Calhoun has challenge at hand with Air Force football team

In his first year at Air Force, Troy Calhoun had to replace the legendary Fisher DeBerry, inject life into a program that had stumbled through three straight losing seasons and adjust to the demands of his first head coaching position.

Difficult tasks all. But Year 2 — which begins unofficially Tuesday with the start of spring practices — might prove to be even more challenging.

While Calhoun took on a foundering program a little more than a year ago, he also inherited an abnormally large group of seniors-to-be that had plenty of talent and game experience if not success to show for it. Hungry for victories and invigorated by the coaching change, those players led the way to a 9-4 2007 campaign that included the program’s first bowl berth since 2002.

This May, however, they graduate, leaving gaping holes in the Air Force program.

“There’s definitely going to be some rebuilding that is involved,” Calhoun said.

Indeed, 14 of the seniors on the 2007 team were starters on offense or defense, including running back/receiver Chad Hall (the school’s all-time leader in all-purpose yardage) and four-year starting quarterback Shaun Carney (the school’s all-time leading passer). Air Force must replace three of four starting linebackers, both starting cornerbacks, the top six rushers and the top two receivers from its 2007 squad. In all, 26 players who provided leadership, if not dazzling numbers, as seniors last year will not be practicing Tuesday.

“I think it will be different without all those guys,” said junior Shea Smith, who will begin spring practice as the starting quarterback. “We’re going to have to find our new personality as a team — not in a good or bad way, just different because we lost so many seniors. ... I think there are a lot of guys at a lot of positions that are going to have to step up that maybe have just played a little bit or have not been full-time starters.”

Some could be freshmen. The 2008 Falcons “probably will be the youngest football team the Air Force Academy has had maybe since 1957 when there weren’t any seniors,” Calhoun said.

But as young and inexperienced as the Falcons will be, they do have some advantages over last season’s squad.

For one, everything isn’t new anymore.

Last year players had to meet coaches, figure out their coaching styles, learn new systems and adapt to new practices. This year the Falcons won’t have to worry about any of that.

“You don’t have to feed Gerbers any more,” Calhoun said. “You can get to the solid foods much sooner.”

In addition, the returning players should have built-in confidence thanks to the 2007 campaign. A year ago, players entered spring practice with little tangible evidence that they could succeed, considering Air Force had won just 13 games the three previous seasons.

“Last year after winning the Utah and TCU games, back-to-back, we just started feeling like winners, started feeling like we were supposed to win,” Smith said. “I think that attitude carried throughout the season, and I think it’s carried into the offseason. I think next season we’re going to be a team that expects to win.”

They are preparing like it, said Calhoun, who has been encouraged by his players’ efforts in offseason workouts.

“I love the way our guys work,” he said. “I love the way they lift, the way we compete in morning workouts. And yet, if I don’t love the way we work, we’re going to be in big trouble.”