FISHER'S IMPACT.
AFA's all-time record now stands at
295-244-13(.546)
in 552
games. Fisher's tenure as head coach spans
44.7%
of the total number of games the Falcons
have played in their history, yet has
produced 53.2%
of the academy's victories. Another mark of
Fisher's success is that his teams have
registered only
36.4%
of the academy's all-time losses while
having played 44.6% of the total number of
games in AFA's football history. DeBerry has
already won 19 more games than all other
head football coaches in AFA's history
combined. The Falcons need five more
victories to post their 300th win.
THE "200 WATCH".
Having now signed a five year extension on a
contract which was set to expire after the
2004 season, Falcons' fans can rest assured
that
Fisher DeBerry will be stalking the
sidelines through the fall of 2009. Never
one to speak publicly about coaching
standards he might reach as the result of
being the most successful coach in service
academy football history, I'll mention a
long term benchmark at which DeBerry may
finally be able to take aim. As the current
season began only sixteen coaches in
division 1-A history had reached the 200 win
plateau. Before retiring as head coach at
Fresno State, Jim Sweeney became the man to
most recently arrive at 200 career
victories. (Falling just short of the 200
mark are: Dana Bible with 198 wins; Dan
McGugin with 197 and Fielding Yost and
Howard Jones with 196).
Having posted his 157th win over Eastern
Washington, DeBerry stands 43 wins short of
the vaunted goal with a bit less than six
seasons to go on his contract.
Let the "200 Watch" officially begin!
DEE-FENSE, DEE-FENSE?
The Fisher DeBerry era, now in its
twenty-first season, has demonstrated that a
crucial determinant in AFA's ability to win
a game is the frequency with which the
Falcons hold opponents to twenty-three
points or less. Fisher DeBerry had coached
AFA in 247 games and posted an overall
record of 157-89-1(.637). In 139 games the
Falcons held their opponents to 23 or fewer
points and posted a dazzling 119-20 (.856)
winning mark. In the 108 games the Falcons
allowed their opponents to score 24 or more
points they posted a desultory 38-69-1
(.356) record.
This trend, established from 1984 through
1998, has continued in recent seasons as
well. From November 18, 1999 through this
year‘s Eastern Washington game,
Air Force
has played forty-nine games against division
1-A opponents. In those forty-nine games Air
Force has compiled a 27-22(.551) record. In
32 (65.3%) of those games Air Force allowed
24 or more points to the opposition. In
those 32 games when allowing 24 or more
points, AFA's record is 12-20 (.375). In the
seventeen games in which the Falcons allowed
twenty-three points or less AFA posted a
mark of 15-2(.882).
The preponderance of evidence over twenty
years is clear: when AFA limits the
opposition to 23 points or less it wins.
When AFA allows twenty-four points or more
its chances to win decrease rapidly and the
figures support this assessment. Whether you
take the long view over Fisher's twenty
years as the team's coach or the short view
from November 1999 to the present the
outcomes are strikingly similar: when AFA
holds its opponent to twenty-three or fewer
points it wins and when it allows
twenty-four or more points it loses.
RUSHING AHEAD. Here
is a look at the leading rushers in AFA
history at the outset of the 2004 campaign.
1. 3612 Dee Dowis
2. 3379 Beau Morgan
3. 2726 John Kershner
4. 2324
Chance Harridge
5. 2284 Brian Bream
5. 2284 Pat Evans
7. 1993 Greg Johnson
8. 1860 Marty Louthan
9. 1762 Jason Jones
10. 1760 Rodney Lewis
11. 1702 Rob Perez
12. 1677 Bart Weiss
13. 1633 Terry Issacson
14. 1630 Ken Wood
15. 1551 Shelby Ball
16. 1534 Mike Thiessen
17. 1478 Jake Campbell
18. 1470
Leotis Palmer
19. 1406 Qualario Brown
20. 1400 Scotty McKay
21. 1371 Mike Quinlan
22. 1354 Spanky Gilliam
23. 1347 Larry Thomson
24. 1296 Nakia Addison
25. 1242 Keith Boyea
26. 1233 Johnny Smith
27.
1155 Anthony Butler <==
28. 1154 Darnell Stephens<==
29. 1129 Blane
Morgan
30. 1091 Curtis Martin
31. 1074 Bill Berry
32. 1005 Joel Carlson
Anthony Butler continues his climb up the
chart of career rushing leaders at the
academy. After topping the one-thousand yard
plateau in the 2003 season Butler stands
positioned to make a concerted charge up the
ranks of the all-time leaders during his
senior campaign in 2004. Butler was limited
to a single carry against Eastern Washington
because of an ankle sprain, but carried the
ball 215 times for 1,155 yards, 10 TDs and a
5.37 yards per carry average.
The newest name to be added to the list of
career rushers to have reached or surpassed
the 1,000 yard mark is Darnell Stephens. His
career slate shows him having carried the
ball 198 times, for 1154 yards, a 5.70 yards
per carry average and 8 TDs.
The individual and collective performances
of Butler and Stephens give evidence as to
why the AFA ground based option attack has
focused more upon the halfbacks' efforts and
less upon production from the fullbacks in
recent years. The two have a solid chance to
surpass the 1,400 yard career barrier as
seniors which would place them among the top
twenty ground gainers in academy history.
The senior HBs now stand 27th and 28th on
the career rushing list at AFA only one yard
apart.
SCHEDULING SNAFU.
Current NCAA guidelines allow division 1-A
teams to schedule 12 regular season games in
a year depending on the number of weekends
which fall between Labor Day and the first
week of December. The next four years in
which AFA would be eligible to play 12 games
are: 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2019.
Texas Christian University will become a
full fledged member of the MWC beginning
with the 2005 football season. This means
that the conference will be comprised of
nine teams and each school in the league
will play every other member annually. That
gives AFA eight games a year. Throw in the
yearly CIC battles against Army and Navy and
the Falcons have ten games seemingly in
place stretching into the far reaches of
their football future.
At present AFA is under contract for the
2006 season to play at Northwestern and at
home against Notre Dame. However, 2006 is a
year in which teams are eligible to play
only eleven regular season games.
The scenario is nearly the same for the 2007
season with AFA hosting Northwestern and
traveling to South Bend to face the Fighting
Irish. It’s a season in which current NCAA
guidelines allow for only eleven regular
season games.
The same situation arises in 2009 when AFA
is scheduled to host Texas A & M and meet
North Texas in Denton. It’s a year in which
only 11 games are permitted.
The dilemma for the Falcons is a tough one.
The AFA has played Notre Dame and
Northwestern with some frequency during
Fisher DeBerry’s tenure. A home game against
the Fighting Irish is a cash cow for the
Falcons and putting future games against the
Irish in jeopardy would be courting severe
financial impact. On the other side of the
coin, Northwestern represents a school of
similar academic integrity to that of the
AFA as well as being a member of the BCS.
Under current NCAA guidelines,
one of the games in the 2006, 2007 and 2009
seasons will need to be dropped by AFA.
There are at least two ways in which to
regard this potential scheduling gridlock.
For the season ticket buying public, it
means AFA’s schedule will have a highly
repetitive nature since there will only be
one slot available for a non-MWC,
non-military academy rival each year. On the
other hand, the current NCAA restriction
allowing just eleven games in most seasons
may finally end AFA’s longstanding practice
of scheduling games against division 1-AA
opponents which have produced no drama and
farcical mismatches while forcing the public
to pay premium prices for an inferior
product.
THE MWC VERSUS THE BCS.
There’s a frequent cry of anguish which
arises from camps of followers of MWC teams
bemoaning the fact that the league’s teams
deserve more recognition on a national basis
given their individual and collective
records against BCS affiliated teams.
Frankly, since the inception of the MWC its
teams have not fared well when stepping
outside conference play when facing BCS
teams. During the course of the 2004 regular
season MWC teams are scheduled to face
members of BCS affiliated conferences in19
games. Here’s a look at when and where the
match-ups are taking place as well as the
outcomes and the MWC’s record in the games
played to date.