AIR FORCE ACADEMY — The confident swagger that once was part of the Air Force football team has been replaced by a state of shock.
This team, which was rated as possibly coach Troy Calhoun’s best group in his five seasons, predicted to be among the top finishers in the Mountain West and flirting with a place among the top-25 teams in the early national polls, is scrambling to secure a winning season and become eligible for a bowl game.
The Falcons managed to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the second year in a row by beating Navy 35-34 and Army 24-14, but they have won only one conference game going into Saturday’s home finale against UNLV. Air Force (5-5 overall) is tied with New Mexico at 1-4 in the Mountain West basement.
“There have been achievements too,” Calhoun said in countering the negatives. “Anytime when you’re in the middle of November with a chance to do some things (qualify for a bowl game), you’ve cleared some significant hurdles.”
The Falcons can clinch a fifth consecutive winning season by beating UNLV and then beating Colorado State next week. They have played in four consecutive bowl games.
What went wrong this year?
The Falcons were derailed by a grueling schedule in October. They had to go into overtime to beat Navy and losses to Notre Dame (59-33), San Diego State (41-27) and Boise State (37-26) followed.
They can point to the schedule and a crippling list of injuries, especially on defense, but they can’t deny there has been lack of focus and some sloppy performance on the field. In 10 games, the Falcons have lost 15 fumbles. They lost 11 fumbles in 13 games a year ago.
Senior wide receiver Jonathan Warzeka called the turnovers his team’s Achilles’ heel.
“The turnovers killed us in a couple of games, but we got hit pretty hard by the injury bug too,” said Warzeka, who has 25 catches for 332 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior linebacker Brady Amack pointed to defensive slow starts.
“We have to do a better job coming out faster,” he said. “We know we’re backed into a corner and we have to win out to still have a chance for a good season.”
Army and Wyoming drove for touchdowns on their first possessions against Air Force, quickly putting the Falcons in a hole.
“We didn’t capitalize on a lot of chances we had all season,” senior linebacker Jordan Waiwaiole said. “We didn’t play a complete game.”
Conference realignment. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said Wednesday through a spokesperson that he and academy officials talked as recently as two weeks ago about the Falcons’ desire to stay in the conference for football only.
Air Force has been mentioned in Big East Conference expansion plans, but it’s believed those discussions haven’t moved forward.
If the Falcons remain in the MW for football only, they would need to find a new conference home for their other varsity sports.
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said Wednesday that he and Air Force officials have had preliminary discussions the past six weeks on the subject of the Falcons’ nonfootball sports joining the Denver area-based WAC.
Air Force officials have indicated they will wait until after the football season to take up the issue.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
