Falcons QB puts on a real air show

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

Air Force quarterback Mike Thiessen sidestepped the question with the ease of juking out an opposing defender on the option.

Is Thiessen, as one Colorado newspaper speculated earlier this year, the best all-around athlete in Air Force history?

The 6-0, 195-pound senior from Johansen High School in Modesto, Calif., chuckled.

"We'll let other people decide that," he said. "I've had a great ride so far. I still have one more year to go. Hopefully I can finish on a strong note."

You can make a pretty fair argument that Thiessen, who leads the Mountain West Conference-leading Falcons (3-0, 2-0) into Sam Boyd Stadium against UNLV (1-2, 0-1) on Saturday, is the best athlete in Air Force history.

Not only is Thiessen well on his way to all-Mountain West honors in football, he already has been a first-team all-MWC choice and third-team All-American pick in baseball in 1999.

Thiessen, who broke a 19-year-old school record with a 33-game hitting streak last season, won the MWC regular-season batting title with a .414 average last year after leading the WAC in hitting with a .424 average in 1998.

But perhaps Thiessen's greatest accomplishment is that he has put the "Air" back in Air Force.

Thiessen threw for a career-high 203 yards and school-record four touchdown passes in Air Force's 31-23 victory over BYU on Sept. 9. His has completed 23 of 39 passes for 427 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions and has a conference-leading quarterback rating of 201.71.

Thiessen also rushed for 101 yards on 10 carries against BYU out of Air Force's vaunted wishbone attack. With 176 yards on 42 carries this season, he still has an outside shot at both throwing and running for 1,000 yards in a season.

"(Thiessen) has really added another dimension to their offense," Utah coach Ron McBride said following his team's 23-14 loss to the Falcons. "He's really efficient at throwing the ball. It's not a one-dimensional offense anymore."

When asked about the increased emphasis on passing by the Falcons this season, Thiessen replied, "That's a new concept, huh? I kind of like it."

Thiessen played in a Run-N-Shoot offense in high school, so it didn't take long for him to warm up to throwing the ball more this year.

Then there's baseball. Thiessen will be going for his third straight conference batting crown in the spring. And although he says he wants to be flying jets when his college eligibility is up next summer, he hasn't ruled out the possibility of playing professional baseball, too.

"If that is an option, that would definitely interest me," he said. "But because of the military commitment, it would be two years before I could do it full time. I would only be able to go to spring training the first couple of years."

To land arguably the greatest athlete in Air Force history, it certainly might be worth the risk for a major league team to draft Thiessen.

Sunia suffered the injury midway through the first quarter of Saturday's 10-7 loss at BYU. He left the field and went to the locker room, where he was fitted with a knee brace he will likely have to continue wearing at least through Saturday's game with Air Force.

Sunia returned at the start of the second quarter and still played his best game of the season, finishing with eight tackles and two sacks.

"I think it was one of the better games I've played here," Sunia said. "They were joking that I actually played better with the brace on."

UNLV trainer Kyle Wilson said he expects Sunia to be cleared to practice this afternoon.

The status of starting fullback James Wofford, who suffered a mild concussion at BYU, is still uncertain. Wofford is to be re-evaluated again today by Wilson and may not return to practice until Thursday.