Air Force notes: Atrice making an impression
When Stephan Atrice came back from a two-year religious mission, he needed a little time to get acclimated to football again.
The good news for Air Force was Atrice came back a more mature and physically stronger person, as you could expect from a junior-eligible player who will turn 23 in October. Atrice showed enough during the first week of training camp that he began week two as a starter, moving ahead of Alex Means and Jamil Cooks for a spot with the first-team base defense at outside linebacker.
“There’s still some assignment busts, but he’s older, he likes to play, and something tells me in about a week the light will really come on as he gets in the groove,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said.
Atrice said there was positives and negatives to the two years he was away from football – he was rusty when he came back, and he wasn’t quite as fast. But he did feel stronger and more explosive. Now he just needs to master outside linebacker. He was a safety when he went on his mission, and was moved to outside linebacker when he got back.
“Something I’ve done ever since I was young is go full speed,” Atrice said. “So if I make a mistake, I make a mistake blowing something up, then it’s ‘Oh, good play, but that’s not exactly what you’re supposed to do.’”
Kickers shine
Air Force scrimmaged for most of practice Wednesday, with the second- and third-team getting most of the work.
The one area that Calhoun was pleased with was the kicking game. Led by Erik Soderberg and Zach Hoffmann, the Falcons kickers hit all their live field-goal attempts, most from between 35 and 45 yards.
“We have to do that each day,” Calhoun said. “We’ve had days when we’ve been hot and cold, but I think we can tell they can hit the ball well.”
Next phase
The first 10 days of camp, Calhoun used to install the offense and defense.
Over the next 10 days, the coaches will expect better execution with some preparation for this season’s opponents, and then the last two weeks will be spent preparing for South Dakota.
“Here over the next 10 days, that’s our focus,” Calhoun said.
