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LOGAN — When the Air Force football team takes to the field Saturday night at Utah State, the Falcons will have already done something few in college football get to do.
And it won’t have anything to do with their 4-1 record, either.
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun announced this week that his team would fly to its next road game in the belly of a C-17, a high-wing, four-engine military transport for loads up to 169,000 pounds.
And for many of the cadets on board who will don flight suits for the duration of the trip, it’s only a taste of the future.
“We’re going to have guys who are flying that same plane very, very soon,” Calhoun said during his weekly press conference Tuesday. “I thought it was a great opportunity. There’s plenty of leg room on a C-17, and it’s a way to appreciate it when the pilot comes from each Air Force base.”
The Falcons, who haven’t flown via military aircraft since the mid-1990s, take their ride this weekend from a base in Riverside, California. The plane will dock at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden before the team takes a bus ride to Romney Stadium in time for Saturday’s 8:15 p.m. kickoff on ESPNU.
Whether flying to the game via military or commercial jet, though, Calhoun said his team almost always seems to find a pilot who came from their unique institution.
“I’ve learned if there is a way we can have Air Force Academy graduates fly us, they’ll find a way to get on it,” the eighth-year Air Force head coach said. “Oftentimes, it will be a guy who wore lightning bolts on their helmet, too.”
On the field, Air Force is off to a 4-1 start and a 1-1 effort in the Mountain West that includes a takedown of league power Boise State. The Falcons’ relentless triple-option offense has yielded 1,490 net yards while the defense has held opponents to 580 yards on the ground.
Running back Jacobi Owens spearheads the offense with 633 yards and four touchdowns on 113 carries, and quarterback Kale Pearson adds 299 yards and three scores on 61 rushes. Perhaps more surprising is Pearson’s emergence as a passer, completing 60 percent of his throws for 629 yards and six touchdowns.
Calhoun knows he’ll see a good quarterback opposite Pearson, as well. The Air Force graduate complimented Aggie starter Darell Garretson on his ability to find as many receivers at any given moment.
“What they have is they get more guys involved with his passing,” Calhoun said. “You see it with their backs, including one that plays linebacker, too. They fly on the outside, and they have big linemen up front.”
But it won’t be all offense when these two teams meet. Calhoun put Utah State’s defense ast the top of the Mountain West, and his group isn’t far behind, statistically. The Falcons are led by Jordan Pierce, who has a team-high 42 tackles with eight tackles for loss, two sacks and two interceptions. Weston Steelhammer is a force up front and in the secondary, recording four tackles for loss, three sacks and three of the team’s seven interceptions in 2014.
The complete team has Air Force ready to compete for a Mountain West title, and in pole position to clinch the Commander-in-Chief Trophy as the best of the three military academies this season.
“That is an emotional rivalry game, a tremendous win, that they haven’t done in a long time,” Utah State coach Matt Wells said of Air Force’s 30-21 win over Navy. “That’s a big-time rivalry. For them to be 1-0 and have a leg up on the Commander-in-Chief trophy is huge.”
