Air Force gunning to achieve respect

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1999 | 10:43 a.m.

Wyoming head coach Dana Dimel is known as a straight shooter. So his comments at the Mountain West Conference kickoff dinner in Colorado Springs shouldn't have been that startling.

Despite sitting on the same dais as legendary college coaches like LaVell Edwards of BYU, John Robinson of UNLV and Sonny Lubick of Colorado State, Dimel said, "Considering what he's accomplished, I think Fisher DeBerry is the best college coach in the country."

He might be right.

Over the past two years, DeBerry's Air Force Falcons have won 22 games, including a 45-25 thumping of Washington in the Oahu Bowl last December. Only one team -- defending national champion Tennessee (24) -- has won more games in Division I football. The Falcons are tied with noted football powerhouses Florida State, Michigan, Nebraska and Kansas State for second.

Not bad considering the Falcons don't give out athletic scholarships and are often at a fair size disadvantage when they take the field. They also don't redshirt. And the student part of student/athlete actually carries a lot more weight when it comes to admitting prospective players.

But thanks to quick and disciplined defenses and the great equalizer, the option on offense, DeBerry has managed to build one of top programs in the nation.

Still, the Falcons believe they don't get their share of respect.

Air Force was rated No. 32 in the preseason coaches' poll.

They were even lower than that in many of the preseason magazines.

All of which didn't go unnoticed by Air Force players.

"You look in the magazines, like Athlon, they have us ranked 53rd in the nation," defensive tackle Shawn Thomas said.

"It kind of makes you real, real mad."

For the first time in five years, Air Force won't have a Morgan starting at quarterback.

Blaine Morgan, who followed brother Beau Morgan at quarterback for the Falcons, graduated as the winningest quarterback in school history (20-3). But the Falcons should be strong again at the position with senior Cale Bonds, who rolled up 361 yards in total offense in the Falcons' win over Navy last year while filling in for injured Blaine Morgan.

The defense has five starters back but loses all-WAC corner and kick blocker deluxe Tim Curry as well as defensive tackle Bryce Fisher, the WAC Mountain Division Defensive Player of the Year.

New-look Cougars

Elsewhere around the MWC, there will be a lot of changes this football season around Provo.

Besides the obvious switch to the Mountain West Conference -- the Cougars were charter members in the Western Athletic Conference when it started in 1962 -- BYU also decided to unveil new dark blue and tan uniforms with dark blue helmets.

But some of the biggest changes will come on the field.

BYU's two top running backs -- explosive Ronney Jenkins (1,307 yards) and sophomore Junior Mahe (481 yards) -- are gone due to violations of the school's honor code.

That leaves head coach Edwards -- the one constant around Provo these days -- scrambling to find a top-notch running back to take the heat off veteran quarterback Kevin Feterik (6-0, 190), whose size and arm strength have been questioned since his high school days at Los Alamitos (Calif.) High School.

"You can't lose running backs the caliber of Ronney Jenkins and Junior Mahe and not be affected," Edwards said.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens at the running back spot."

It's possible that two highly-touted true freshmen, Lucas Staley and Fahu Tahi, will see major playing time this season.

Still, don't feel too sorry for the Cougars, who have won 18 conference titles under Edwards and finished first or second an amazing 23 times in 27 years.

The hard-hitting Morris, who will be a first-round NFL draft choice after this season, anchors a defense that was fifth in the nation a year ago.

And both starting cornerbacks, Brian Gray and Heshimu Robertson, are expected to play this year, although there was fear in the off-season that neither would return.

Gray had academic problems while Robertson had a university Honor Code violation.

Utes' movement

At Utah, coach Ron McBride is hoping there is something special about his special teams this season. If so, there's a good chance the Utes could be playing in their fifth bowl game in eight years come December.

If not for some major breakdowns in placekicking the Utes, and not in-state rival BYU, likely would have been playing Air Force in the final WAC championship game at Sam Boyd Stadium. Instead, Utah finished tied for third in the Pacific Division with a deceiving 5-3 mark and stayed home for the holidays.

With 16 starters returning, including Mountain West Conference preseason Offensive Player of the Year Mike Anderson at running back, the Utes might have been picked a lot higher than fourth in this year's MWC coaches' preseason poll.

Besides shoring up the kicking game, a key for the Utes could be the health of junior quarterback Darnell Arceneaux.

Arceneaux, a former prep teammate of UNLV linebacker James Sunia at perennial prep powerhouse St. Louis High in Honolulu, is a perfect 6-0 in his career as a starter.

However, those starts have been few and far between over the last two season due to an assortment of injuries ranging from a separated shoulder to a broken finger to a sore back.

Defensively, six starters return including defensive end John Frank, who had 10 sacks in 10 games last season, all-WAC linebacker Kautai Olevao and talented corners Teneil Ethridge and Andre Dyson.

Aztecs get defensive

Despite hiring a head coach, Ted Tollner, known more for his prowess as a quarterbacks and passing game guru, the Aztecs will rely on a punishing defense and strong running game to try and take them to the top in the inaugural season of the Mountain West Conference.

The Aztecs, who tied BYU for the Pacific Division title in the WAC last year with a 7-1 conference mark and lost to North Carolina, 20-13, in the Las Vegas Bowl, return six starters from a defensive unit that ranked 35th nationally.

Two key players from that defense, preseason All-American defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and all-WAC strong safety Rico Curtis, both return as does hard-hitting linebacker Joey Mayo.

Offensively, the Aztecs return their entire offensive line in tact as well as one of the better returning running back combos in the nation in senior Jonas Lewis and junior Larry Ned.

The duo combined to rush for 1,659 yards and score 11 touchdowns last season.

Battering Rams

A year ago, the talk around Fort Collins, Colo., was that the Colorado State Rams might make a surprise run at a national championship.

Instead, the injury-plagued Rams, the team of the '90s in the WAC, found themselves a disappointing 8-4 in 1998 and home for the holidays for only the second time in five years.

If explosive fullback Kevin McDougal can stay healthy his senior year, CSU should be back in the bowl hunt.

It wasn't just a coincidence that the Rams stumbled badly when McDougal, who had 1,111 yards and 13 touchdowns in helping lead CSU to the 1997 WAC title, was sidelined for five games with hamstring and shoulder injuries.

With a healthy McDougal, the Rams rallied from a 16-0 deficit to win, 23-16, at Michigan State and gave Air Force all it could handle before losing, 30-27, at Falcon Stadium.

Without him, the Rams got whipped by Rice, 35-23.

The key for the Rams could be whether a defense led by all-conference players such as defensive end Clark Haggans, linebacker Rick Crowell and strong safety Erik Olson can keep CSU in the early games while the offense develops.

Old New Mexico

The University of New Mexico football program begins its second century of football this year.

The folks in Albuquerque hope the results in season 101 are a whole lot better than they were in No. 100.

The 1998 campaign mirrored the name of first year Lobos' head coach: Rocky and Long.

New Mexico, which had gone 9-4 a year earlier under Dennis Franchione and won the WAC's Mountain Division (the school's first football title in 33 years) and earned an invite to the Insight.com Bowl in Tucson, dropped to 3-9 and lost to its two biggest rivals, UTEP and New Mexico State, both in the final seconds.

The bad news is New Mexico also must replace two-time All-WAC quarterback Graham Leigh, who passed for 4,979 yards and 42 touchdowns during his stellar collegiate career.

Junior Eric Jaworsky completed 13 of 20 passes in limited duty last season and is the only one of three candidates with any kind of Division I playing experience.

The defense, despite returning eight starters, also is unsettled as defensive coordinator Bronco Mendenhall tries to find the right players for Long's complicated, high-risk, blitz-from-all-angles style of defense.

Cowboy aide

After watching his team manage just one field goal in its final 10 quarters in 1998, Wyoming head coach Dimel decided to fire his offensive coordinator.

That offensive coordinator's name was Dana Dimel.

Dimel was forced to take over the dual role of offensive coordinator and head coach when Cowboys' offensive coordinator Todd Whitten quit shortly before the season. And for nine games Dimel did a nice job as the Cowboys came out of the chute with an 8-1 record, losing only between the hedges at Georgia in a hard-fought game, 16-9.

But Wyoming's offense was virtually non-existent in its final two games, including a 10-3 loss at Air Force that decided the WAC's Mountain Division title. The following week, with a Las Vegas Bowl berth possibly riding on the outcome, the Cowboys shot more blanks in a lackluster 35-0 loss at Tulsa.

So in January Dimel turned to an old coaching collegue from Kansas State, Manny Matsakis, who had drawn raves for his innovative triple-shoot offensive at Division II Emporia State in Emporia, Kan.

Matsakis cautioned that people shouldn't expect that Wyoming's offense, which returns five starters, including quarterback Jay Stoner (2,373 yards, 14 TDs) and senior wide receiver Wendell Montgomery (115 receptions the past two seasons), will mimic Emporia State's this year.

The defense returns eight starters, including all-WAC free safety Al Rich and talented defensive tackle Jeff Boyle, from a unit that ranked third in the WAC in fewest points allowed (19.5).

"This is the best team I've put on the field since I've been here," Dimel said. "But then this also is the toughest schedule we've faced."

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