With their football seasons half over, coaches Troy Calhoun of Air Force and Craig Bohl of Wyoming are still trying to establish team identity.
Calhoun’s Falcons have impressive victories over Boise State and Navy but stumbled 34-16 at Utah State last week. Air Force’s vaunted running game gained only 155 yards on 51 attempts.
The Falcons are 4-2 overall, 1-2 in the Mountain West.
Calhoun is emphasizing the need for a complete-game effort Saturday against New Mexico, as well as the rest of the season.
“If you can’t make the pie, you’re not going to be able to eat the pie,” Calhoun said. “We just have to get better with our blocking and overall execution.”
Calhoun probably should have mentioned tackling as well. New Mexico (2-4, 0-2 Mountain West) has had rushing games of 451 yards and 409 yards this season.
Air Force senior quarterback Kale Pearson has practiced this week and is expected to play against the Lobos after a shoulder injury kept him out of part of the game against Utah State.
Air Force sophomore running back Jacobi Owens is more specific about what the Falcons need to do this week.
“What we need is better execution,” he said. “We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot with missed assignments.”
Owens, who leads the team in rushing with 671 yards, is positive about the rest of the season.
“We’re still head hunters,” Owens said. “We’re not down for the count.”
Bohl, meanwhile, said his Cowboys (3-3, 1-1 Mountain West) remain focused on San Jose State (2-3, 1-1), their opponent Saturday, and staying in conference title contention. But he didn’t hide his disappointment over a 38-28 loss at Hawaii.
“We have to learn how to close games out,” Bohl said. “Hawaii came back twice from 11-point deficits. We have played some nationally ranked teams (Oregon and Michigan State), but this was a conference game.”
The Cowboys will be playing their first home game since Sept. 20. San Jose State is coming off an impressive 33-10 victory over UNLV.
“We still have everything to play for,” said sophomore safety Xavier Lewis, the 2012 winner of The Denver Post’s Gold Helmet Award at Eaglecrest High. “Everything still is in the works.”
UNC update. Coach Earnest Collins Jr. and his Northern Colorado Bears are in the tough part of their Big Sky Conference schedule. After a 43-38 home loss to Sacramento State last week, the Bears (2-4, 1-2 Big Sky) play Saturday at co-leader Eastern Washington (6-1, 3-0).
Collins is staying with the same lineup, but with a different message.
Late in last week’s game, the Bears were stopped on three scoring opportunities from Sacramento State’s 1-yard line.
“They outdueled us on the line,” Collins said. “A lineman has to beat the player lined up across from him.”
Collins said Eastern Washington is “one of the best teams in the country.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@ or irvmoss
