Albuquerque – Air Force’s offensive players had to be careful about throwing their wristbands to the young New Mexico fans waiting after Saturday’s game because the game plan was written all over them.
Coach Fisher DeBerry credited offensive coordinator Chuck Petersen with putting together a “masterful” game plan that played a key role in the Falcons’ 42-24 victory over the Lobos in the season finale.
For most of the game, quarterback Shaun Carney brought the Falcons to the line of scrimmage without a huddle. It was designed to give the AFA coaches in the press box a chance to see which defense the Lobos were lined up in. Before taking the snap, Carney would step back and look to the sideline, where assistant coach Tim Horton would hold up the number of fingers designating which play to use.
“The coaches in the booth would radio the play to the sidelines,” said Carney, a sophomore. “They would signal in a number. Everybody had it on the wristband and they would look down and find the number and we’d run that play.”
Carney said the offensive unit began working on the scheme last Monday.
“To get into this school, you have to be pretty smart,” Carney said. “To put that in our game plan in four days, it was amazing that we could do that. We had some wrinkles, but we worked them out pretty quickly. I think New Mexico’s defense got a little lazy at times and we capitalized by calling the snap on down. We could have beaten teams like that all year. But we have to put it behind us. The offseason starts today. We know what to do.”
DeBerry said the game plan was in the works before Monday’s practice. The Falcons were coming off a bye week, which provided some extra preparation time.
“I told them the other day that I was having fun watching them in practice because they were having fun,” DeBerry said of his players. “Maybe we’ll do it next year.”
Senior nose guard Russ Mitscherling, who played with ankle and foot injuries all season, said he couldn’t ask for a better way to end his AFA career.
“This brings closure to our year,” Mitscherling said. “We finally put a whole game together. If this would have showed up four or five games ago, we’d be going to a bowl game. It didn’t work out that way. I don’t have any regrets.”
Senior strong safety Denny Poland will have something to remember. His 12 tackles Saturday led the Falcons.
“I played a pretty solid game,” Poland said. “It was my best game ever. When you shut the door on them … it totally fires up the defense. I’m not going to kid myself, we had the potential to have a better season. We proved to ourselves and a lot of people how good we were today. This will be a fond memory for a long time.”
Said senior center Jon Wilson: “It’s a shame we couldn’t put it together until the last game. We changed it up with the wristbands. It didn’t change their game plan, but we knew where they were going to be before we ran the play.”
