Ramsey: Fourth-and-long way from MWC elite

PROVO, Utah – The Air Force football team should consider this slogan for the 2010 season:

Fourth Place: It’s Not Nearly Enough.

The Falcons, owners of fourth place in the Mountain West, limped away from Saturday’s 38-21 rout at the hands of the massive and elderly Brigham Young Cougars.

Yes, the Falcons have marched to a winning record and an upcoming bowl bid.

But they wanted more, and they had good reason to expect more.

Instead, the 2009 Falcons delivered a virtual repeat of the 2008 Falcons. They finished fourth. They lost to TCU, Utah and Brigham Young.

They didn’t suffer devastation, and that’s always nice.

But they didn’t experience satisfaction, either, and that’s sad.

“I think we needed a couple more wins to be satisfied,” free safety Jon Davis said in a steady, serious voice.
Davis was remembering achingly close defeats to Utah, TCU, Minnesota and, especially, Navy.

Say this about Saturday’s loss: There was nothing achingly close about it.

Brigham Young jumped to a 24-0 lead in the second quarter, and the Falcons were fortunate it was that close.
Quarterback Max Hall destroyed the Air Force secondary, completing 19 of his first 22 passes.

In the first two quarters, Saturday’s contest resembled a backyard game. Hall dropped back, scanned the AFA secondary while enjoying vast amounts of time, and completed pass after pass.

It was a humiliating exposure of AFA’s pass defense, which had been AFA’s strength.

It was also a look at how far Air Force must climb to compete with the MWC’s elite programs. The Falcons were never in this game. The Falcons were never even close to being in this game.

Cornerback Anthony Wright Jr. scrunched his nose as he considered looking up at TCU, Utah and BYU.

“Fourth place is never good enough any year,” Wright said. “… That’s mediocrity to me, and any kind of competitor doesn’t settle for mediocrity.”

Wright has heard, often, about the Falcons inability to win the “big” game.

“That’s been the knock on this team for awhile,” Wright said. “We can’t win the big game, I’ve heard it. I know other people think we can’t win the big game.

“But we can.”

Coach Troy Calhoun did not return to his alma mater to finish fourth. He didn’t return to lose six straight games to TCU, Utah and BYU. He didn’t return to suffer through this kind of pounding in Provo.

He wants more, too.

“We have to play better, and I think we know that as men,” Calhoun said a few minutes after the game. “…You just got to find a way to dig and scratch and come up with a way to win the football game.”

Calhoun was quick to say a foundation has been built, and he’s right. The Falcons roster is faster, especially on defense, than when he returned to campus in 2007.

Wright, Davis, Reggie Rembert, Andre Morris Jr. and others should form a dangerous, violent defense next season.
But Calhoun needs to bring a sense of danger to his offense, which slumbered in the first half of Saturday’s game and averaged 14.75 points in AFA’s previous four losses.

He needs more speed. He needs more elusiveness. He needs to find a dancing game-breaker who will terrify defenses.

This isn’t a suggestion. This is a requirement, even if he has to raid the defense to find his man.