Head Coach: Troy Calhoun is entering his 19th season as the head coach of the Falcons with a 135-89 record. 11 of those seasons have featured 8 or more wins, 5 with 10 or more wins and he’s won 8 bowl games including his last 5. He’s one of the best coaches around.
Program Outlook: I said this on each of their previews but service academy football is very unique and it’s truly one of the elements that sets College Football apart. In this era of NIL, the players at Air Force are still true student athletes. In fact, football is the easiest activity they’ll do in a given day. There’s disadvantages of course, Air Force can’t recruit to the level of some of their conference peers but the Falcons have proven that doesn’t matter. Air Force is one of the steadiest programs in the current Mountain West, and will remain so in the new one.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Air Force ranks 66th in the country returning 55.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Service Academies tend to have senior heavy lineups so this is a little higher than usual for Air Force and it also shows what a youth movement last year was. Key players for the Falcons starts with RBs Cade Harris and Kade Frew who are both solid backs, fullback Dylan Carson is one of the leaders of the offense and Owen Allen is pretty good as well. The offensive line returns a good amount of experience too. The question mark is the QB position which got suddenly thrown into chaos when it was confirmed last month that Quentin Hayes is no longer a cadet. Josh Johnson is the early favorite to win the job, he completed as many passes to opponents (3) as he did his own team. Liam Szarka will factor in the race as well. The defense will be led by a strong Dline. Payton Zdroik missed some time last year but when he plays he is a menacing presence for opposing offenses. Aidan Swartz was involved in the rotation last year and Daniel Grobe does a great job on the inside. There’s not a ton of experience at LB but Blake Fletcher and Luke Fisher appear to be the next men up at a couple spot. Safeties Kyle Chen and Houston Hendrix give the Falcons at least some experience in the secondary, but the corners are inexperienced, making that position one of the bigger questions on the team.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Air Force plays a pretty challenging schedule this year. Their non-conference schedule doesn’t change a lot each year they have their locked in games against Navy and Army, plus their FCS foe which is Bucknell who is coming off a solid season last year. The open game this year is a road game at UConn who is coming off a 9 win season. The Mountain West schedule is tough, Fresno State is probably the only Mountain West contender that the Falcons miss. They do get Boise State at home but have to play UNLV, San Jose State and Colorado State all on the road. The schedule certainly presents an obstacle to the Falcons Mountain West hopes.
Final Thoughts: This year feels like a solid rebound year for the Falcons. I really liked them to be a Mountain West contender at one point this offseason, the strong finish to 2024 was closer to what we’re used to seeing from this team but the QB position dictates how this offense runs and Hayes no longer returning adds some uncertainty. At a minimum the Falcons can expect to reach a bowl.
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