Penn State DT Alonzo Ford's football perspective extends well beyond the field

Two years ago, Penn State defensive lineman Alonzo Ford suited up for Old Dominion for the final time. He took the field with this team in front of an announced 11,407 fans in Mobile, Alabama, against South Alabama in November of 2022. The day ended with ODU’s sixth straight loss to end the season.

Now, playing in front of crowds of, give or take, 100,000 more people as a member of the Nittany Lions’ defensive tackle rotation, Ford has taken every opportunity to soak in his favorable situation. 

“Before every game, I go out and take in the atmosphere,” Ford said after playing in his first White Out last weekend. “Just look around, see all the fans and everything and just calm myself. I get into the process of enjoying and living in the moment.”

Ford’s perspective has certainly been altered in the last two years. He went into the Transfer Portal following a strong first two years at Old Dominion and landed in Happy Valley ahead of the 2023 season. Monarchs head coach Ricky Rahne insisted to James Franklin that the Nittany Lions should take a look, and Ford joined the program that summer. 

A few practices into preseason camp, though, Ford went down with an injury. He missed the entire 2023 season and the following spring. He popped back up in August about 30 pounds heavier and climbed the ladder at his position this fall. 

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“In some ways, he got here and it was a negative as well as a positive,” recalled Franklin. “His first year he got hurt, he had a pretty significant injury. So it allowed us to redshirt him, get him bigger and stronger, get him more mature and get him closer to graduating. And now he’s playing really good football for us after missing all of last year. 

“For me to say I really knew what we had, we didn’t. Because very early on when he got here, he had the injury. He’s been a real pleasant surprise for us, has another year left of eligibility. He plays the run really well, just a natural football player, where the game makes sense to him. And you can never have enough D-tackles and depth on the D-Line.”

Ford has one more season available after 2024

Ford enrolled at Old Dominion in 2020 and promptly saw his first season canceled due to Covid-19. His true freshman status carried over to 2021, when he started all 13 games in Conference USA. He was all-Sun Belt in 2022 as a sophomore and hit the Portal looking for a step up.

Luckily for Ford — though he would dispute the notion that his injury held a silver lining — he had a redshirt year to use. He did so at Penn State in 2023 and entered 2024 with two years left to play. Still, last year was a long one for the Richmond, Va., native. 

“I feel like the redshirt year definitely gave me a different perspective on football, really,” said Ford. “Coming into Old Dominion, my first season in 2020 got canceled. In 2021, I’m starting as a young guy and I just never really experienced the redshirt life. I came in here and had to learn how to really compete and play at the level that they play here in the Big Ten. It was good for me to adjust to everything.

“It gave me time to develop in the weight room and things like that. When the injury happened, I was sad, obviously, but I just look at it as a positive. To be able to get back to work and hopefully come back this year and do what I needed to do.”

Now third among Penn State defensive tackles in snaps this season, Ford has been one of the more pleasant surprises among the nation’s No. 10 rushing defense. He’s racked up 14 tackles and is sixth on the team in tackles for loss. 

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Perhaps just as important, Ford has also learned to live in the moment without taking his current situation for granted. He’s embraced his role, not only as a key member of the defensive line, but also as a part of the culture in Happy Valley. 

“Shoot, it’s something as simple as the pregame meal. Week to week, it’s pretty much the same meal,  and in your third or fourth year of college you’re thinking all right, I’m tired of eating this food, tired of sitting here, blah, blah, blah,” Ford philosophized. “But if you get that taken away from you, you’ll recognize real quick that it’s a blessing, a real true blessing to have that family atmosphere and that real team bonding. That same meal, that’s the best meal you’ll ever eat. 

“Little things like beating time, being able to go out on the field even when it’s cold and raining. You might not feel like it, but being able to be there and actually go out and run and anything like that, those are just blessings that you don’t really think about.”