Air Force Falcons

Air Force Falcons
United States Air Force Academy's college football team is known as The Air Force Falcons and is a mid-major college football program that competes in NCAA Division I-A and the Mountain West Conference. Given the physical requirements that military service puts on cadets, Air Force football has traditionally been based more on speed, willpower and technical execution than on pure size and strength.

The Falcons have conventionally run a triple option offense, and have regularly performed better against bigger and stronger national opponents. Although the arrow-head formation is almost always considered synonymous with the triple option, Air Force only deployed the formation occasionally under Coaches DeBerry and Hatfield.

Due to the outstanding game and technique of the team, it has always one of the top ten teams in the nation regularly in the past 25 years and the record and the statistics bear testimony to that.

The Falcons in a Nutshell.

• Members of the Class of l959, the first to enter the Academy, chose the falcon as the mascot of the cadet wing on September 25, l955. They are the only performing mascot in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The Falcons are identified by the lightening bolt on the side of their helmets as well as their traditional offensive game playing in consonance with their name. Starting 1984, the team was ranked among the nation's top 10 for 19 times in 21 years (86-37), ever since Fisher DeBerry was deputed as their head coach. Air Force is still considered one of the premier rushing teams in the nation. The Air Force football team has also enjoyed success in the classroom. In 49 years of Air Force football, there have been 39 Academic All-Americans.



• 1985 is regarded as the most successful season in Air Force football history when they came within one win of playing for the National Championship. They lost to BYU by 7 points in the second last game of the season after 10 straight wins, climbing the polls to Number two in the nation. Air Force rebounded with a bowl game win over Texas in the Bluebonnet Bowl and finished as the #5 ranked team in the nation.
  
  Falcon Stadium. The Falcon Stadium provides the best atmosphere in the complete nation and is unmatchable across the land. The field is at 6,621 feet above sea level at the base of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains. Flyovers by some of the finest air planes the US Air Force like F-22, F-15, and B-2 Stealth Bomber as the pre-game activity makes it remarkable. The Falcons attracted largest crowd (56,409) to watch the in 2002 in a match with Irish of Notre Dame.



• Chance Harridge Set the NCAA Division I record for most single-season rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in 2002, with 22.
• Beau Morgan.
• 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.

Current Standing/Activities. Calhoun, the new coach is in his first season (2007) after Fisher DeBerry retired in December as the Falcons' head coach. The Air Force football team opened practice August 1 in preparation for the 2007 season with the team's annual media day, followed by the run test and first day of practice. The Falcons open the 2007 season on Saturday, Sept. 1 against South Carolina State at noon at Falcon Stadium.