An Ohio alumnus who coaches with great pride and passion for the University, Dustin Ford enters his second season on the Ohio coaching staff in 2009-10, when he will once again bring his high-motor approach to the instruction of the Bobcats' big men.

As a player at Ohio, Ford led the Bobcats to wins at Syracuse and Arizona State, and a sweep of a home-and-home series with West Virginia.

Ford's guidance played a crucial role in the final development of three-time All-MAC selection Jerome Tillman, who averaged a career-high 17.7 points per game to go along with 8.1 rebounds per contest as a senior in 2008-09. During the course of the campaign, Tillman also became just the fifth player in program history to cement his name in the top-10 of both the program's career points and rebounds charts.

Under Ford's tutelage, forward DeVaughn Washington saw his playing time jump to more than 20 minutes per game as a sophomore after playing just over six per contest as a freshman in 2007-08. Washington increased his scoring average by nearly six points per game, while his rebounding improved by 3.3 boards per contest and his field goal percentage shot up nearly 10 percent in Ford's initial season on the bench.

Ford was a four-year starter at Ohio from 1997-01, leading the Bobcats to a combined 57 wins in his last three seasons, including victories at Syracuse and Arizona State and the sweep of a home-and-home series with West Virginia. He led Ohio in three-point field goals in each of his last two campaigns, knocking down 67 triples as a junior to tie for 10th on the school's single-season list, and 166-career trifectas and 310 assists currently rank fifth and seventh, respectively, in program history. His signature performance in an Ohio uniform came against Kent State in the 1999-00 regular-season finale, when he drained seven shots from beyond the arc en route to a career-high 23 points in an 81-71 Ohio win.

After his collegiate playing days, Ford spent four years as head coach at Jackson (Ohio) High School, where he guided the Ironmen to a sectional title and their best league finish in more than a decade during his tenure. In 2004-05, the Ford-led JHS squad set school records for regular-season wins (17) and consecutive victories (12), earning him District 13 Division I-II Coach of the Year and Associated Press District Coach of the Year honors.

The Cambridge, Ohio, native returned to his alma mater following a three-year stint as an assistant under former Ohio head coach Larry Hunter at Western Carolina.

Part of a long line of coaches in the Ford family, Dustin is the son of Muskingum College head coach and Hall of Fame member Gene Ford, while his brother, Geno, is the head coach at Kent State.

Ford graduated from Ohio in 2001 with a degree in communication studies. He and his wife, the former Marcie Young, are the parents of two children, Max and Abbie.