I was checking out some college football previews on the web today and stumbled upon an interesting page of famed football analyst Phil Steele’s site.
It ranks each Division I-A team (remember, on this blog I’m not doing the whole “Football Bowl Subdivision/Football Championship” nonsense) by number of returning starters (check it out here).
Including the kicker and punter positions, the Falcons have 10 returning starters (three on offense, five on defense and one each at kicker and punter – which really is just one guy, Ryan Harrison). Only two teams have fewer returning starters than Air Force – Georgia Tech (nine) and Army (eight).
Hawaii, Louisville, New Mexico and Oregon State each have 10 starters back like Air Force. All the other Division I-A teams have more.
Here’s how Air Force’s Division I-A opponents in 2008 compare – thanks to Phil Steele’s site for the info:
Team – Total Number of Starters Back (Off/Def/K-P)
Utah – 16 (8/6/2) *
TCU – 15 (8/7/0) *
UNLV – 14 (9/5/0) *
Wyoming – 14 (8/6/0) *
BYU – 13 (9/3/1) *
CSU – 13 (7/5/1)
Houston – 13 (5/7/1) *
Navy – 13 (5/8/0) *
San Diego State – 11 (3/8/0)
New Mexico – 10 (5/5/0) *
Army – 8 (4/4/0) *
Note: * indicates the team has its starting QB back.
We’lll have to hope that Coach Calhoun got his backups enough playing time last year to offset the number of starters lost. My recollection is that the lines stayed pretty static, but that everyone else got cycled in. Except for the QB, who needs a lot of time in this system.
We might not see nearly as good a year this time around, but I will expect to see a lot of improvement as the season progresses. And we’ll need to play smart football from the start–I believe the coaches will have the guys ready to do that, regardless.