AIR FORCE ACADEMY — The undisputed No. 1 college football coach in the state is Air Force’s Troy Calhoun. But please don’t call him a genius. Heck, the guy can’t even dress himself properly.
Ask his wife. She sees the coach leave for the office in the morning.
“You get up early in the morning, and you put your socks on. One is brown and the other is black. You can’t even match your socks,” Calhoun said Saturday, refusing to take credit for Air Force’s 38-17 victory against Colorado State. “We don’t have a guy, we don’t have a guru, we don’t have a superstar, we don’t have a sensational, all-world candidate. We’re a team school.”
His sense of humor is priceless. But how do you put a price tag on Calhoun’s coaching ability?
Something tells me we’re going to find out. Soon.
In a sport so spendy it could make Donald Trump blush, how long can Air Force afford to keep Calhoun?
Calhoun speaks about this place he works at with equal reverence, if not quite the same volume, as Fisher DeBerry, his former coach and predecessor on the Air Force sidelines.
As improbable and impressive as his 17 victories in 23 games since taking this job seem to be, Calhoun loves to dream aloud about how much better the Falcons can be in seasons to come.
Nevertheless, if I were the athletic director at Tennessee or Washington or any university with a football budget as huge as its stadium and not enough victories to keep the boosters happy in their expensive club seats, then at the top of my short list of candidates would be the 42-year-old Calhoun.
Yes, he’s that good.
With aggressive recruiting, Dan Hawkins has returned hope that the CU Buffaloes will again roam in the top 25 in the not too distant future.
By doing mentor Sonny Lubick proud, Steve Fairchild will soon let Colorado State alums look at Rams football as a source of pride.
But what college football coach is doing the best work in the state?
It’s Calhoun, no contest.
Please remember: As blindingly wondrous as DeBerry’s 10,000-watt personality was for Air Force, the old coach faded slowly to black in his final years, with the Falcons going 13-21 from 2004-06.
Should Calhoun find a way to pull an upset when Brigham Young comes to visit next weekend, he will have Air Force back in the national rankings for the first time since 2003.
“It looked like the old days out there. It’s been a while since I’ve been in this place. But they roar those jets through here and they start running that option. And it brought back some nightmares,” said Fairchild, who, as a former quarterback and assistant coach for CSU, knows the mighty tradition of AFA football all too well.
Fairchild is smart to not compare his task ahead with Calhoun’s rapid rebuilding project. Ask the first-year CSU coach if his 4-6 Rams still have a shot at getting bowl eligible, and Fairchild bristles with irritation, wanting nothing to do with unreasonable expectations.
But Air Force is going bowling for the second straight season.
Washington and Tennessee are staying home for the holidays.
Tyrone Willingham never earned the $1.5 million paid him by the Huskies. While Tennesseans were once as sweet on Phil Fulmer as a GooGoo candy bar, that hasn’t stopped the Vols from throwing him and his $2 million salary off the side of Rocky Top.
The Falcons cannot compete with that kind of crazy money, and Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh admitted as much last week.
Nobody is saying Calhoun has any intention of leaving the Falcons for greener pastures. But he does know the score of military academy football.
“The three hardest places to have a bowl season are: Vanderbilt, playing in the SEC. It’s the Air Force Academy in the Mountain West Conference. And it’s Stanford in the Pac-10,” Calhoun said.
DeBerry became such a dad-gum institution at the Air Force Academy that we all believed nobody could ever replace him, much less replicate his success.
Calhoun has the right stuff to win more football games than Ben Martin, DeBerry or any coach in Air Force history.
Just don’t count on it.
Sooner or later, somebody from a football factory with more money than sense is going to make Calhoun an offer he cannot refuse.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
