AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Fisher DeBerry carries particular pride in the coaching tree he planted at Air Force.
“When I got here, nobody thought about going into coaching,” DeBerry said. “Everybody just wanted to fly.”
Well, two of the biggest branches on that tree will meet Saturday, when Falcons coach Troy Calhoun and fellow Air Force grad Tim DeRuyter, now Fresno State’s head coach, will face off. This is the second time they have met. The 2012 meeting — won 48-15 by DeRuyter’s Derek Carr-led Bulldogs — marked the first time academy grads had faced each other as NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches.
The only other Air Force grad to lead an FBS team was Brian Knorr, who succeeded Grobe at Ohio and remained there from 2001 to 2003.
Many others have served as college coordinators, and a few, including Calhoun and Joe Lombardi, currently with the Detroit Lions, have served as offensive coordinators in the NFL.
But when it comes to college coaches, Calhoun and DeRuyter are the standard bearers for the DeBerry tree.
Calhoun has taken Air Force (3-3, 2-1 Mountain West) to seven bowl games in his eight seasons. DeRuyter has captured two league titles.
Asked about DeRuyter this week, Calhoun offered polite and kind generalities but nothing specific.
That’s OK. Calhoun has often said he’s more interested in actions than words, and his own actions spoke loud and clear on this topic.
When Calhoun was hired by the Falcons after the 2006 season and was tasked will filling out a staff for the first time, the defensive coordinator he hired was DeRuyter.
The team DeRuyter will bring to Falcon Stadium this season has largely struggled, shuffling through four quarterbacks. But Air Force’s coaching staff feels the Bulldogs (2-5, 1-3) hit their stride last week behind redshirt freshman quarterback Kilton Anderson, who went 19-for-31 for 193 yards and ran for 78 yards and two scores in his second career start, a 31-28 victory over UNLV.
Saturday’s area games
Noon Fresno State at Air Force
1:30 p.m. Eastern Washington at Northern Colorado
8:15 p.m. Wyoming at Boise State, ESPN2
8:30 p.m. Colorado at Oregon State, PAC-12
