Calhoun thinks Air Force needs to get bigger for 2012 season

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun didn’t express disappointment in the Falcons’ recently completed 7-6 football season, but he has an explanation why his team lost almost half its games.

Teams were simply much bigger than the Falcons. That will usually be the case, but Calhoun said he noticed it more this year than in seasons past. The size disadvantage was a part of the Falcons finishing with their worst record in Calhoun’s five seasons as coach.

“I think size is really, really, really evident,” said Calhoun, who thought turnovers on offense was the other main flaw of the season. “Just becoming a bigger football team, that’s something we need to do in January.”

Air Force’s players will hit the weight room next month, then spring football begins in the latter half of February. The coaches will be finalizing their recruiting class over the next few weeks, and even though the Air Force has some restrictions, he thought it was possible to bring in larger players to compete with the teams on its schedule.

“I think you can a little bit, find a little bigger players and still understand they’ll have to complete basic training and aerobically be physically fit,” Calhoun said. “That’s part of the Air Force Academy. You have to keep digging and digging. When you get the right mix of size and experience, you’re going to have winning football teams here.”

Calhoun was happy with the recruiting class that was brought in earlier this year, and some of those players might need to step into big roles as early as the 2012 season. Air Force loses a lot of talent from a decorated senior class.

Calhoun counts three offensive starters and three defensive starters returning. Defensive end Nick Fitzgerald wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season, but started eight games because of injury. That means 16 starting spots are up for grabs. He didn’t want to refer to it as a rebuilding year, although that certainly seems to be the case.

“Each year you have to realign and look at what your strengths are,” Calhoun said. “There are a bunch of spots we’ll have faces that don’t have significant playing time.”

The coaching staff could undergo some change. Although Calhoun said he won’t make any changes, it is possible former Air Force defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, who was just hired as Fresno State’s head coach, will be interested in talking to some Falcons assistants.

“If there’s something they want to do career wise, we’re going to support them,” said Calhoun, who added nobody has called Air Force yet about interviewing any of its assistants. “We have a great staff.”

On the roster, quarterback isn’t a huge concern, because the Falcons will have senior Connor Dietz, who has experience. The same can’t be said for positions like cornerback and tailback, which were spots Calhoun singled out as areas that need to be settled.

Finding a replacement for tailback Asher Clark, who barely missed becoming the leading rusher in Air Force history, is a priority. Cody Getz and Jon Lee are two obvious candidates. Anthony LaCoste (knee) and Darius Jones (foot) suffered season-ending injuries and won’t participate in spring practices, but will be in the mix for the tailback job when they return for training camp in August.

There will be positions across the board that lose talented seniors, but younger players are ready to see what happens.

“We lose a ton of seniors and they’re all very, very good and big parts of this team,” said left tackle Jason Kons, one of the team’s few returning starters. “We’re going to miss them a lot, but the biggest thing now is moving on. Teams do this every year. Seniors move on and some guy fills a slot, and right now we don’t know who it’s going to be at some places. But that’s what’s exciting about college football is there’s always some new kid trying to come up and trying to take that spot and working his butt off to get that.”

POSSIBLE 2012 STARTERS

Based on the depth chart at the end of the season and who should return for the Falcons in 2012, here’s a possible starting lineup for the start of spring camp in late February:

QB Connor Dietz

RB Cody Getz/Jon Lee

* FB Wes Cobb

WR Mikel Hunter

* LT Jason Kons

* LG Jordan Eason

C Michael Husar

RG Drew Kerber

RT Alex Huskisson

TE Devin Durden

WR Ty MacArthur

* DE Nick Fitzgerald

NG Nick DeJulio

DE Joseph Champaign

* OLB Alex Means

ILB Austin Niklas

ILB Josh Kusan

OLB Jamil Cooks

CB Steffon Batts

* FS Anthony Wooding

SS Brian Lindsay

CB Chris Miller

* returning starter