Calhoun on many teams' call list

Hans Mueh knows the calls are coming.

Air Force's athletic director knows a bunch of college head coaching positions will be vacant in the offseason and his coach, Troy Calhoun, will be courted.

Washington already has said its coach, Tyrone Willingham, will not be back next season, opening a job at a school from a Bowl Championship Series conference in the Pacific Northwest - where Calhoun grew up.

"I think there will be teams that come asking, just like at the end of his first year," Mueh said this week at an Air Force practice. "I'd have to be naïve to think there aren't people out there watching and seeing the success. I'm sort of hoping we can hide him, but that ain't working."

It was hard enough after last season, Calhoun's first, when he resurrected a struggling program.

Calhoun, who was named the Mountain West Conference's 2007 Coach of the Year, was contacted about six coaching positions, according to Mueh. The Gazette confirmed Southern Methodist had contacted Calhoun, and multiple reports indicated Duke was interested in him.

His stock has only risen. While last season's turnaround was impressive, the Falcons benefited from a talented and experienced senior class. This year's Falcons, meanwhile, are young and inexperienced. And two-thirds of the way through a supposed rebuilding year, Air Force is bowl eligible at 6-2 and in third place in the conference.

A source familiar with college football coaching searches indicated Calhoun would be "an attractive candidate to any schools looking" because of his performance at the academy.

Calhoun said this week he pays no attention to the speculation.

"I don't," he said. "And you've got to ask that, but it's innuendo. ... I'm not even going to wink over it."

Calhoun, however, has refrained from publicly committing to a certain amount of time he'd spend at the academy - both in an interview in the preseason and earlier this week when he said, "What I want to do is I want to get ready to play Army this week."

But Mueh is confident he can keep Calhoun for the near future.

"I have to take Troy at his word when he says that this is his home and it hasn't been about money," Mueh said. "I believe him. I see it in his face. I see it in his staff. He has a mission that's incomplete. He's looking strategically out three and four years. After that, I don't know. There may be other things out there."

Among the factors that point toward Air Force keeping Calhoun:

• He's a graduate.

• The future is bright. Of the 44 starters and backups on offense and defense, 17 are freshmen or sophomores, and several sources close to the program believe Calhoun wants to see what he can do with a team made up entirely of his recruits.

• He took a pay cut to come to Air Force, turned down more money than he was offered when he signed a five-year deal last January and did not pursue jobs that undoubtedly would have paid him more than his (relative) bargain-basement 2008 base salary of $560,000.

Still, when asked if he could offer Calhoun more money, Mueh said "absolutely." He could get help from the USAFA Endowment, created in July. Mark Hille, the vice president of the organization, said the endowment is "actively supporting the athletic department's effort to attract and retain the best coaches."