Tony Alford (born November 27, 1968) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach, currently the running backs and run game coordinator at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. He served as an assistant football coach at several programs throughout the Midwest for 27 years.

Playing career

Alford graduated from Doherty High School in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

after moving to the area his Senior year from

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

. He went on to play for

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

from 1987–1990. He was a 1,000-yard rusher and a Doak Walker Award nominee while at Colorado State from 1987–90. He gained 1,035 yards in 1989 as a junior under first-year Rams coach

Earle Bruce Earle Bruce (March 8, 1931 – April 20, 2018) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Tampa (1972), Iowa State University (1973–1978), Ohio State University (1979–1987), the University of N ...

. Alford was named first-team all-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

that season and honorable mention All-America by

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. Following his graduation, Alford was on the preseason squad for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

and for the WLAF's

Birmingham Fire The Birmingham Fire were a professional American football team based in Birmingham, Alabama. They were a member of the North American West division of the World League of American Football (WLAF) and played their home games at Legion Field. The cl ...

Coaching career

Alford has a long history of coaching success at under several top coaches. He has worked under

Dan McCarney Patrick Daniel McCarney (born July 28, 1953) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Iowa State University from 1995 to 2006 and the University of North Texas from 2011 to 2015, compiling a career college foo ...

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Charlie Weis Charles Joseph Weis Sr. (born March 30, 1956) is a former American football coach. He was the head coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2005 to 2009 and the Kansas Jayhawks from 2012 to 2014. He also served as an offensive coordinator in ...

, Brian Kelly, and

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

. He has coached several successful players including J. K. Dobbins,

Ezekiel Elliott Ezekiel Elijah Elliott (born July 22, 1995) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he earned second-team All-America honors in 2015. Elli ...

Mike Weber Michael Weber (born December 16, 1987) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. He previously played with the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL) and Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey L ...

Michael Floyd Michael Floyd Jr. (born November 27, 1989) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football at Notre Dame from 2008 to 2011, finishing with 271 catches for 3,686 yards and 37 touchdowns, all school records. He was drafte ...

and Victor Anderson. Alford was a

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finalist for national recruiter of the year in 2011.

Personal life

Alford is married to his wife Trina and has three sons, Rylan, Kyler and Braydon.

References

External links

*https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/coach/tony-alford/ Ohio State profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Alford, Tony 1968 births Living people American football running backs Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches People from Akron, Ohio African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football Colorado State Rams football players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople