Thad Ward knows the necessary ingredients behind building relationships with players and coaches, and he has the recipe for on-field success when it comes to getting the most out of his running backs.

But, when he leaves the football field, Ward has found another way to connect with players, spend quality time with family, or just relax: cooking.

"I got into it just growing up, being around my mom, and watching her cook. Sometimes, Mom was working late, so you have to learn how to cook," Ward said. "You have to learn how to find a meal. Many times, as coaches, our time is occupied. You have to find some things that really help you relax, and cooking is one of those things that brings me joy. It relaxes my mind. If I get a chance to have eight hours off in a week, I would rather cook with my time. I'll cook and enjoy family, and those are some of the things I enjoy doing. Cooking and good food, that makes everybody happy."

Now entering his second stint at Illinois, Ward is back in Champaign, taking over as the program's running backs coach, the same position he occupied with the Illini from 2016-18. Ward spent last year as the wide receivers coach at Kansas State, which won the 2022 Big 12 Championship, earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl, amassed 10 wins, and finished the season ranked 14th in the Associated Press Top-25 poll.

The chance to return and represent the Orange and Blue once again was too good to pass up, though, and he officially joined head coach Bret Bielema's coaching staff on Jan. 30.

"I'm obviously very thankful and grateful for the opportunity, and you always are grateful for people that reach out to you and think highly of enough of you to be able to do the job," Ward said. "I talked with Coach B and he made me understand the situation and the challenges and opportunities that I would have here. I could feel the family vibe in here. 

"I was in a great situation there, it was a really good program, but this always felt like home to me. It wasn't just going to be about me coming back to a place where I really liked. It had to be a good fit, and Coach B made me feel, not just me, but he made my entire family feel like this is a place we needed to come back to."

After playing at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas and then transferring to UCF for three seasons, Ward began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Florida A&M. He spent one year with the Rattlers before coaching at the high-school level for two seasons, and he returned to college football in 2005 as the running backs coach at Western Illinois.

Since then, Ward has also coached at Gardner-Webb, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Temple, taking on several different titles, including running backs coach, wide receivers coach, and pass game coordinator.

Of all of the stops he's made over the course of his career, Illinois has always been different, and he continued to follow along with the program from afar.

"From a family standpoint, if we're not playing, we're watching Illinois," Ward said. "When we left, I left here as a fan of the institution and a fan of the kids. The kids that you helped bring in here, you want to see them be successful. You want to see all those things that you told them during recruitment come to fruition."

Whether it be inviting players over to his house to watch Thursday Night Football games, going axe throwing as a group, or enjoy a home-cooked meal together, Ward has found several unique ways to establish relationships and chemistry with not just his running backs, but with anyone who wants to come. He emphasizes the developmental side of things, in football and in life more broadly, and he welcomes any player or coach who walks through the door with open arms.

That extra time and effort will pay dividends for the success of the run game and the Illini moving forward, and Ward is excited to get back to work in Champaign and take the Illinois football program to the next level and even greater heights.

"When you're talking about your players, it's about relationships. I've had so much success, and I think that's why," Ward said. "To get your players to do exactly what you want them to do, I believe you got to have a genuine relationship, and I think it's really getting to know your players outside of football. Outside of football, how is their life going? What's going on in their situation? What's going on in class? Oftentimes, we get caught up in the football, but these student-athletes and their lives are bigger than just the game of football.

"I'm here to develop people and develop men. I've had a lot of success, I would say, because I've been able to relate to these young men in other ways besides football. That's why our guys have been successful. The guys I've been able to coach, they go over and beyond because they understand that I have a genuine interest for them to be successful, no matter what."