Air Force Football

I was surprised to see sophomore Tim Jefferson get the nod as the Falcons’ starting quarterback against Wyoming after sophomore Connor Dietz took snaps with the first-team offense during most practices leading up to the game.

But Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said after the game that Jefferson, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, “looked as explosive has he had since our first game.”

Jefferson looked good early against the Cowboys, ripping off a 19-yard run that was reminiscent of some of his rushes last season.

“He had some pretty good runs early in the game,” Calhoun said. “There was a quarterback draw in there where I thought he gained good yards. And yet towards the end of the second quarter, I didn’t see a guy that really was going to push off. So what we decided was let’s take a look the first series of the second half, and we still didn’t see it.”

That opened the door for Dietz, who clearly gave Air Force a spark and led the Falcons to their only scores of the game.

But he didn’t do enough to earn the starting job for next week’s game at Utah—at least publicly after today’s game.

“This could be one of those years where we have two guys going in and out,” Calhoun said. “And by no means is that the prescribed approach. And yet, I think both guys realize they have contributions that we’re going to need. Both guys are only going to get better too.”

One last thing on the QBs: I asked Calhoun if Jefferson not looking “full tilt,” to use Calhoun's words, late in the first half and early in the second had anything to do with his right ankle.

“I think it probably could have been partly that,” Calhoun said.

Which leads me back to what I’ve said previously: Why not just shut Jefferson down until you’re absolutely sure his ankle is 100 percent? Sure, that’s going to be hard. Jefferson is going to say he’s ready before he is 100 percent healthy. Any competitor who wants to be on the field would do that. But I think it would be best for the team and Jefferson—and Dietz, for that matter—if he does not try to go again until that ankle is healed.

Air Force lined up for a long field goal on its first possession of the second half but had trouble getting the right players on the field. The personnel confusion gave Calhoun a chance to re-think the decision to kick the field goal, and he elected to punt instead. So he let the play clock expire for a delay of game penalty.

“My initial thought was, hey, take a rip at a field goal,” he said. “And then the more you looked at it, and we had a guy that went down, so we had a guy getting out there late on the field. … You just kind of got the feeling, keep playing field position.”

More red zone troubles against Wyoming. Air Force had first-and-goal from the 10 in the first half and did not score. The Falcons also settled for a 29-yard field goal, their 10th field goal inside 30 yards this season.

Just an outsider’s opinion: I think the cadets should wear their flight suits to all the games. That’s what they were wearing Saturday, and I thought the cadets’ section looked a whole lot cooler than it does when they wear their dress uniforms.

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun believes he can win games by leaning on his outstanding defense and playing conservative, mistake-free offense.

He’s right.

The Falcons beat New Mexico and San Diego State that way, and they beat Wyoming that way on Saturday. So his philosophy can work.

But here’s the thing—when you play like that as much as Air Force has, it’s hard to change gears and open it up when necessary.

And it likely will be necessary during the next two weeks. It’s hard to believe, after all, that the Falcons will topple Utah, or even Colorado State, completing just one pass and running the fullback dive 30 times.

Which is why I thought Air Force missed out on a chance against Wyoming. Like the games against New Mexico and San Diego State, Saturday's contest with the Cowboys offered a chance for Calhoun to try some things offensively and to take some chances.

Yes, you don’t want to jeopardize your opportunity to win the game with a risky, wide-open plan. But as well as the defense was playing, Air Force’s offense probably could have made a few mistakes or turnovers without letting the game slip away.

Asked after the game if his offense is too predictable, Calhoun said, “Could be.

“And yet what we’ve been looking for, you keep looking for play-action passes. Today I think we had a chance to throw a few more. And, absolutely, we could have thrown more balls today.”

They should have.

And not just play-action. How about spreading the field and allowing the quarterback—Tim Jefferson or Connor Dietz—to make a throw? And if nothing’s open, they can run. Look at how spreading the field allowed Wyoming quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels to make some freelance plays with his feet.

The Falcons can beat teams from the bottom half of the Mountain West Conference with the play-it-safe, lean-on-the-defense approach. But that’s not going to get it done against the upper half.

Or Navy, for that matter.

And it’s too much to ask of the offense to open things up just for those games. They won’t be ready.

Air Force had a chance to experiment and add some offensive facets to its arsenal against Wyoming.

And it didn’t.

AIR FORCE (-10.5) 23 Wyoming 17

Wyoming has won 3 consecutive games since Austyn Carta-Samuels was made the starting quarterback and today they catch an Air Force team in a letdown spot after last week's near upset of TCU. Teams that nearly pull off big upsets generally fall flat the next week and Air Force applies to a negative 6-47-1 ATS subset of a 43-123-4 ATS situation that is based on that premise.

While that situation is very good, the spread is too low and I'm not going to give up line value to play Wyoming as a Best Bet. While Carta-Samuel's numbers look decent (5.5 yards per pass play), they have come against horrible defensive teams that would allow 7.0 yppp to an average quarterback and I don't expect Wyoming to be able to throw the ball well against a very good Air Force secondary that's allowing just 5.1 yppp (to teams that would average 5.8 yppp against an average defense) since top CB Rembert starting playing in week 3 (he was suspended for the first 2 games).

Air Force has struggled offensively in 5 games against Division 1A opponents, averaging just 4.5 yards per play (against teams that would allow 5.4 yppl) and Wyoming is just 0.5 yppl worse than average on defense, so the Cowboys have the edge in that match-up.

Overall, my math model gives Air Force a 53% chance of covering at -10 1/2 points and the situation has a 58% chance of working at a fair line. Wyoming is still the side to take, but the lack of line value will keep me off the game.

Read more on my website www.drbobsports.com

I have 6 NCAA Best Bets and 6 NCAA Strong Opinions this week, and 1 NFL Best Bet and 1 NFL Strong Opinion!

Read an article about me in the Wall Street Journal

Air Force has uncertainty at the quarterback position.

Again.

By my count, it’s the fourth time there’s been uncertainty at the spot since four-year starter Shaun Carney graduated after the 2007 season.

I guess you could put the “Tim Jefferson or Connor Dietz” debate in the “good problems to have” category.

Dietz, after all, has played well enough to start building a case that he should start on merit, not just because of an injury to Jefferson. And if the 2008 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year might be usurped by his backup, I guess that says good things about the depth at the position.

It would seem it’s always better to have two good players than one.

But I’ve always been of the opinion that a team needs to pick a quarterback and stick with him. Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and I disagree here, and we’ve had this conversation a few times, most notably before the 2008 season when he talked about splitting snaps in games between two quarterbacks.

He thinks quarterbacks shouldn’t be treated any differently than an offensive guard or inside linebacker and that you shouldn’t “ anoint” a starting quarterback.

I think problems arise when there is a question as to who is the starting quarterback. The quarterbacks might start looking over their shoulders and playing a bit more tentatively, afraid to make mistakes. And the whole “who is your quarterback” question can be a distraction for a team.

Jefferson’s ankle, which is probably not completely healed, clouds this issue. But I think it would help the Falcons if, once he gets healthy, they settle on one or the other for the rest of the season.

Granted, they are a bit different. Dietz is a better runner, while Jefferson is a better passer. But let’s not act as if this is choosing between Dan Marino and Mike Vick.

Jefferson is a solid runner and Dietz, it seems in practice, can be a competent passer—especially in an Air Force offense that throws the ball about as much as Shaq launches three-pointers. So it’s not as if the Air Force offense changes that much based on the quarterback.

That said, my call is to pick one and stick with him. At least for a few games.

-I thought Connor Dietz looked much more comfortable in his second career start. He avoided any major mistakes (though he fumbled a couple snaps early that Air Force recovered), and he led a late touchdown drive to get Air Force within a field goal.

Sophomore starter Tim Jefferson, the player Dietz replaced, warmed up but did not play at all. Jefferson did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday and is clearly still struggling with his injured right ankle.

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said Jefferson won’t play until he can “go without any hesitation at all. … Until you can just push off and push off in a way that’s not just adequate but is explosive.”

It might be time to shut Jefferson down for a while. He hasn’t looked exactly right since injuring his right ankle at New Mexico on Sept. 19. Even when he’s played (against Navy last week and in practices), he’s looked a touch hesitant.

I asked Calhoun tonight if Dietz has done enough to make him think about starting Dietz even when Jefferson is healthy.

“It’s something that when you get to that point, that I think we’ve got to look at,” Calhoun said. “He’s played well, and I think he’s only going to play better.”

It will be an interesting decision. I think Dietz, who rushed for a team-high 71 yards and a score on 15 carries is probably the better runner. But I think Jefferson is probably a better passer than Dietz, who completed just 6-of-17 passes for 42 yards.

-Speaking of quarterbacks, at this point in the season, TCU junior Andy Dalton has my vote for Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year. He's just a confident player, as he should be in his third year starting.

He throws the ball really well (he made a couple throws on third down and another on a fourth down that were right on the money) and he’s a deceptively good runner. He ran that speed option really well and was good with his fakes.

“You can just tell that’s a seasoned guy,” Calhoun said.

-Air Force’s offense finally made it back to the end zone when Jonathan Warzeka hit Kevin Fogler for a 16-yard touchdown pass late in the first half. It was the first time the Falcons’ offense scored a touchdown since the third quarter of the Sept. 19 game at New Mexico, a stretch of more than 10 quarters.

The offense definitely looked better, especially in that there were some more big-gain plays. Dietz ripped off a run of 19 yards, Savier Stephens had a 12-yard carry, Asher Clark had a 29-yard burst and freshman receiver Mikel Hunter ran 36 yards on an end-around.

“They were better,” Calhoun said of his offensive players. “And yet, I didn’t think so in the first quarter. I think there’s a perfect case in point where the parts are there, but the way that you have to operate and execute all 11 guys, unity-wise, the execution’s got to be better.”

-While you wouldn’t have confused Air Force with Boise State as far as play-calling, Calhoun definitely opened it up a bit. The Warzeka-to-Fogler touchdown (Dietz ran the option right and pitched to Warzeka, who ran a couple steps and then threw) was a terrific call.

-Scary moment late in the first quarter.

Air Force junior outside linebacker Andre Morris Jr. was drilled by TCU’s Jurell Thompson on a punt return. It was one of those where Morris was ran down the field, then turned and was coming back the other way … and he was set up perfectly for a big shot by Thompson, who was setting up TCU’s wall.

Morris was down on the field for several minutes, and a stretcher was brought out for him before he got up and left the field under his own power.

“I don’t think it’s a concussion, I think it was a lights out,” Calhoun said. “At first, you just thought, ‘Gosh, is he OK?’ It was a NyQuil shot.”

-To me, Air Force’s biggest games of the season now are next week’s game against Wyoming and its Oct. 31 game at Colorado State.

An upset of Utah, which clearly is down from last season, or even BYU is within the realm of possibility. But far more important than pulling an upset is making sure no ground is lost.

Air Force has kind of established a beachhead as the top team outside the MWC’s “Big Three” of TCU, Utah and BYU. And the Falcons can’t afford to lose it.

A couple minutes into Saturday night’s game against TCU, I figured Air Force simply was overmatched.

The Falcons went three-and-out on the game’s first possession and then TCU gained 24 yards on its first play from scrimmage. With some momentum, they quickly marched inside the Air Force 15-yard line.

TCU looked too big, too fast, too talented.

But a strange thing happened on the way to what appeared was going to be a blowout.

It started feeling a whole lot like 2007.

You remember the Falcons’ 2007 game against TCU, of course—the 20-17 overtime victory that still stands as the signature win of coach Troy Calhoun’s tenure at the academy.

Anyway, tonight—like in that 2007 game—Air Force was a big underdog. But tonight—like in that game—Air Force got some key turnovers (including two after TCU drove inside the red zone) and made some surprising plays offensively to stay close.

Now, there wasn’t a 71-yard touchdown like Jim Ollis had in 2007. And, of course, Air Force came up short. But the Air Force offense at least made a few plays, and the Falcons hung around long enough to put themselves in position to have a chance to win.

Calhoun said after the loss tonight that, “there’s no joy in not having the most points on the scoreboard at the end of the game.”

And he’s right. At this point, the Falcons are past where they should feel good about keeping games close against the Mountain West Conference’s “Big Three.”

Yet I can’t help but feel like this game, in a lot of ways, was a step forward for the 2009 Falcons. Against the best team Air Force has faced to date, in a situation in which there could have been a hangover from the Navy loss, the Falcons played toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s top teams.

“We’ve got the makings of having a good football team,” Calhoun said. “You just see spots, here and there. … I think what we’re going to find out is we’re going to play better football in the second half of the season—over the next six games—than we did in the first six games. We’ve got the makings, character-wise, of being a good football team.”

Air Force made a big-time error in overtime by giving kicker Erik Soderberg a fairway that favors a fade instead of a draw.

I’ll explain: After Air Force picked up a first down by going for it on fourth-and-1, coach Troy Calhoun called for three straight runs. And, yes, I question the play-calling (which I’ll get to below). But forget for a moment about whether Air Force should have run the ball or passed on third-and-9. Because if you’re going to run it, you have to run left and give Soderberg a better angle.

As was pointed out to me this week at practice by a fan, Ted, Soderberg’s ball flight is right to left (in other words the ball starts out heading a tad right, and then curves a little left—like a draw in golf). If you have a right-to-left ball flight, the margin of error becomes much smaller when you’re kicking from the right side.

Picture it like this: If I hit a draw off the tee, the holes that set up for me are the ones where the fairway doglegs to the left. If I’m hitting a fade off the tee, then I like fairways that dogleg right.

Soderberg hits a draw. Calhoun should have put him on the left hashmark or, at the very least, in the middle of the field.

I felt awful for Soderberg, who felt terrible about the kick.

Kickers have a really, really tough job. Soderberg came through in one incredibly pressure-packed situation, forcing overtime with a 39-yarder as time expired in regulation. But he couldn’t come through in two.

Now, back to the play-calling after picking up the fourth-and-1. It was just curiously conservative, especially after taking a big gamble by going for it on fourth down.

How about a pass out of the shotgun? How about Jefferson rolling out with a run/pass option? How about—if you’re going to run it—going with the option? I don’t want to get into this too much, because it’s the subject of David Ramsey’s column in tomorrow’s edition of The Gazette, and I don’t want to step on Ramsey’s points. But here was what Calhoun said when he was questioned about those calls.

“I thought we could pop one up inside,” Calhoun said. “They’d taken both their ends, and they started playing a little wider whenever we were in two (running) backs. And we thought there might be a chance where we got both our guards up on their (linebackers) and the ball would pop through.”

Air Force once again needs to make winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy the program’s top priority instead of lumping it in with conference play or ranking it behind competing in the MWC.

It was strange talking to players this week. Some said Navy was just another team on the schedule and that the winning CIC trophy wasn’t the team’s top priority. Some said the CIC Trophy and the MWC title are about equal goals. Others said regaining the CIC Trophy ranks number one.

The outlook should be the same for everyone. And it’s foolish to act like Navy is just another game. It’s not.

And the difference in the teams’ excitement levels seemed glaring to me. Navy, which treats this game like the Super Bowl, was pumped up. Air Force seemed a little flat.

And maybe that’s why the Falcons got off to a horrendous start.

Just not enough playmakers on offense. I hate to say it, but watching the Falcons’ offense at times feels a bit like watching CU’s offense—who scares you if you’re the opposing defense?

One thought on Jefferson. I’m beginning to think he looked faster/quicker/more agile than he really is last season because we were juxtaposing him with Shea Smith.

That’s not meant to be a knock on Smith, who’s an absolutely fantastic competitor and a student of the game. But, Shea was so slow that when Jefferson took over last season it looked as if he was a world-class sprinter. This season, not so much.

This is the third time in Calhoun’s three seasons that Air Force is 3-2 after five games.

After the 3-2 starts the last two seasons, two things happened: One, Air Force made a fairly major personnel move or two (in 2007, it was shifting Chad Hall back to tailback. Last season it was putting Jefferson and Asher Clark in the starting lineup). And, two: The Falcons bounced back the following week with a victory.

Not sure if Air Force will make any major personnel moves. But bouncing back with a victory will be much tougher this year. TCU is coming to town. The two previous years Air Force faced Mountain West Conference bottom-feeders UNLV (in 2007) and San Diego State (2008) on the schedule after Navy.

And, speaking of lame opponents …

I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this game in the next few days, but I’ll leave you with this: It’s been a long time since Air Force has beaten a team it wasn’t supposed to beat.

After knocking off Utah and TCU in back-to-back weeks early in 2007, Calhoun’s first season, here are the teams the Falcons have beaten: UNLV (twice), Colorado State (twice), Wyoming (twice), Army (twice), Notre Dame, San Diego State (three times), Houston, New Mexico (twice), and Division I-AA squads South Carolina State and Southern Utah.

Not exactly a murderers’ row, huh?

Only Notre Dame jumps off the page as far as names go—but Air Force beat the Irish during their worst season in history. I guess the Houston win was pretty good, but the Cougars came into that game dealing with Hurricane Ike and the damage it was doing to their home town.

So who did they beat that they weren’t supposed to beat? On the other hand, how many games did Air Force lose that it probably should have won?

Air Force is a third of the way through its regular season.

We’ll start finding out how good the Falcons are next week.

Yes, Air Force is 3-1. But its victories have come against a dreadful Division I-AA squad, the worst Mountain West Conference team I’ve seen in four years of covering the league (New Mexico) and a typically poor group from San Diego State. The one game Air Force has played against a legitimate opponent, in week two at Minnesota, it fumbled away.

So starting in Annapolis, against a Navy program that has owned the Falcons of late, we’ll begin to see what this Air Force team is made of. And we’ll know for sure by the end of an October slate that also includes a home game against TCU and road games at Utah and Colorado State.

Post-Game Observations

I’m sure I’ll get some e-mails and comments on the blog about the offensive game plan. And, yes, it was the Sarah Palin of game plans. About as conservative as they come.

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun acknowledged this, saying that once the Falcons got the lead, they were going to “grind away” at the Aztecs with fullback Jared Tew. It was a conscious decision, in part because the Falcons had a new quarterback, and in part because Calhoun knew he could win with not much offense and good, solid defense.

He likened it to last season’s 16-7 victory at Army.

But he admitted the Falcons won’t be able to play that close to the vest in their remaining eight games.

“In the long-haul you can’t play that way,” he said. “You cannot win week in and week out and play that way. And yet today, we were able to.”

I wrote a sidebar for tomorrow’s paper on junior Reggie Rembert, who had an outstanding game—two interceptions, one forced fumble and another fumble he returned 47 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

Calhoun said Rembert has benefited from not having as many responsibilities this season. Remember last  year he was used a bit on offense at Z receiver.

“I think one of the things you’ve got to be really, really aware of when you work at the academy is not to stretch guys too much,” he said. “We weren’t fair to him. That starts here. We weren’t fair to him last year. We had him doing far too many things. We had a guy we were trying to make a jack of all trades and never really be good at something.”

San Diego State’s lone points before garbage time came from the safety that resulted when deep snapper Colton Reid snapped the ball over punter Brandon Geyer’s head in the second quarter.

“The snap over the punter’s head, that’s inexcusable,” Calhoun said. “You have one job as a deep snapper, and it’s not unreasonable. You’ve got 18 inches by 18 inches, and you’ve got to be able to hit that square every time. And we did not do that.”

It’s easy to see why coaches are excited about freshman outside linebacker Alex Means. He showed pretty impressive explosion in drilling Aztecs quarterback Ryan Lindley early in the second quarter for his first career sack.

Means blitzed almost directly into Lindley, who was carrying out a bootleg fake toward Lindley. What I liked was how instead of hesitating and giving Lindley a chance to get rid of it, he accelerated through Lindley’s chest.

And on the very next play, Means separated from a block, jumped into the air and batted down a Lindley throw. He later applied pressure to Lindley in the third quarter, forcing a bad throw that Anthony Wright Jr. returned 47 yards for a score.

“He had a lot of chance to make plays,” Calhoun said. “And there are times where you’ve got a chance to make plays, but whether or not you can make them is a different story. He did it.”

Tew wasn’t really happy with his performance.

“I couldn’t really get anything going in there,” he said. “I don’t think I had the best game, but we came out with the win, so I can’t really complain.”

Tew might not have broken as many tackles as he would have liked, but he carried a heavy load and showed he can be a work horse and survive tons of contact. It was a gutty performance.

Not much more to say. It’s Navy week.

A new media edict was handed down on Wednesday by Air Force football coach Troy Calhoun.

“If a player doesn’t finish a game due to injury, he will not be available to the media after the game or the following week on Monday and Tuesday,” the academy stated in an e-mail (that means injured players won’t be available for at least an entire week, as Mondays, Tuesdays and after games are the only times players are available to the media).

This, no doubt, is a reaction to Air Force quarterback Tim Jefferson’s interview on Tuesday in which he—heaven forbid—spoke candidly and truthfully about his ankle injury. Apparently, Jefferson (who suffered the injury on national television last weekend, for all to see) saying his ankle is “somewhere between 60 and 80” percent has given San Diego State, Saturday’s opponent, some sort of decided schematic advantage.

The rule is just the latest in a series of drastic changes Calhoun has made to his program’s media policy—from limiting the availability of players, to limiting when and about what assistant coaches can speak, to making freshmen off limits except for after games in which they play, to forbidding media to write about “anything that happens” at practices. The changes have swung Calhoun’s program from one of the most open and media-friendly in the country to on par with some of the most clandestine. It’s been a drastic, bizarre and ultimately puzzling change.

Quick disclaimer:

I understand that this is Calhoun’s program, so he can do whatever he wants with his media policies.

And, as I said when the initial policy changes were released in the summer, I’m not looking for sympathy. I’ll find a way to write stories no matter the restrictions, and I’ll be just fine. Besides, nobody’s going to shed any tears for a sports writer because it’s hard to feel bad for someone who watches football for a living.

However, there are several things that must be said about the new policies:

One, they affect a reporter's ability to provide information about a team. Information fans of other programs—like Navy, for instance—receive from the folks covering their teams.

Two, they put members of the media in an awkward situation. Our job is to report the news. So what do we do when we see an injured player not practicing (but can’t write that) and the head coach won’t comment on said player? We’re just supposed to ignore something so newsworthy? After all, our responsibility is to provide information for our readers and/or viewers, not to protect the team we’re covering.

And third—and I know most will say this is just the reaction of a grumpy scribe—I think the changes adversely affect Calhoun’s image.

For the last two seasons, Calhoun was candid and open about his program. He didn’t hesitate to tell you who was playing well and who wasn’t. And he wasn’t afraid to tell you who might not be able to play in the upcoming game because of an injury.

I respected the candor, and if I was a fan of Air Force, I’d have loved it. It was as if Calhoun was saying, “Here’s my team, and this is who we’re bringing to the battle. We’ve got nothing to hide. Stop us if you can.”

Now, I understand coaches will leave no stone unturned when it comes to trying to win games. And Calhoun has said that injury information affects the way a coaching staff will game plan. The Falcons’ plan for San Diego State last year, he said, changed when they found out there was a good chance the Aztecs’ quarterback would not play.

But come on. Did that really turn the game?

And is Calhoun really saying that an opposing coach is going to base large parts of his game plan on what he reads in The Colorado Springs Gazette or The Denver Post?

Look at it this way: If you were a coach, and you read in the newspaper that covers your upcoming opponent that the opponent’s quarterback was doubtful, would you totally ignore that player in your preparation? Would you devise a game plan as if he wasn’t going to be there?

(Answer: No. You wouldn’t).

I tried to get Calhoun to agree to a compromise: If we can’t write that, say, a key player is wearing a red jersey in practice and is dragging his injured foot around in a protective boot, then can he at least make a comment on said player? Can he at least say the player is “questionable” or “doubtful” or “probable?”

Nope. Calhoun refused to do it.

That seemingly innocuous piece of information, in Calhoun’s mind, could potentially swing the competitive balance of the game.

And maybe he’s right. He’s the guy with 19 victories in just more than two seasons, so it’s tough to argue with him. Though it’s interesting to note the Falcons won 17 games his first two years without the restrictions.

Anyway, the thing about these kinds of policies is they reek of desperation. They are the kinds of policies a coach coming off a 2-10 season would implement in a last, desperate attempt to fight off circling vultures. But Calhoun is at just about the opposite end of the spectrum from a coach on the hot seat.

So why be this petty and paranoid?

Calhoun—unlike some Air Force coaches, and to his eternal credit—refuses to use the rigorous academic workload and military obligations of cadets as excuses for not winning games. During his first two years injury information fell under the same umbrella. Not anymore.

By the way, San Diego State’s leading rusher, Brandon Sullivan, is “definitely out,” of Saturday’s game, Aztecs coach Brady Hoke told the San Diego Union-Tribune, because of a second-degree sprain of his medial collateral ligament.

If Air Force wins on Saturday, it won’t be because the coaching staff knows that.

Jake Schaller The Gazette: Air Force coach Troy Calhoun got pretty mouthy in regards to the BCS and made the comparison to the former Soviet Union.

"We basically have a system for college football that too closely resembles the old Soviet Presidium," Calhoun said referring to the policy making and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 

"You have a seven-member politburo that's decided if you aren't one of those party members, then you're unable to participate."

"You think back to the old Soviet Presidium, and what happened was you told every person, 'Hey, you aren't going to be able to grow a whole lot. We're going to tell you all you can earn.' That was the approach. ... There's a very, very strong resemblance that unfortunately is a part of college football."

These are pretty harsh words yet they do compare to how the BCS works regards to the national title. Plus, I would not want to mess with the guy who is part of the Air Force

KCWY13: Wyoming who is struggling to find wide receiver talent to be able to run Dave Christensen's spread will be in more trouble with the suspension of two wide outs.

"Senior wide receiver Greg Bowling will be suspended for the first two games of the season against Weber State and Texas. Fellow senior wide receiver Donate Morgan will be suspended for the season-opening Weber State game."

The Texas game is 99 percent in favor of the Longhorns, however that Weber State game might be interesting since they are coming of an FCS playoff run.

Lya Wodraska The Salt Lake Tribune: The conference presidents met in Colorado Springs to "look over," a term used loosely, the Mountain West's proposal for a playoff.

"There was no overall support for the proposal, although some conferences were interested in considering certain elements of it in the future—particularly those related to revenue, access, and governance of the BCS arrangement."

Was there any other decision on this?

The "access" part of the quote seems odd, because that is all the Mountain West wants; to find that access, something the conferences were considering.

I assume that the ones who liked the access part of the proposal is from the non-automatic qualifying leagues.

Tim Lemke The Washington Times: The question should be is Utah's Republican Senator going after the BCS to get re-elected or is Hatch truly adamant about the topic.

"You have 50 percent of the schools who are the elite schools. They get almost all of the money, and the other schools, no matter how good they are, don't even have a chance to compete for the national title."

Hard to argue Hatch on his premise, which to date is very true, but his motivation is in question. However all the news about the BCS and the Mountain West is only a good thing to keep it in the front line of the news cycle.