Justin Ford grew up a KU hoops fan, has an offer to play football
Justin Ford didn’t start his official visit to Kansas until Saturday. And it couldn’t have started any better for him watching the game against Villanova in Allen Fieldhouse.
When Ford was growing up, he never paid much attention to college basketball until he watched the 2007-08 Kansas team.
“As soon as we got there I got to see KU play a ranked team,” Ford said. “When I was younger the first team I followed was Kansas. They had Brandon Rush and I was a big fan. I watched Mario Chalmers hit the shot and I followed Kansas ever since.”
Ford, an All-Conference corner from Golden West College, might be a KU-basketball fan, but the football coaches are hoping he is back to see more college basketball games. Ford is being recruited by Les Miles and his staff as a cornerback.
Right after the game Ford took pictures in a KU football uniform for a photoshoot all of the recruits do on a weekend visit.
“I enjoyed the game,” he said. “After that what we went straight up to taking pictures so it was a good transition. The energy was still high and then really what did it for me was my meeting with Coach Miles.”
Ford met with Miles after the photo shoot and heard what the Jayhawks head coach plan would be if he chose Kansas.
“He had great defensive backs when he was at LSU,” Ford said. “I got to hear some things that he has planned for me to do at the University of Kansas. It was exactly what I wanted to hear on the trip.”
One of those defensive backs who played for Miles is now coaching at Kansas. Chevis Jackson was part of those great defensive backfields at LSU and Ford listened closely to what Jackson had to say.
“Coach Chevis is the one I spent most my time around,” Ford said. “He played with Patrick Peterson and Jalen Mills and helped bring guys like Jamal Adams into the LSU culture. He’s been around it, so for him to compare me to some of the guys that he's been around was an eye-opener.”
Ford admitted his phone hasn’t stopped ringing because he plans to make a decision sometime Tuesday evening. He hasn’t made a decision yet and will think things through Monday evening. Ford had a lot of recruiting attention but has narrowed his choices down to Kansas and UNLV.
“UNLV would be a good place for me,” Ford said. “They have a lot of good recruits going there and I helped get some of them to UNLV. Then you have Coach Miles who is a championship coach. And coach Chevis has been around a lot of great DBs. I’m going to do a lot of thinking tonight.”