EVOLUTION. For more than a generation USC placed its imprimatur on the world of college football by running the ball. Tailbacks Mike Garrett (1965), Orenthal James Simpson (1968), Charles White (1979) and Marcus Allen (1981) were awarded the Heisman Trophy during their playing days. In part one of the John Robinson era at USC, opponents were fed a healthy diet of the Trojans' famed "student body left" and "student body right" toss sweeps. Hordes of Brobdignagian sized linemen led fleet tailbacks due left or due right for healthy gains with stultifying regularity.
There was no need to guess what USC would do once the offense had the ball in its possession. The only uncertainty faced by spectators or opposing defenses was in speculating as to whether the famed "toss 28 sweep" would go to the left or right following the next snap from center. Of course, this was in a time so deeply situated in the dim, dark recesses of history that a team from the Big 10--which actually had exactly that many teams--would meet a team from the Pac 10 each January 1st in the Rose Bowl game. There were no Sooners from Oklahoma cavorting in Pasadena as the old year begat the new.
Now that it takes all available digits on your hands, toes and a few more in addition to those, to enumerate all the post-season contests, a new day, indeed, has dawned. Neophyte college football fans may be on the verge of having to refer to USC as "that place where they throw the ball all the time." Geez, if O.J. ever gets word of this seismic shift in the Trojans' modus operandi while he's on the back nine at Riviera Country Club, it may be enough to make him shank a two iron.
Palmer's well articulated passing game enabled him to complete 63 percent of his pass attempts, for 3,639 yards and 32 TDs in leading USC to a 10-2 regular season record, capped by the team's seven game win streak in advance of its appearance in the Orange Bowl. In comparison to the aerial assault proliferated by Palmer this season, consider that since the beginning of the 2000 season Air Force has thrown for only 4,442 yards. As AFA's offensive coordinator, Chuck Petersen, formulates the Falcons' game plan for their meeting with Virginia Tech he'd be wise to stay true to the course on which he has steered the team this season.
FLEXING YOUR MUSCLES. Fisher DeBerry and his coaching staff know where the strength of its offense lies. The Falcons enter the post-season as the only team in division 1-A to have averaged over 300 yards rushing per game in the regular season. The offensive line has powered the Falcons' ground game by continually opening holes through the opposition's defensive fronts or escorting the team's blazing halfbacks to the point of attack on the perimeter of the line of scrimmage, from which point, the backs have sped their way to comfortable gains.
Air Force has all but eschewed the pass in fashioning the 8-4 mark it will carry into the inaugural San Francisco Bowl on New Year's Eve. While going 9-3 in its 2000 season the Falcons attempted 229 passes. In last season's 6-6 campaign the Falcons threw a similar number of passes, 234. This year's pass attempts figure has taken a major hit as Air Force has thrown the ball a mere 135 times.
There can be no denying the health of the AFA ground game this season. Only Utah and Notre Dame were able to limit the Falcons to fewer than 200 yards rushing. The Irish simply dominated the game with AFA from start to finish in posting a 21-14 victory. In the game against the Utes, it was a furious performance by the Falcons' defense--spearheaded that afternoon by ILB Anthony Schlegel--rather than a prolific ground game in the second half, which powered AFA's remarkable comeback victory. However, make no mistake that the Falcons have been able to get their yards on the ground against nearly everyone this fall.
Just as AFA's productive ground game helps to unravel the mystery surrounding the marked decrease in the number of passing attempts initiated by the offense this season, so too, does quarterback Chance Harridge's moderate arm strength.
In four games this year (Utah, Notre Dame, Wyoming and San Diego State) Harridge has attempted more than ten passes. Air Force lost three of the games, posting its only win against the Utes. Yes, Harridge threw two, second half, TD passes to HB Don Clark to help the team secure its victory, but Harridge's heroics were made possible that day by a ravenous defensive effort over the game's final thirty minutes. Credit must be given where it's due and that day's laurels belong to AFA's defense.
Harridge has attempted more than ten passes in four games and his cumulative stats in those contests have him completing 27 of 61 throws for a 44.3% rate. The team has gone 1-3 in the contests.
In the team's eight other games this fall Harridge has attempted ten or fewer passes. Over the course of these eight contests he has hit 33 of 64 attempts for a 51.7% rate. Air Force has won seven of those games, falling only to conference champion Colorado State on Halloween Night. The evidence is clear: when Air Force runs effectively, thereby limiting the number of pass attempts it requires of Harridge, his completion percentage rises as does the likelihood of the Falcons' posting a win.
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS. The question of whether the chicken or the egg made the earlier debut is an imponderable for the ages. Its football equivalent poses whether a team must run to set up the pass or vice versa. It's a conundrum worth examining in advance of the Falcons' date with Virginia Tech on the last night of the year.
AFA's version of the ground based option attack is one which is most effective when ball-controlling, time-consuming drives culminate in touchdowns. The option's lifeblood is a disproportionate time of possession which allows the scheme and its practitioners ample opportunity to nibble away at a tiring defense four, five and six yards at a crack. This offensive design keeps the Falcons' defense well rested, unexposed to potential injury and ready to go when the need arises.
Aesop may have postulated that familiarity breeds contempt, but in football it fosters precision. Air Force is productive in running the ball with its option attack, in part, because it does so fifty, sixty or seventy times a game. In football, precision and productivity are byproducts of repetition. Lack of repetition results in happenstance performance. So it is with AFA's passing game. Since Air Force runs frequently and well, it doesn't pass often. It doesn't pass well, in part, because it doesn't pass often and the team's principle quarterback has an arm that is charitably described as a "work in progress."
All of these assessments lead to the conclusion that Air Force is most likely to upset Virginia Tech if the Falcons do what they do best: RUN THE BALL.
Harridge hasn't attempted more than nineteen passes in a game this year and has not completed more than nine throws in a contest. Both those figures were registered in Laramie against Wyoming in what is easily the most disappointing chapter in the 2002 Falcons' football saga.
By keeping their feet on the ground, the ball in the hands of the running backs who helped author the nation's leading rushing attack this season and out of the chill San Franciscan night air, the Falcons will increase their opportunity to provide themselves with the academy's ninth bowl win and Fisher DeBerry with his 150th victory as the team's head coach.