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Knudson: Higher and Higher


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By Mark Knudson, The Mtn. Insider
June 27, 2011

Young men who fly some of the most sophisticated and high tech aircraft in the world don’t pay much attention to ceilings. This may explain why the Air Force Academy football program keeps reaching higher and higher, ignoring the supposed ceiling in front of service academy teams and aiming for the highest places humanly possible.

In his first four years coaching his alma mater, AFA coach Troy Calhoun has already done something no other Academy football coach has ever done. He’s the only head coach in the history of the Air Force program to lead teams to four consecutive seasons that included at least eight wins and a bowl game. Calhoun’s teams are 34-18 in four years and looking for more.

Calhoun probably has the toughest job in the Conference. After all, his main job is not winning football games, but producing men capable of defending this country. He just so happens to have been able to do both pretty darn well. Ceiling? What ceiling?

Air Force has been on the cusp of cracking the top echelon of the Mountain West for the past three seasons. They just haven’t been able to get past the Utah’s and TCU’s of the league to this point. Last season began with a win over BYU, but the Falcon’s still finished third in the Conference behind TCU and Utah.

Utah and BYU are gone but TCU is still around, along with a new obstacle in Boise State. Most preseason predictions have the Falcons finishing the upcoming season - you guessed it - third.

Could they be wrong? Could Air Force upset the status quo and crash the predicted Horned Frogs/Broncos party? Think about this: Calhoun will welcome back his most experienced team yet, with 14 starters returning, eight of those on defense. The roster is not littered with a lot of All-Conference types, but there are certainly excellent players like safety Jon Davis, inside linebacker Brady Amack and cornerback Anthony Wright to depend on. Slick quarterback Tim Jefferson returns for his senior year with plenty of experience under his belt and Asher Clark to pitch the ball to. Jefferson has improved steadily as a passer over the years, and he’ll find leading receiver Jonathan Warzeka more than the 18 times they connected a season ago.

And the Falcon’s schedule could give them a small edge. After starting the season with a warm up tilt against South Dakota, the veteran Falcon defense will welcome in a TCU team that is replacing stalwart quarterback Andy Dalton. Could it be great timing for an AFA upset?

Things get tougher come October, when the defending Commander-in-Chief Trophy winners travel to face Navy and rejuvenated Notre Dame in back-to-back weeks. Hanging on to that trophy is almost a life or death thing for academy schools, and everyone knows what it means to beat Notre Dame. After the trip to South Bend, the Falcons come home to face the best remaining teams in the MW, Boise State and San Diego State. Other than that, October is a breeze.

For a change, AFA’s toughest tests do not come later in the season, when they have tended to wear down a bit. They should be in good shape for the season’s final month. Who knows, a break here or there, an upset of TCU and some typically crazy stuff going down around the conference, and Air Force could be in the mix for that ever elusive conference title by the time they head to Fort Collins in late November to end the regular season.

And, there’s a big reason why you should like watching this team: While you can’t really call them underdogs in the true sense of the term, you have to appreciate the consistent effort and drive to win that are always on display, play after play, game after game. We watch too many teams these days – college and pro – that have too many players just going through the motions at times. Taking plays off is a common complaint from fans and coaches. Air Force players don’t take plays – or anything else – off. They leave it all on the field.

For that reason more than any other, it’s not impossible for these Falcons to break through that perceived third place ceiling and keep reaching higher and higher.

See all of Mark Knudson's blog entries HERE.
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