No time to relax at Air Force football practice

There isn’t much relaxing at Air Force football practice. There’s no time for that.

Troy Calhoun’s practices run at a very fast pace. There’s almost never a huddle, on offense or defense. There are almost always two scout teams alternating plays. While one scout team is running a play against the starters, the other is looking at a play card, getting ready to run on as soon as the play is over.  

“We don’t want many guys standing,” Calhoun said. “We want guys that are always doing something.”

That’s something Calhoun established when he became coach at Air Force. He had two main reasons for running practice at an ultra-fast pace: conditioning, and the time crunch cadets face.

Some coaches think holding three-hour marathon practices makes their players better. Calhoun doesn’t worry about how long the players are on the field every day.

“We’re worried about the quality of our work, and not how long,” Calhoun said.

Calhoun’s practices are usually less than two hours. Even if he wanted to practice for more time each day, he doesn’t think it’s feasible at the academy, where the cadets carry a heavy academic load.

“There’s no lingering time, so when you do practice, if you want to be able to meet, lift and practice, when you do practice, the time you do have you have to make the utmost of it,” Calhoun said.

He said his first year, players were a bit surprised by how short practices would be, then they were more surprised by how much work was crammed into that time.  

“Come game day, it’s almost easier,” offensive tackle Jason Kons said. “Here, there’s coaches breathing down your neck, ‘You have 10 seconds to get on the ball! Next play! Next play! You screwed up - too bad, get on the ball!’”

There are residual benefits from the tempo of practice. The scout teams are generally made up of freshmen, and they’re getting a ton of repetitions by constantly shuttling in and out against the first and second team.

“Their development is expedited,” Calhoun said. “Our freshmen are going to grow and rapidly improve because they get a bunch of snaps.”

The pace of practice also helps Air Force run its no-huddle offense, considering the Falcons operate at that pace in practice anyway. And Calhoun figures with so many plays being run in such a short time, his team will be in great shape. They’re unlikely to be worn out by a team that also likes to play at a fast pace, like at Oklahoma last season.

“With us it’s one scout team to another scout team, running plays quick, and endurance wise, it really helps,” defensive lineman Ryan Gardner said.

The Falcons’ players and coaches have bought into the idea that one edge they have is their efficiency in practice.

“There’s an attitude, that I think our guys like to do that,” Calhoun said.