Cold and Competitive: Leesville’s Xavier Ford Finds an Unlikely Home at Minnesota
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Louisiana’s Mr. Football, Xavier Ford of Leesville, didn’t get a total grasp on his recruiting process until earlier this month.
The 5-foot-9, 210-pounder, who rushed for the fourth-most yards in state history, was able to finally take his official visits which presented him with an array of different options.
Ford remained within his home state for a trip to Tulane, followed by out-of-state visits to Arkansas State and Minnesota.
For a guy used to going to the distance with the ability to score from anywhere on a football field, Ford’s final selection may have caught recruiting analysts off guard.
“It was a matter of would this place fit me,” Ford said in his search for a future home. “I hadn’t been up there.”
Minnesota’s a 17-hour drive and 1,100 miles away from home in Vernon Parish, but the job head coach P.J. Fleck and his staff did was enough to convince Ford to offer his commitment to the Big 10 Conference school.
He plans to make it official on February 5th during the NCAA’s second signing day period.
“They didn’t think I’d go that far,” Ford said of his family members. “It’s cold, but everybody’s happy for me. I can’t wait to get them in that Gopher mood.”
Ford focused on his senior season and leading Leesville deep in the Division II select state playoffs.
The Wampus Cats (10-3) reached the state semifinals for the first time since 2018, falling to E.D. White 41-13, a step short of the Caeser’s Superdome.
“We had a tough game against E.D. White,” Ford said. “We hadn’t been there in so long and we were that close to the Dome. The transition (to recruiting) was hard but didn’t take that long. We lost a game, but it was on to the next thing and what was going to be the best fit for me. Where could I make the most of my situation? What was going to bring the best opportunities for my life?”
Ford capped a memorable career at Leesville, leaving as the school’s career leading rusher where the school’s all-time list features several household names.
His per-game averages in 2024 of 25 carries, 267 yards, and 4 touchdowns were staggering and led to a state single-season mark of 331 rushes for 3,467 yards and 52 TDs. He also caught 13 passes for 239 yards and four scores.
Ford broke the state’s existing single-season mark of Oberlin’s Cedrick Skinner (3,437 yards in 2010) and toppled former great Cecil Collins (1992-95) as the school’s career leader with 8,591 yards and 123 TDs on 960 attempts. He’s now the owner of three (No. 1, No. 4, No. 6) of the school’s best single seasons.
Collins, the school’s first Mr. Football award winner in ‘95, had a single-season best of 3,045 yards and 40 scores on 396 carries.
“Coming into the season it was always a goal,” Ford said of Collins’ school rushing mark. “Those records were close. It was just a matter of having fun and making the most of it. I wanted to keep this season consistent like the other ones. That was the big goal and that was to have fun in my senior year, make the best out of it, and just go play football.
“I didn’t go into it to break records, break records, break records,” Ford said. “As the games progressed the more yards I gained and the more records I broke. I never wanted to strive for less. I just wanted to be the best I could and make the most of it.”
Ford won a contested battle with T.J. Lindsey of Alexandria and Jonathan Dartez of Vermilion Catholic to become the latest Mr. Football – the state’s most coveted award voted on by the Louisiana Sportswriter’s Association.
He was also named the offensive MVP on the Class 4A All-State team where he landed for the third consecutive season.
“It hit home for me. That was my ultimate,” said Ford, who was 36-12 with a trip to the quarterfinals and semifinals during his career. “I wanted to be Mr. Football. To be able to say I came from Leesville and won this award. It made me feel good. A lot of good things don’t come out of this community. It’s a small community. What I’ve been able to do is show people there’s more than just where you’re from.”
Ford, a 3.5 student, said he became aware of Minnesota midway through his senior season and steadily built a rapport with running backs coach Nic McKissic-Luke and offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr.
Scholarship offers from Air Force, Houston, UL-Lafayette, and UL-Monroe trickled in until Ford made his recruiting process a bigger priority after his senior season.
Tulane of the American Athletic Conference presented a program on an upward trajectory that continued its winning ways under first-year head coach Jon Sumrall.
One caveat that appealed to Ford was that his uncle, former Leesville great and LSU player Michael Ford, lives in the New Orleans area and would have given him built-in family support three hours from home.
“It’s a great program with great guys,” said Ford, whose brother attends LSU. “I just felt like it wasn’t for me, and I felt like that was the biggest thing in recruiting. You’ve got to go somewhere that’s for you and Tulane wasn’t for me.”
Coach Butch Jones gave Arkansas State of the Sun Belt Conference a viable option for Ford, a school that was seven hours from home.
“It’s a good place,” Ford said. “Coach Jones knows what he’s doing, and the city had good people, a good culture.”
Negative wind chills and fresh snow greeted Ford on his visit to Minnesota which was 8-5 this season with a win over Virginia Tech in the Mayo Bowl.
But something clicked on the visit, something that frigid Minneapolis couldn’t melt.
Fleck’s player development mantra struck a chord, reminding Ford of his own coach Robert Causey at Leesville. The coaches assigned to recruiting Ford are all going into at least their third seasons, giving off a vibe of stability that puts potential recruits at ease.
Fleck, 58-39 in eight seasons, is 6-0 in bowl games with the Gophers.
“It’s a long way away. I’m going to get homesick,” Ford said. “I liked the place; I liked the campus. I liked the coaching staff. They’ve been there and are consistent. I also liked how they go about running their program. I liked the culture they’ve built.
“They’re really big on developing people over players,” Ford said. “That’s what really drew me into coach P.J. He’s a lot like coach Causey. He gave me a feel of Coach Causey in the way he looks at things. He knows it’s bigger than just football.”
Ford said the perceived drawback of Minnesota’s depth at running back wasn’t a deterrent. By the time he arrives this summer for workouts, the Gophers will have eight scholarship running backs.
“No matter where you go, you’re going to have to put in the work,” Ford said. “I feel work speaks louder than anything else. The harder you work the more opportunities you’re going to get. I didn’t think about going into how many guys they’ve got. I feel like the workpiece is very important.”
A week after his visit to Minnesota, Ford was treated to an arctic blast at home when sub-freezing temperatures and snow blanketed southwest Louisiana.
He was able to warm up to the elements.
“When I was there, I tried to block it out of my mind because, at the end of the day, it’s cold everywhere,” Ford said. “It snowed here this week. It’s a matter of getting used to it.”