NO FUN LAST TIME. When the Falcons last paid a visit to Sam Boyd Stadium they established a 13-9 lead in the first half before being blitzed by twenty-five, UNLV points as the Rebels stormed to a 34-13 win, which included a 22-0 second half landslide in their favor. The biggest win Air Force has posted in Las Vegas didn't even come against UNLV, but rather, versus BYU in the 1998 Western Athletic Conference championship game. The 20-13 win over the Cougars was the Falcons' eleventh win in what would become a 12-1 campaign, tying the academy record for most wins in a season set by the 1985 squad, which also went 12-1 on the year.
While there will be no such record setting achievements by this year's AFA team, a victory over the Rebels on Saturday would enhance the continuing transformation of Fisher DeBerry's crew from last year's MWC disappointment to this fall's most pleasant surprise. Air Force snapped its three game losing streak last weekend in convincing fashion by thrashing Army 49-30, to capture a sixth, consecutive, outright Commander-in Chief's trophy. The Falcons were never seriously threatened in the game after Army tied the score at 7-7 in the first quarter. Air Force churned out 531 yards of total offense--its second highest figure this fall--and coasted to a victory in which AFA fell on the ball in the final minute of play rather than score yet another TD against an outmanned Black Knights' team.
TRENDS. Air Force enters its game versus UNLV with the opportunity to extend one trend and stop another. By beating UNLV the Falcons can take a modest two game winning streak into their final regular season game on November 23 against San Diego State. More importantly, by defeating UNLV, the Falcons would avoid a disturbing third straight loss to the Rebels.
CSU and BYU--which atypically has faltered this season--are two teams whose play have set them apart from the other six MWC members. In any given year Air Force is capable of jumping up and beating either the Rams or Cougars and making a bona fide run at the conference title. AFA fans don't need to be reminded of the devastation AFA wreaked on BYU in October before a national television audience. If Air Force hopes to be taken seriously as an annual title contender in the MWC it cannot do so by losing three consecutive games to UNLV. In its first conference game this fall, AFA finally ended its inexplicable three game losing streak to New Mexico, but had to use an overtime touchdown to do so.
A college earns an athletic "reputation" for ongoing triumphs or failure to mount success in one sport or another. UNLV and New Mexico have well documented success in basketball. As football powers, well, let's just say the Rebels and Lobos are good basketball schools. The football team's success in the Fisher DeBerry era has allowed it to maintain the highest athletic profile of any team on the AFA campus. The Falcons cannot allow themselves to be derailed in their quest for future MWC football titles by schools whose greatest athletic prowess lies outside the football stadium.
THEY'LL BE WATCHING. Members of several bowl committees will be paying close attention to the AFA-UNLV game, including representatives of the Las Vegas Bowl, which will be played in Sam Boyd Stadium on Christmas Day. That bowl's committee will have the second selection from among bowl qualified teams in the MWC. The league's champion will play in the Liberty Bowl which means the CSU Rams will likely be heading east for the holidays. Even if AFA finishes in sole possession of second place in the MWC it is not a foregone conclusion that the Falcons would be making a return trip to the Silver State in time for the Yuletide. In two of the past three years the Las Vegas Bowl committee has opted to extend an invitation to a Mountain West Conference team other than the second place finisher.
This weekend's meeting between Air Force and UNLV will come 364 days after the Rebels launched a frenetic rally against the Falcons, after falling behind by ten points. UNLV nullified every manner of attack Air Force tried to initiate and scored thirty-four consecutive points, in only twenty-nine minutes and thirty-four seconds of playing time from early in the second quarter to the opening minutes of the final quarter. Just as New Mexico had vexed Air Force for far too long until earlier this season, so too, have the Rebels been an inscrutable riddle which the Falcons have not been able to unravel since 1999.
A win over the Rebels will fully energize the Falcons as they enter the final game of the regular season next week, at home, against San Diego State. Air Force would raise its record to 8-3 and further confound preseason projections which consigned Air Force to being little more than also-rans this fall. A month ago Air Force was ranked as high as fifteenth in the nation's polls as it headed into the Notre Dame game. Since that high water mark of the current season DeBerry and company have won another CIC trophy and are taking aim on fashioning a three game winning streak before heading to post-season play.
A 10-3 record after bowl season comes and goes, just may be enough to boost Air Force onto the lower rungs of the top twenty-five polls, if the Falcons can change their luck in Las Vegas.
AROUND THE MWC. CSU travels to San Diego to take on the Aztecs this week. The Rams haven't played since Halloween Night when they dissected the Falcons, 30-12, in mist shrouded Falcon Stadium. Sonny Lubick's team will certainly be well rested and looking to all but clinch the MWC title by beating Tom Craft's Aztecs. If you're wondering what the Rams' odds are of posting a win consider the following two pieces of data: first, CSU has won its past four games in San Diego versus the Aztecs, second, Sonny Lubick's teams are 24-6(.800) in conference road games during his tenure as the team's head coach.
San Diego State is 3-7 on the year, 3-2 in MWC play and has lost its past two games. The Aztecs enjoy a 12-9 record versus CSU, including a 14-7 upset of the Rams in Hughes Stadium last fall. The Rams, (8-2 overall, 4-0 in MWC play) have won their past four games this season.
In the other two MWC games being played this weekend, New Mexico travels to Provo to face BYU. The Utah Utes will be in Laramie to play the Wyoming Cowboys.