It wasn’t quite like searching for a needle in a haystack, but for Jim Trego at Air Force, there was a big sigh of relief when his call to Tennessee State proved fruitful.
During February and March of this year, Trego, a senior associate athletic director, was telephoning, e-mailing and contacting everyone he knew to find an opponent to fill the Sept. 24 date on Air Force’s 2011 football schedule.
The combination of BYU and Utah departing the Mountain West and only one school, Boise State, coming in left Air Force in need of a game.
“I shut my office door and started going through the phone directory trying to find a game,” Trego said. “I just kept looking and looking and finally found Tennessee State with an open date. I’ve been involved in scheduling for 24 years, and that was the biggest challenge I’ve ever had.”
In Nashville, officials at Tennessee State also were looking for a game. A matchup in the Atlanta Football Classic against Florida A&M had fallen through. The telephone call from Trego proved a blessing.
Coach Rod Reed and his Tennessee State team arrived Thursday afternoon in Colorado Springs to prepare for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game in Falcon Stadium.
“Air Force offered us a good deal,” Reed said. “We wanted to play a Division I opponent, and this is a great game for us to move our program along. We probably could have played a lesser opponent, but we wanted to test the water.”
Tennessee State accepted a $370,000 guarantee from Air Force to make the trip west. It has played only one Division I team previously, losing to Vanderbilt 38-9 in 2006. Trego said that before scheduling Tennessee State, Air Force had entered into discussions with Eastern Michigan, but he would have had to change another game to make it work.
Reed brought the Tigers in a day early in hopes of getting better acclimated to Falcon Stadium’s 6,620-foot elevation. His team practiced at Falcon Stadium on Thursday afternoon and will have a walkthrough today.
“We talked about the altitude at practice this week,” Reed said. “We’ve gone over the importance of hydration quite a bit.”
Tennessee State is the only historically black college playing in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Tigers are playing their 23rd season in the conference.
The school’s football alumni include Ed “Too Tall” Jones, a first-round NFL draft pick in 1974, and Richard Dent, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. Tennessee State athletic director Teresa Phillips said the school’s acclaimed marching band made it to Canton for Dent’s induction ceremony but would not be coming to Saturday’s game.
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, whose team is a huge favorite, said the Tigers can be difficult to stop.
Senior quarterback Jeremy Perry, a left-hander, has completed 35-of-79 passes for 460 yards and three touchdowns. Freshman quarterback Mike German, a right-hander, is 10-of-25 for 143 yards and one touchdown.
However, the Tigers’ defense hasn’t been able to stop much of anyone, having allowed 12 touchdown passes in three games.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
Three questions for AFA
1. Will the Falcons continue their mastery of teams from the Football Championship Subdivision? Air Force should have no problem against Tennessee State, if history is any indication. The Falcons are 16-0 all time against FCS teams and 5-0 under coach Troy Calhoun.
2. Will senior tailback Asher Clark add to his list of 100-yard rushing games? Since 2007, Calhoun’s record is 21-4 when an Air Force runner reaches 100 yards. If Air Force gets him enough carries, Clark should have little trouble reaching that mark.
3. Will Air Force’s rushing game, averaging 320 yards, overcome Tennessee State’s strength, rushing defense? Though Tennessee State’s defense is porous, its problems have come primarily against the pass. The Tigers are allowing just 84.6 yards on the ground per game, mainly because teams find it so easy to throw.
Irv Moss, The Denver Post
