Air Force ready to hit reset button on football season

With a quick glance, with a Football Championship Subdivision opponent today and a tough rivalry game next week, maybe it does look like the Air Force football season is starting all over.

Air Force lost to TCU two weeks ago, but that didn’t end the Falcons’ season. They said they’re refocused, put the loss behind them, and are ready to make good on most of their goals for the 2011 season.

“We still have a lot to play for,” receiver Zack Kauth said. “We’re still playing for a great bowl game, and I think all those things are still reachable and attainable.”

Saturday’s game against Tennessee State should allow the Falcons to gear back up. Unlike South Dakota, Air Force’s FCS opponent in the season opener, Tennessee State probably won’t win many games this season. The Tigers are 1-2 and have allowed 93 points their past two games. The Falcons have some things to work on after a 1-1 start, and that can start now, before an October slate with games at Navy, at Notre Dame, vs. San Diego State, at Boise State and at New Mexico.

There’s plenty of motivation still on the table for the Falcons. Air Force had the goal of being undefeated. That can’t happen anymore, but the rest is possible.

“Obviously, the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy – that’s usually our No. 1, and that’s my No. 1, I’d love to get back to the White House,” Kauth said. “And the Mountain West, I think, is still up for grabs. Boise State is going to be a big game for us.”

Coach Troy Calhoun believes in this team. On a couple of occasions this week, practically unsolicited, he gushed about the character of this year’s squad.

“This team as a whole has as much – and I’ve been around fine squads – this group has as much pure grit and guts and fortitude as any group I’ve ever been around,” Calhoun said. “They have a ton of guts, we’re going to have to reach down and grab every bit of them.

“They have a great, great work ethic. I can tell it’s important to them. Over the next 10 weeks they’re going to need every bit of the intestines, the flesh, the soul – they’re going to need all of it.”

Losing reveals a lot, and the loss against TCU was tough. But one of the things Calhoun also has noticed about this year’s team is a special chemistry and cohesion that should help it through adversity.

“They have a good bond about them,” Calhoun said.

The rebirth of the season will come in many ways. On Monday, strength and conditioning coach Matt McGettigan rounded up the seniors and told them to get back to basics, to start preparing with a single-minded intensity.

“With the stretch we have in front of us coming up, just refocus,” defensive end Ben Kopacka said of McGettigan’s message. “His biggest thing was, start winning on Monday, and you’ll win on Saturday.”

The TCU game isn’t going to be erased from Air Force’s record, but starting today, the Falcons can start to separate themselves from it.

“It’s behind us now,” Kopacka said. “We had an opportunity, we didn’t take advantage of it and it’s in the past. You can’t change anything in the past.”