Air Force Football

Colleges and Universities A-Z Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs
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<p>By John Shinn The Norman Transcript Sep 14, 2010, 02:13 AM CDT</p>

<p>NORMAN — When Oklahoma’s 2010 schedule was released, the games against Florida State and Cincinnati drew the most attention. Those were the teams that carried national prestige.</p>

<p>But OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables was telling anyone within ear shot there was a third team that should put the fear into the Sooners.</p>

<p>He’d been watching film of Air Force’s 37-20 victory over Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl.</p>

<p>“Those guys are good,” Venables said back in July. “They’re going to be tough.”</p>

<p>The tough comes from the offense and the shear amount of it the Falcons (2-0) will bring to Owen Field at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.</p>

<p>Air Force continues to be one of the few college teams left that has made the triple option the staple of its offense. But the Falcons run it out of a spread alignment and don’t huddle either.</p>

<p>Northwestern State and BYU didn’t have any success slowing it. Air Force crushed Northwestern State, 65-21, in its season opener. It will come to Owen Field after blasting BYU, 35-14, last Saturday.</p>

<p>It’s averaging an FBS best 423 rushing yards per game and more than 540 yards in total offense. Running backs Asher Clark and Jared Tew are both averaging more than 70 rushing yards a game. Quarterback Tim Jefferson has rushed for three touchdowns and thrown for three more in two games.</p>

<p>OU coach Bob Stoops said the toughest part of getting ready for the Falcons is what they do is so unique.</p>

<p>“You’re just dealing with an offense that you don’t see the rest of the year,” he said.</p>

<p>Throughout the preseason, OU finds common traits of future opponents and gears practices toward working against that. Air Force has nothing in common with any Big 12 Conference foes or anyone else.</p>

<p>Venables said OU took a couple preseason practices and worked against the option, but time is limited. What happens in the days leading up to Saturday’s game will be critical.</p>

<p>“You have to match their discipline and carry out your assignments,” OU middle linebacker Tom Wort said following Monday’s practice. “If everyone does their assignments, we’ll be good.”</p>

<p>The Sooners might hold an athletic edge Saturday. Matching the discipline of men who showed enough of it to get into one of the prestigious United States Military Academies is a much tougher task.</p>

<p>OU isn’t taking anything lightly. The warning shots Venables has been firing since the preseason have been heard loud and clear.</p>

<p>After Monday’s practice, OU linebacker Travis Lewis said he felt like he’d just taken a grueling exam while having to run at the same time. The game’s still five days away and already he couldn’t wait for this week to be over.</p>

<p>“Give me Texas. Give me somebody else. I don’t want to play an option team,” he said. “I’m a traditional 4-3 linebacker. I want to play — not think. Against this team, you have to do both.”</p>

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<p>Stoops asks fans to sing national anthem correctly to respect Air Force
September 14th, 2010, 4:11 pm · posted by Frank Schwab</p>

<p>Some Oklahoma fans have taken to changing the end of the national anthem, changing the final word of “home of the brave,” to “home of the Sooners.” That’s a tradition Kansas City fans do as well, replacing “brave” with “Chiefs.”</p>

<p>Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said he wants fans to sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” the right way this week, with Air Force coming to Norman.</p>

<p>“I am totally in agreement with our administration and most everybody that hopefully the people that will be singing ‘home of the brave’ can surely be louder and stronger than anybody that’s saying ‘the Sooners,’” Stoops said at his weekly press conference. “I have great respect for these young men and all the academies for their service, their commitment, their sacrifice. You have to respect it and appreciate them.”</p>

<p>Stoops indicated he might address the crowd before the game to get his point across.</p>

<p>He spoke in depth about his respect for the Air Force and former coach Fisher DeBerry. He remembered the scene after Oklahoma beat Air Force in 2001, when the Sooner players took time out from their postgame celebration to respect Air Force singing the alma mater.</p>

<p>“I really appreciated that all of our players got quiet and stopped celebrating and just kind of stood at attention and watched them out of respect as they sang with their student body singing their fight song,” Stoops said. “Fisher commented to me a little while after that he really appreciated the class we represented Oklahoma with, the class our players played with, the respect we showed his team afterward. That meant a lot to me, because again, I’m a guy that really looked up, and still does, to Fisher DeBerry and the way he coached.”</p>

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<p>this has gotten tons of attention in Norman. There’s a feud of sorts about what people should do. Many people feel altering the song is disrespectful, while many see nothing wrong with it and note that its their right to say (sing) whatever they like</p>

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<p>Well, I guess they can sing whatever they want to sing. I would never sing it without those words “Home of the Brave.” </p>

<p>I hope I can get it on some channel here.</p>

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<p>it’ll be televised on FSN. I’m in Ohio right now, and both of our FSN stations (Cincinnati and Cleveland) will be showing it, although in SD only and not HD for some reason.</p>

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<p>Air Force puts scare in No. 7 Oklahoma
FRANK SCHWAB
THE GAZETTE</p>

<p>After the game, after Air Force’s alma mater, the Oklahoma fans cheered the Falcons players off the field.</p>

<p>The ovation wasn’t patronizing. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ pregame message about respecting the academy cadets for serving their country had little to do with it. The OU fans root for a program that claims seven national titles, and they recognize an impressive football performance when they see it.</p>

<p>Air Force couldn’t muster any smiles after a 27-24 loss to seventh-ranked Oklahoma. The Falcons played well, and on a few occasions sent the Oklahoma fans among the 84,332 at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium into a nervous silence. But the underdog Falcons came to win.</p>

<p>“They’re not interested in ‘close,’” Falcons coach Troy Calhoun said.</p>

<p>“Just because they’re the No. 7 team, we were not going to back down,” fullback Jared Tew said.</p>

<p>On the other end of the stadium, Stoops didn’t rip his team for poor play and say OU’s deficiencies allowed Air Force to stay in the game. That would have been an insult to what he saw the Falcons do to his team on Saturday.</p>

<p>“We were getting worked,” Stoops said to start his press conference. “They were executing better than we were executing. It’s as simple as that.”</p>

<p>Air Force rushed for 351 yards rushing, which was 148 more than the Sooners gave up in their first two games combined, and outgained Oklahoma 458-367. The Falcons controlled the ball for a little more than 34 minutes. But they just didn’t do enough to win.</p>

<p>Air Force seemed finished when Oklahoma took a 27-10 lead after Jefferson’s fumble — the thousands of OU fans who left the stadium after the third quarter obviously thought that way — but the Falcons fought back. Jared Tew and Kyle Halderman scored fourth-quarter touchdowns, the latter coming with 3:39 remaining. But the Air Force defense couldn’t force a punt. Oklahoma picked up two first downs, and ran out the clock.</p>

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<p>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Here’s how concerned Oklahoma is about giving up 351 yards rushing in a win against Air Force: The Sooners are going to pretend it didn’t happen.</p>

<p>After any other game, defensive coordinator Brent Venables would go back through the game film and assess how his players performed and look for areas of concern that need to be addressed.</p>

<p>Not this time.</p>

<p>“We’re not even grading this tape,” Venables said. “It doesn’t do us any good, so we’re going right on down the road.”</p>

<p>Indeed, the eighth-ranked Sooners (3-0) will hit the road for the first time this season to face Cincinnati (1-2) on Saturday night. Like most other teams in college football, the Bearcats run an offense that’s nothing like Air Force’s attack that incorporates the triple option, all kinds of chop-blocking and pretty much any way imaginable to run the football.</p>

<p>The Falcons came in leading the nation with 423 yards rushing per game and left with the highest rushing total ever against Bob Stoops’ Sooners, surpassing by two yards the amount West Virginia accumulated in a Fiesta Bowl blowout in January 2008.</p>

<p>But if Cincinnati or other future opponents don’t figure to come after Oklahoma the same way, why waste time revisiting the past?</p>

<p>“With a team like that and with an offense like that, we’re never going to see that again,” linebacker Travis Lewis said. "So, it’s not like teams can watch this film and be like, ‘Oh, OK, we’re going to put up 300 yards rushing on Oklahoma.’ It doesn’t happen like that.</p>

<p>“This is one team where a lot of players have never seen this kind of offense before and you’ve got a week to prepare for it, and it’s tough.”</p>

<p>Lewis, a defensive captain, said he was going to “take a mulligan” on the Sooners’ performance against the run and not dwell on it too long.</p>

<p>“Tough team. Tough game. Got the victory. Move on,” he said.</p>

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<p>AF is 26th in the AP poll released today.</p>

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<p>move from 28 to 26 after a loss… not too shabby. well done Falcons</p>

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<p>Go Falcons! What a great game for AFA last w/e despite the loss. Really took it to 'em.</p>

<p>What happened with the singing of the National Anthem?</p>

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<p>my brother said there was still a very audible “Sooners” at the end, although it didn’t sound as intense as the weeks before.</p>

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<p>Details are still being worked out, but there is a tentative agreement for Air Force to play a home-and-home series in football against Notre Dame, Air Force athletics director Hans Mueh said. </p>

<p>Mueh said he anticipated the contract for the series would be signed very soon.</p>

<p>The plans are for the 2011 game to be held at Notre Dame on Oct. 8, with the return game at Air Force in 2013. Air Force has not played Notre Dame since 2007, and hasn’t hosted the Fighting Irish, one of the biggest draws in college football, since 2006.</p>

<p>Mueh said Notre Dame approached Air Force about renewing the series. The series had a hiatus when Charlie Weis was coach of the Fighting Irish, but they have a new coach in Brian Kelly and want to play the Falcons again.</p>

<p>“That means a lot to us,” Mueh said. “They recognize the great relationship we’ve had through the years.”</p>

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<p>That would be a great matchup! I actually wish that Air Force played more schools east of the Mississippi. Lots of TV coverage in densely populated areas can’t hurt the Falcons at all.</p>

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<p>Air Force and Navy Fight for Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy in Football Showdown
By Todd Fleming </p>

<p>For cadets at the Air Force Academy in the 1980s and 1990s, the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy was almost considered a birthright. </p>

<p>It was just that trophy that was on permanent display in the Air Force Academy Field House.</p>

<p>Every year, Air Force would play, and usually blow out, Navy and Army.</p>

<p>In fact, the series was so lopsided that it barely qualified as a rivalry, with games against conference rivals like Brigham Young and Colorado State taking center stage over the Service Academy matchups. </p>

<p>Between 1982-2002, Air force won 19 of 21 matchups between the two schools, mostly with lopsided scores.</p>

<p>But in 2003, the worm turned. Navy has won the last seven meetings between the two teams, meaning that several classes of Air Force cadets have entered and graduated from the Academy without ever winning the coveted trophy, which also comes with a trip to the White House for whichever squad wins the trophy to collect the hardware from the president.</p>

<p>Almost all of the games during that seven-game Navy win streak have been closely contested, including last year’s 16-13 overtime win by Navy in Annapolis.</p>

<p>The average margin of victory over that time is 5.7 points.</p>

<p>Even during seasons where Air Force appeared to have the stronger squad, Navy has found a way to win. </p>

<p>This is almost always the game that decides the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy winner, with Army typically losing to both teams, although Army has shown signs of life over the last couple seasons.</p>

<p>The game that once was an afterthought for Air Force is now one of their primary goals at the beginning of each season. </p>

<p>Troy Calhoun has had tremendous success in his first three seasons at Air Force. His Falcons have climbed back into the upper echelon of the Mountain West conference and gone to three straight bowl games, blowing out Houston in the last one 47-20.</p>

<p>What they have not done, though, is beat Navy—Calhoun is 0-3 against his Service Academy rival.</p>

<p>The Falcons look to change that this year, bringing in Calhoun’s most complete team, with talent and experience throughout both the offense and defense.</p>

<p>Navy is coming off a bye week and has also looked reasonably good early. They lost a game against Maryland, in which they outplayed the Terrapins and won against Georgia Southern and Louisiana Tech.</p>

<p>They looked better in their loss than in their two wins.</p>

<p>But they will be rested and raring to go in this one.</p>

<p>Service Academy games are always a joy to watch. There is plenty of respect between both sides, as the players are all too aware that they’ll be on the same team come graduation.</p>

<p>Both squads are loaded with the same kind of players: gritty, determined, and disciplined overachievers who are going to give their all for the full 60 minutes.</p>

<p>Even when one side blows out the other, the two still join together after the game as the two schools sing their fight songs.</p>

<p>It is a wonderful moment to watch, even when your team of choice comes out on the losing end.</p>

<p>So, how will this one end?</p>

<p>Air Force has enough skill on defense to limit the damage from quarterback Ricky Dobbs and a disciplined Navy offense. Look for Air Force to finally get over the hump against their archrival at home.</p>

<p>Prediction: Air Force 28, Navy 20</p>

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<p>FINALLY! AF beat Navy. It was a good game. There were missed opportunities and spectacular plays by both teams, and it made for a very interesting game!</p>

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<p>Air Force now #25 in today’s AP poll.</p>

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<p>Air Force ranked for first time under Calhoun
October 03, 2010 7:59 PM
FRANK SCHWAB
The Gazette</p>

<p>Air Force isn’t breathing down the necks of Alabama or TCU in the Top 25, but the Falcons are in the poll for the first time under coach Troy Calhoun.</p>

<p>In the Associated Press poll released Sunday, Air Force was ranked 25th. In the coaches poll, Air Force was the second highest team among others receiving votes out side of the top 25. </p>

<p>The Falcons crept into the AP poll after beating Navy 14-6 to improve to 4-1. The Falcons haven’t been in either poll since the week of Oct. 4, 2003, when it was 25th in the coaches poll. The last time Air Force was in both polls was the week of Oct. 26, 2002, when it was 19th in the coaches poll and 22nd in the AP poll.</p>

<p>Calhoun said being ranked isn’t entirely unimportant to him, but he won’t care much about it until late next month.</p>

<p>“If we’re talking about how much stuffing was in the turkey and the quality of the pumpkin pie, that’s the time of year for that,” Calhoun said.</p>

<p>The Falcons did suffer a significant loss on Saturday. Inside linebacker Brady Amack, who led the team in tackles through four weeks, injured his ankle. Calhoun said it could be fractured.</p>

<p>If Amack is on the shelf for a while, his likely replacement would be sophomore Austin Niklas.</p>

<p>The Falcons host 1-4 Colorado State on Saturday. Although Saturday was a huge win, and Calhoun said it was the loudest he has ever heard Falcon Stadium, he wasn’t worried about the team not being sharp off a big win.</p>

<p>“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” quarterback Tim Jefferson said. “It’s not the end of the season. We’ve still got seven games left in the season. I’m going to stay modest, and the rest of the team will.”</p>

<p>Air Force probably won’t be wearing its special dark blue jerseys with the Thunderbird helmets a second straight week. Calhoun didn’t rule out wearing the jerseys again in the future, but didn’t sound like it was in the plans. </p>

<p>“We’ll let time make that decision,” Calhoun said.</p>

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<p>Hall is activated by Eagles; debut on national TV
October 09, 2010 8:41 PM
FRANK SCHWAB
THE GAZETTE</p>

<p>Former Air Force receiver Chad Hall got the official word Saturday - he is officially on a NFL roster.</p>

<p>Hall, who was among the Philadelphia Eagles’ final cuts after preseason, was activated from the practice squad on Saturday. The Eagles cut defensive end Antwan Barnes to make room for Hall.</p>

<p>Assuming Hall is active and plays, he will make his NFL debut on “Sunday Night Football” against the 49ers. He made the trip to San Francisco with the team.</p>

<p>“It feels awesome,” Hall said in a text message Saturday night. “But I am ready!”</p>

<p>Air Force hasn’t had a player appear in a NFL regular-season game since Bryce Fisher in 2007.</p>

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<p>and hall with a clutch 3rd down catch. well done chad!</p>