in the Lone Star State at the time.
"I was just like, 'Wow I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do,'" Ford said. "I was talking to my coach because he and my dad were there, and he was like, 'Do you want to open back up your recruitment?' And I was like, 'Yeah.'"
Strong wanted Ford in Austin, and eventually Ford made an official visit.
"When I came here, I was not used to the city," Ford said. "But I was like, I think I'm going to take this chance and come out here."
The Texas years
Ford didn't initially expect to play as a freshman, but injuries thrust him into the lineup early on in the season. On Sept. 27, 2014, he saw his first collegiate action in Lawrence, Kansas, against the Jayhawks.
"I was really nervous," Ford said. "Like really, really nervous, like shaking and stuff. But once I got that first play, I was good. I messed up a little bit, but nothing that couldn't be fixed through teaching. With the first game out of the way, I got better."
While most of his teammates grew up in talent-rich Texas, a state famous for its high school football, Ford remembers only a couple of players who made it to the college level from his corner of South Carolina.
"I felt like I had to prove some points about my state," Ford said.
Ford was also homesick. Removed from the tight-knit community of his hometown, he missed his family.
"I'm really close with my family," Ford said. "Not seeing them every day, it was different, and then being all the way out here, it's kind of hard at first. You can't just go home on the weekends like some other guys do. That was really hard, me not being able to see my family."
Despite the distance from home, Ford soon thrived at Texas. In an upset victory over Oklahoma in his sophomore year, Ford combined with Naashon Hughes to sack quarterback Baker Mayfield on the final Oklahoma possession, helping seal the win for Texas. Ford had cemented his spot in the starting lineup by the time the next season began, starting all 12 games at defensive tackle. This summer, his teammates elected him as one of four captains for the team.
Now a star at Texas, Ford still tries to get back to South Carolina whenever he can.
"That's my getaway," Ford said. "I go see my family, old coaches, things like that. It brings me joy to see everybody again."
Back home in Hilton Head, there's a generation of kids who will look to Ford as an example of what's possible.
"I know when I go back, a lot of the kids just look up to me," Ford said. "When I go back to high school, everybody shows me love. That's still mind-blowing to me, because I never saw myself out here, going this far in life."
