Provo, Utah – Now Troy Calhoun knows what he’s been missing all these years.
An undersized defense that plays undersized. An offense that doesn’t fool anyone in the Mountain West Conference. Getting outclassed on a field seemingly so uneven it appears his players are running uphill.
But in Calhoun’s first year, maybe his Air Force Falcons found another flaw: It doesn’t know how to handle being on top.
“We know exactly what happened,” quarterback Shaun Carney said. “We came out flat and didn’t play hard.”
Flat? Well, you could certainly understand that. After all, not much was at stake. A win would have only made Air Force 4-0, 3-0 in league with its wins coming against the three best teams in the Mountain West. Only two conference road games remained. The nation would’ve been talking about Calhoun and the plucky Falcons, picked eighth in preseason and making noise like those glory years so long ago. Hmm, where at the academy could ESPN’s “College GameDay” set up?
OK, now replace that search for a spot in the trophy case with a search for a little more spunk.
Then again, it’s been awhile since Air Force was anything more than a blip on the national radar. It hasn’t been a factor in the Mountain West race since Fisher DeBerry’s 12-1 title season in 1998. Yet Air Force came to Brigham Young on Saturday afternoon needing one win to have the best shot at a conference title of any team in the country.
Air Force’s 31-6 loss not only put the Falcons behind in the conference race, it put their program behind BYU’s. Again. Yes, it’s business as usual in the MWC. A week ago, it appeared there could be a changing of the guard. Air Force had found a defense and defeated preseason favorite Texas Christian while Brigham Young’s defense was getting shredded at Tulsa.
But against a team that gave up 595 yards one week ago, Air Force didn’t score until 3:31 remained in the third quarter. An Air Force defense that was in the top 25 nationally and held TCU to two touchdowns gave up 452 yards and trailed 24-0 four minutes into the third quarter.
Flat? A program that prides itself on its mettle, on its mental toughness, let itself down in possibly the biggest game of its year.
“That’s just unacceptable in this program,” Carney said. “I can’t put a finger on it. There just wasn’t the passion, the excitement that we needed to win this game. I think BYU wanted it more. And it showed.”
Calhoun can run the 40 faster than DeBerry, but the results aren’t much different. In the last four BYU games, Air Force (3-1, 2-1 MWC) has lost 33-14, 62-41, 41-24 and now 31-6. As long as defending champion BYU (2-2, 1-0) remains in the league, Air Force seems destined as pesky spoiler.
It’s probably no disgrace as long as Max Hall is quarterbacking BYU. For two more years, Air Force gets Hall, who appears to be the next great BYU quarterback. His 405-yard passing average topped every past BYU quarterback after three games and Saturday’s pinpoint passing clicked 23 of 33 times for 293 yards and two touchdowns.
Air Force’s few blitzes did little damage and, even with eight defenders back, Hall picked apart the secondary like a Ty Detmer or a Jim McMahon or a Steve Young or a Marc Wilson.
“Up front we didn’t get the pressure we needed,” linebacker Drew Fowler said. “When we did, we didn’t make plays.”
Offensively, Calhoun is smart pulling Air Force out of the ’70s and introducing the forward pass, but if he wants balance he’d better demand protection. Carney ran for his life against a BYU team loaded with flaws and not loaded with blitzes. Carney got sacked twice, had numerous balls batted down and passed for only 98 yards.
Calhoun never thought this revitalization program was going to be easy. After Saturday, it’s obviously not going to be as easy as it appeared the first three weeks. But the schedule gets softer after next week’s game at Navy, and Air Force can’t show up flat at Navy.
Can it?
“Where your mettle’s tested is after you get hit in the teeth,” Calhoun said. “And today we got hit in the teeth.”
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
