Watch the fake! Air Force and Boise State have creative trickery

Air Force punter David Baska wore uniform No. 96 during training camp. Kicker Parker Herrington wore No. 98. Backup quarterback Tucker Tipton had No. 13.

They all got new uniform numbers before the season. The Falcons’ coaching staff had a plan for a trick play that necessitated the changes.

Baska is Air Force’s holder on field goals, and unusually athletic for a punter. The Falcons’ plan for the fake was to line up Baska at kicker, and have Tipton holding. Defenses could sniff that out, however. So Tipton and Herrington were each given No. 18. Baska was given No. 19 – which on a quick glance by a defensive player at the kicker, looks very much like No. 18. If it worked, none of the defensive players would notice there was a different kicker lining up for Air Force.

The Falcons waited to use the play against San Diego State last week. Tipton rose up after getting the snap, ran an option to the right and pitched to Baska who jumped into the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown.

Air Force and Boise State play Saturday, and each has a history with trick plays. The subterfuge that went into the Falcons’ fake field goal last week shows those plays are given a lot of thought.   

“That’s all coaching. That’s a great scheme,” Baska said. “They were like, ‘You’re going to change numbers,’ and I said ‘Why is that?’ They said ‘Because we have some things drawn up and it would make sense for you to be 19, our kicker to be 18 along with the quarterback to be 18.’”

Baska also has run for two first downs on fake punts this year. Receiver Jonathan Warzeka, a high school quarterback, threw a touchdown pass against TCU – the second time in his career he has done that against the Horned Frogs. The Falcons also tried a “fumblerooski” against TCU – when the quarterback lays down the ball after the snap and someone on the line picks it up and starts running against the flow of the offense – and a surprise onside kick at Notre Dame. The first play of the season was a bit of a trick play – a reverse to Mikel Hunter that went for an 80-yard touchdown.

“It’s kind of like back in grade school, drawing up plays in the dirt,” fullback Wes Cobb said.

Boise State ran perhaps the most famous sequence of trick plays in college football history. In the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma, the Broncos tied the game late in the fourth quarter with a hook and lateral, scored in overtime on a halfback pass, then won the game on a Statue of Liberty play on the 2-point conversion.

Those three thrilling plays made for one of the most memorable games in college football history. And for a while, the Broncos had a reputation based on those trick plays. Boise State added to that with a well-designed fake punt in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, which was a key play in a win over TCU.

Players get excited for trick plays, fans love them, but coaches don’t like to be known as someone who relies on them.

“I think that people that know us and study us don’t think of us as a huge trick-play team,” Petersen said. “We have them. We do them now and again. But they’re probably overblown because of that game.”

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said the coaches go through “plenty of ink” getting creative with trick plays, but never to the point where it would take away from the regular offense.

“You have to make sure that’s not your core, that’s not your soul,” Calhoun said. “But I think it doesn’t hurt to have a wrinkle here and there.”