Troy Calhoun is building a legacy at the Air Force Academy.
The Falcons’ football coach the last eight seasons recently signed a five-year extension that takes his contract through 2019.
An extension and a pay raise were in order after the Falcons posted a remarkable turnaround last season. After a 2-10 record in 2013, Air Force’s worst season in 58 years of football, the Falcons roared back to a 10-3 record, becoming the sixth team at the school to record 10 or more wins. Air Force reclaimed the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and defeated Western Michigan 38-24 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.
Calhoun will enter his ninth season with a career mark of 59-44. He made it clear one season isn’t a meaningful measure of a good program.
“You have to look at a span of four, five, six years,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun knows an extended contract will help with recruiting.
“His specific request was for a five-year extension,” said athletic director Hans Mueh, who leaves office this week. “He wanted to be able to tell the players he was recruiting that when they graduated in four or five years, that he’d be here with them. He was taking into account that some would have a year at the prep school.”
When Calhoun came to Air Force from the Houston Texans before the 2007 season, he was a hot commodity on the coaches circuit. He was on Gary Kubiak’s staff at Houston, and before that he was on Mike Shanahan’s staff with the Broncos. Both Kubiak and Shanahan predicted Calhoun would be a successful head coach either in college or the NFL.
For the first couple of years at Air Force, Calhoun was mentioned as a potential replacement for a number of jobs that opened. His name doesn’t come up as much now, at least publicly.
But Mueh guarantees that Calhoun hasn’t been forgotten.
“The job here never has been about the money,” Mueh said. “Troy could make more money elsewhere, but the mission he sees here is more important to him. We get calls every year from people in big programs who are interested in talking to him.”
Calhoun doesn’t dwell on potential outside opportunities.
“I don’t think about that,” Calhoun said. “There aren’t enough hours for what we have to get done each and every day to let those things enter your mind.”
