The Air Force Falcons face off against New Mexico, Oct. 12, 2024. (U.S. Air Force Academy)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Tribune News Service) — The turning point for Air Force’s season, as fullback Dylan Carson sees it, took place in the parking lot of the Colorado Springs Marriott.
Four hours before kickoff against Fresno State on Nov. 9, just before the team meal, the Falcons offense began its walkthrough at the team hotel.
It started with a fullback dive. Then another. Then another.
After eight fullback dives, the session ended. Generally, the team walks through around 40 plays. Not on this day.
Camby Goff intercepted a pass. Jamari Bellamy broke up a third-down throw, then Jerome Gaillard Jr. did the same. Grant Uyl made a stop on fourth down. Osaro Aihie had a sack. Jared Roznos hauled in a 25-yard pass.
The message was obvious, with the coaches saying they were going to run at the heart of the Bulldogs defense and they needn’t worry about anything else.
“That’s all we needed,” Carson said. “We were going to come right at their teeth over and over again. For us to actually do that, I think that was the turning point.”
Air Force opened that Fresno State game — a 36-28 victory — with a 19-play, 75-yard touchdown-scoring drive that chewed 10:50 off the clock. All of the plays were on the ground, including 12 to fullbacks, capped by Carson’s 1-yard touchdown.
And just like that, Air Force was Air Force again.
Between that game and a 28-0 shutout of Oregon State on Saturday, Air Force has rushed for 614 yards and six touchdowns and has possessed the ball for 97:04 of a possible 120 minutes in its back-to-back wins.
The fullbacks have run for 304 of those yards on 79 carries with three touchdowns.
This for a team that entered that Fresno State game riding a seven-game losing streak in which it had been outscored by an average of 17 points.
The Falcons (3-7, 1-4 Mountain West) travel to Nevada (3-8, 0-5) on Saturday night with stakes suddenly attached. If Air Force can win its final two (the finale is Nov. 30 at San Diego State), it would find itself 5-7 and would qualify to slide in as a replacement if there aren’t enough six-win teams to fill the bowl slate. The pecking order among five-win teams is set by academic ratings, and the Falcons are always among the top in the nation in that area.
This for a team that left the field at Army with a 1-7 record and listening to Black Knights coach Jeff Monken and the secretary of the Army taking the microphone and celebrating with the crowd at West Point.
Rock bottom, it turns out, was simply the launching pad.
“We just knew it inside. We knew,” Carson said. “We were getting better and better every week, and through those seven weeks of losing even though we weren’t getting the results we were getting better and better.”
The final three losses of that stretch included some clues. A 52-37 loss at New Mexico included the best offensive showing of the year in the first start for sophomore quarterback Quentin Hayes. It looked even better on Saturday when the Lobos took down then-No. 19 Washington State.
Then came a 21-13 loss to Colorado State — one of two remaining unbeaten teams in the Mountain West — that came down a failed Hail Mary attempt on the final snap.
At No. 18 Army the Falcons trailed by just three points at halftime and had multiple shots to close within one possession in the fourth quarter before throwing three interceptions.
“I’ve never had to point out a play that involved effort,” coach Troy Calhoun said. “That tells you something.”
The Falcons were always going to be in for a rebuilding season, bringing back just five starters from last year after essentially losing two senior classes at the same time because of carryovers from the class impacted by COVID-19. Those issues were compounded by injuries that have resulted in Air Force using 42 first-time starters this season, by far the most in the nation (Troy is second with 26).
But the new players have gained experience and some of the injured players have returned.
That, and the attitude never seemed to change.
“You fall in love with the process, good things happen,” receiver Cade Harris said.
Then, in a parking lot, the coaches clearly delivered the message that they were confident in what the team could do. Air Force has taken that and run with it, quite literally.
“We never gave up on ourselves,” Carson said. “No matter what the score showed, we knew how good that we were. We were just going to keep pushing forward no matter what, and that’s what we’re going to keep doing from here on out.”
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