Air Force Academy
Air Force had to crawl out of such a deep hole to beat Colorado State 24-21 that 68-year-old coach Fisher DeBerry hurt himself.
For a winner, the feisty old dude looked to be in serious pain.
“I pulled a dadgum calf muscle,” DeBerry said Thursday night. How on earth did that happen? After giving a halftime speech challenging his Falcons to overcome an 18-point deficit, DeBerry was so amped he blew a tire while rolling out of the locker room.
“I need some ice,” the gimpy DeBerry said. “Or a big hug from my wife.”
The coach of the first-place Mountain West Conference team was limping, and the league is not doing so hot itself.
The MWC is the conference that football forgot.
It was 48 degrees at kickoff, but not nearly as chilly as the reception Coloradans gave two league teams based in the state.
With more than 33 percent of its 46,551 seats unoccupied, Falcon Stadium was so empty you could have landed a helicopter on the south concourse.
Mountain West football gets very little love, and almost no respect.
“We’re not having our best year,” conference commissioner Craig Thompson said.
This conference is 7 years old, and still searching for a football identity.
What does the MWC stand for?
Others receiving votes.
No conference team is ranked anywhere near the top 25.
If not for Brigham Young, which has received barely a handful of sympathy votes in both major polls, the nation would not so much as acknowledge the league’s existence.
Every MWC team is already burdened with at least two defeats.
Forget any bowl with prestige and a big paycheck.
The champion, if it’s lucky, will be invited to a postseason trip to Las Vegas, home of a bowl whose primary appeal is a $6.95 all-you-can-eat buffet.
The only thing more mind-boggling than the 252 yards that Colorado State quarterback Caleb Hanie produced on 14 passes during the first half was how the Rams kicked away a 21-3 lead.
Explanations are in order.
The theory offered by CSU coach Sonny Lubick: Teenagers do the darnedest things. “Kids are funny,” he said, “and coaches are worse.”
Air Force came storming back on 106 yards rushing by quarterback Shaun Carney and a gutty 102 yards gained by junior halfback Chad Hall, listed at 5-feet-8 in the program but who does not appear to be tall enough to ride half the roller coasters at Six Flags.
While the fighting spirit of the Falcons was certainly inspirational, their comeback was detrimental to the MWC’s national profile, because Colorado State entered the game with a chance to go 5-1 and build some momentum.
Although the conference likes to call itself “the mtn” for purposes of television identification, it has fallen off the college football map.
“I’d rather have three top 25 teams, with one being really exceptional,” said Thompson, explaining his best-case scenario for generating publicity for the attention-starved MWC.
Sure, Utah went undefeated in 2004. And the Utes promptly lost their coach to Florida. Lubick is the best thing to happen to CSU athletics, but his career is closer to winding down than cranking up. Texas Christian was a nice addition to the league, except for one geographic incongruity. The closest thing to a mountain in Fort Worth is a highway overpass.
Holy Toledo. The MWC has turned into the Mid-America Conference, except with better scenery.
These final scores have rolled in during a dreary autumn:
UCLA 31, Utah 10. Nevada 28, CSU 10. Portland State 17, New Mexico 6.
Ouch.
Of course, the ideals of NCAA sports should be based on more than fame and money.
But, in reality, unless you can wave to mom on ESPN, you are invisible as a college football player.
How can the MWC get its groove back?
The league’s lone shot at grabbing national attention must wait until early November, when Notre Dame visits Air Force. The Falcons are 3-0 in the conference. The MWC should pray they run the table.
“We need somebody, or a couple somebodies, to really step out there,” Thompson said.
In the shadow of the mountain, a football conference is stuck in the dark.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
