Profile of Michigan assistant Conor Ford

There was change in the coaching staff in Ann Arbor, just as there was in Detroit. The Wolverines’ is a little more straightforward, an offensive coordinator swap.

Michigan lost top assistant Ryan Danehy to an opportunity with 3D Rising, but the Maize and Blue managed to snag a strong replacement in Drexel’s Conor Ford. Ford’s offenses with the Dragons were good, but just how good?

The Profile of Output

We begin with his most recent tenure, at Drexel. He has spent the past five years there. The seaosn before Ford’s arrival is noted in italics, those for which he was coordinating the Dragons’ offensive unit in bold.

So, that’s a marked improvement in the first year, more improvement the next year, before settling in around the mid-.350s or so. It is worth noting that he wasn’t the only new coach at Drexel in 2010 – the whole staff turned over, with new headman Brian Voelker taking over. Still, the offense was Ford’s domain, and it was good. The Dragons were in the top-20 offensively (when adjusted for strength of schedule) each of his seasons, with two top-ten finishes.

Prior to Drexel, Ford was an assistant at Penn, where again he was the offensive coordinator. The Quakers don’t have archived stats back that far, unfortunately, so another data point (where he was again coaching under Voelker) is unavailable.

Getting it Done

How has Ford been successful? Let’s look at who his top individuals have been.

All-conference selections during his time at Drexel include Nick Trizano (attack), Ben McIntosh (midfield), Ryan Belka (midfield), Aaron Prosser (midfield), Robert Church (attack), Kyle Bergman (midfield), Scott Perri (attack), and Colin Ambler (attack). That’s a nice distribution across the two units.

Indeed, that’s been the case in individual years, with leading scorers across both positions. Of note, he doesn’t seem to ever have a true feeder – and the offense isn’t particularly assist-heavy in general – so that’s one important stylistic note. Does a team like Michigan with less talent than many of its opponents have the opportunity to win with one-man offense like that? Or is Ford’s offense more adaptable to the talent? Those are two quaestions that can’t be answered until we see the product on the field.

His MGoBlue profile points out his man-up success in a couple places, but from looking at the five-year track record, it’s been good-not-great on average. There have been strong years, and some lean years, like many teams.

Recruiting

Ford has a pedigree as a player (both collegiately at Hopkins and professionally in Philly and New Jersey) that gives him a wide range of connections that could be of assistance in getting recruits out of some major hotbed areas. Along with Long Island/Upstate New York, that’s basically every territory you could want to cover when it comes to the traditional talent pools.

Michigan has seemed to focus more on Baltimore/DC than Long Island/Upstate New York in that region of the country, and they’re also doing well nationally. Ford’s presence on the staff only helps there.