AIR FORCE ACADEMY — It has worked almost like a charm.
When Troy Calhoun took over as Air Force’s football coach in January two years ago, he purposely wanted to give his coaching staff a homegrown look.
The Falcons opened the 2007 season with more former players on their coaching staff than any other Division I-A program. Sixty-eight percent of the coaching staff are AFA graduates.
Two winning seasons and two bowl games later, it seems Calhoun’s plan has been a success.
“I don’t know why, but it seems to work here,” secondary coach Charlton Warren said. “I think it does help that there is a common thread through most of us. I was confident that with the direction and leadership that Troy brought that this ship would get turned around.”
Some might ask why other programs haven’t copied something that has helped produced winners after three straight losing seasons.
“I think a staff such as ours is a huge advantage at a service academy,” defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said. “I don’t know if it would be as much a factor at a regular university.”
Calhoun said he didn’t consider it a gamble, even though he was trying something new in terms of stacking the staff with AFA graduates.
“I thought first and foremost that you have to know about the uniqueness of this place,” Calhoun said. “Nobody could know that better than guys who have been through it.”
The secret is to understand that academics and military obligations come before football.
Calhoun, DeRuyter, Warren, quarterbacks coach Blane Morgan, running game coordinator Jamel Singleton, receivers coach Mike Thiessen, tight ends coach Ben Miller, JV head coach Lt. Col. Darryl Sumral and varsity assistant Capt. Tony Jones-Sampson are AFA graduates. Warren, Morgan and Singleton are holdovers from Fisher DeBerry’s coaching staff, as is defensive line coach Ron Burton, who isn’t an academy grad.
“We fully understand what our players are going through on a daily basis,” Morgan said. “When we go into a home recruiting, we know what to explain what to expect here because we went through the same things.”
Calhoun’s plan guards against his staff becoming too localized. His assistant coaches are sent out in February and March to “explore” all of college football to find out what new might be going on in the sport.
“Our coaches are hungry to be better leaders and better coaches,” Calhoun said. “It’s all part of our professional development.”
Calhoun answered, “Yes sir” when asked if his homegrown staff still has some things to accomplish. Although some members of his staff were on the winning side as a player, this coaching staff hasn’t beaten Navy or won a bowl game.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
