The Air Force Falcons football program represents the
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and U ...
in
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
at the
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. Air Force has been a member of the
Mountain West Conference since its founding in 1999. The Falcons play their home games at
Falcon Stadium in
Colorado Springs,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
.
Troy Calhoun has been the team's head coach since 2007.
The three major
service academies—Air Force,
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
—compete for the
Commander-in-Chief's Trophy which is awarded to the academy that defeats the others in
football that year (or retained by the previous year's winner in the event of a three–way tie).
History
The Falcons are not only recognized by the lightning bolt on the side of their helmets, but their traditional
option attack. Air Force is one of the premier rushing teams in the nation. Since Fisher DeBerry took over as Falcons head coach in 1984, they have ranked among the nation's top 10 in rushing 19 times in 21 years. The Air Force football team has enjoyed success not only on the field but also in the classroom. In 49 years of Air Force football, there have been 39 Academic All-Americans.
The 1985 season
1985 was the most successful season in Air Force football history. Under 5th-year coach Fisher DeBerry, the Falcons came within one win of playing for the
national championship. They recorded 10 straight wins to start the season, climbed the polls to No. 2 in the nation, but lost to BYU 28–21 in the penultimate game of the regular season. Air Force rebounded with a
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
win over
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
in the
Bluebonnet Bowl and finished with a 12–1 record as the No. 5 ranked team in the nation.
Conference affiliations
Air Force has been affiliated with the following conferences.
* Independent (1955–1979)
*
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas.
Due to most of t ...
(1980–1998)
*
Mountain West Conference (1999–present)
Championships
Conference championships
† Co-champions
Division championships
Conference Championship Game appearances
Air Force has appeared in 2 conference championship games in their history, winning 1 of them.
Note: Includes appearances where the conference did not use divisions to determine championship game participants.
Bowl games
Air Force has played in 28 bowl games in their history, with a record. Their highest finish in the polls was fifth (
UPI coaches) in
1985.
Head coaches
In over 60 years of play in college football, the Falcons have had seven head coaches.
Top 25 finishes
The Air Force Falcons have finished in the
AP Poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and br ...
and/or the
Coaches Poll 8 times in the program's history, with the highest-ranked finishes being No. 6 in 1958 and No. 8 in 1985. Note: The AP Poll began in 1936, and the Coaches' Poll began in 1950. Before 1990, only the top 20 teams were ranked in the AP Poll before it was expanded to 25.
In addition to the major polls, the
BCS produced rankings from 1998 to 2013 which helped select teams for the BCS Bowls. Then, starting in 2014, the
CFP committee began issuing rankings to determine which teams were selected for the playoffs.
Falcon Stadium
Home games are played in
Falcon Stadium, which sits below the main campus at an
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
of
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''.
Th ...
. Pre-game activities include flyovers by
USAF aircraft, including the
F-15
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...
and
B-2
The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying w ...
. Opened in
1962, its highest attendance was 56,409 in
2002, when the Falcons hosted
Notre Dame.
Players
Individual accomplishments
Notable individual records
*
Beau Morgan: He became the first player in NCAA history to rush and pass for over 1,000 yards in a season twice. He broke the NCAA single season rushing record for a quarterback, along with being only the second player in NCAA history to run and pass for 3,000 yards in a career.
Alumni in the National Football League
*
Sid Abramowitz
Sidney H. Abramowitz (born May 21, 1960) is a former American football player.
. databasefootball.com
Referen ...
*
Shane Bonham
*
Larry Cole
*
Austin Cutting
Austin Cutting (born October 27, 1996) is a former American football long snapper. He played college football at Air Force and was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
Professional career
Cutting was dr ...
*
Bryce Fisher
Bryce Alexander Fisher (born May 12, 1977) is a former American football defensive lineman. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 7th round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He played college football at Air Force.
High school years
Fisher attended S ...
*
Ben Garland
Benjamin N. Garland (born April 6, 1988) is a former American football center. He played college football at the United States Air Force Academy and attended Central High School in Grand Junction, Colorado. He has also been a member of the Denv ...
*
Ron George
*
Chris Gizzi
*
Garrett Griffin
*
Chad Hall
*
Chad Hennings
Chad William Hennings (born October 20, 1965) is a former American football defensive tackle for the Air Force Academy Falcons and Dallas Cowboys. He won the Outland Trophy in his senior year of college in 1987.
Despite facing an obligation to ...
*
Ernie Jennings
Ernie Jennings (born January 30, 1949) is a former American football wide receiver who played college football at the United States Air Force Academy and attended Kansas City Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He was drafted by the Sa ...
*
Bill Line
Bill Line (born August 11, 1948 in San Angelo, Texas) is a former American football defensive tackle in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears. He also was a member of The Hawaiians, Southern California Sun and Chicago Winds in the ...
*
Beau Morgan
*
Steve Russ
Steve Russ (born September 16, 1972) is an American football linebackers coach for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football as a linebacker for the Air Force Falcons at the United States Air ...
*
Anthony Schlegel
Anthony Schlegel (born March 1, 1981) is an American football coach and former linebacker. He previously served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Ohio State University from 2011 to 2015 and was the head strength and conditionin ...
*
Jeff Smith
*
Ted Sundquist
*
Mark Simon
All-Americans
Academic All–Americans
Academic All–Americans at Air Force.
Future non-conference opponents
Announced schedules as of January 9, 2022.
Rivals
Commander-in-Chief's Trophy
Air Force has a traditional rivalry against the other two FBS
service academies,
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
; the three play for the right to hold the
Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Air Force has won the trophy 20 times, more than either Army or Navy.
*
Commander in Chief's Trophy
The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is awarded to each season's winner of the American college football series among the teams of the U.S. Military Academy (Army Black Knights), the U.S. Naval Academy ( Navy Midshipmen), and the U.S. Air Force A ...
Winners (AF-Army-Navy): 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989–1992, 1994, 1995, 1997–2002, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2022.
Colorado State
Air Force has played more games against
Colorado State and
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
than any other school, having played each school 59 times since 1957, the Falcons' first season.
Since 1980, the Falcons and Colorado State Rams have competed for the
Ram–Falcon Trophy. Air Force holds a 26–15 advantage over Colorado State in games that the trophy has been contested in.
Colorado
In 2019 Air Force renewed a rivalry with
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
, winning at Folsom Field on Sept. 14 by a score of 30–23. The teams had not played since Oct. 5, 1974, a game that Colorado won by a score of 28–27. Air Force won the first meeting between the teams in 1958. The 1963 game between the two college football teams was postponed due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 1973 game, the last one played in Boulder before the 2019 clash, was marred by a riot. Fans threw eggs and beer at Air Force personnel and cadets.
Top 10 rivals
Below are Air Force's records against its top ten most-played opponents since 1957.
References
External links
*
{{Mountain West Conference football navbox
1955 establishments in Colorado
American football teams established in 1955