Air Force Academy – Who better than Chad Hall, Air Force’s Mr. Versatility, to talk about the “new” AFA offense?
After seeing the “old” offense of the Falcons as a running back, Hall has a different view this season in coach Troy Calhoun’s new offensive look after moving outside to wide receiver.
As is the case in the overall offense, Hall is taking a balanced approach. After leading the Falcons in rushing last year with 784 yards, Hall still is running the ball, but he’s also catching it as a receiver. He has 110 yards rushing on 20 carries and 93 yards in receptions on a team-high 11 catches in Air Force’s 3-0 start. Add 179 yards in punt and kickoff returns, and the 5-foot-8, 180- pound senior from Atlanta leads the Falcons in all-purpose yards with 382 -127.3 yards per game.
But can the Falcons’ new offense allow them to keep up if their Mountain West Conference game Saturday at Brigham Young turns into a scoring race? Recent games in the series indicate Air Force might have to score 40 to 45 points to stay with the Cougars. Air Force has averaged 24.7 points this season in victories over South Carolina State (34-3), Utah (20-12) and Texas Christian (20-17).
“I think we can compete better this year,” Hall said. “We’re a year older, we can handle the pressure better. Coach Calhoun is incredibly smart. He’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
Hall pointed to the tight end position to show the new versatility. Tight end Travis Dekker leads Air Force with 160 yards in receptions. Last year, Dekker had 40 yards the whole season.
“We needed to use the tight end more and now that we are, they’re stepping up,” Hall said. “Our quarterback Shaun Carney runs our new offense very well.”
Carney believes the expanded playbook has helped to play with more confidence. He said having more options to call on instead of the triple option has been important to the fast start.
“I read where Coach (Kyle) Whittingham at Utah said it’s the same offense. And it really is,” Carney said. “We try to be more balanced and we’re able to attack in so many different ways.”
Carney noted Air Force’s passing threat has caused opposing safeties to keep their distance from the line of scrimmage. The past few seasons, safeties were cheating up to meet the play at the line of scrimmage.
Hall, who is averaging 5.5 yards per carry and 8.5 yards per catch, looks back two years ago when Air Force last played at BYU and 103 points were scored. BYU won a 62-41 shootout.
“BYU has a good defense,” Hall said. “We have a good defense. I don’t know if it will be a scoring race. It all comes down to the 60 minutes of the game. So far, we’ve played well enough to win in those 60 minutes.”
Staff writer Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
