When the subject of football scheduling comes up, anyone who knows Air Force understands the Army and Navy games are permanent on the nonconference schedule. What people usually don’t include is the annual Parents’ Weekend game at Falcon Stadium against a Football Championship Subdivision team. That’s here to stay too, as long as Troy Calhoun is the coach.
The Falcons’ template with four open nonconference dates has been to schedule Army, Navy, a FCS team and a big-name opponent on the road for exposure and money. The road game against a known opponent would be the first to go, if Air Force ever had just three nonconference dates.
“Parents’ Weekend at the academy is a very special time, especially for the freshmen,” Calhoun said. “I look back over time, and years that we didn’t play a home game on Parents’ Weekend, I think we missed something there. I think it’s neat, in terms of the spirit that is involved on these weekends.”
I agree with Calhoun that a parents weekend game is very important. The games showcase the whole Academy. The Wings of Blue, Soaring Team, Drum and Bugle, and Falcons all get to perform, and tailgates to meet other parents are good too.
I would like a better opponent, but somebody like Oklahoma (in 2000) will overflow the stadium and could result in a logistical nightmare. Plus, if we can blow out the other team, lots of players get to play in front of their parents.
Calhoun’s found the recipe for success with this program. As much as I’d like to see us play a more worthy opponent at home on Parent’s Weekend, I think we need to defer to his judgment on this one. In Troy we Trust!
An FCS opponent isn’t a bad thing on your schedule; but finding a ‘worthy’ FCS opponent – one that is ranked – is the hard part. Some of those FCS teams can play with almost any team in the country for 1-2 games a year..they just don’t have the depth to do it over an 11 game schedule. The FCS teams AF played over the past two years over parent’s weekend were an embarrassment.
Frank,
I know a lot of fans were upset with adding an additional FCS team to the schedule this season, but wasn’t that slot originally set for a trip to Winston-Salem, NC to play Wake Forest? If I’m right, what happened?
And I agree with jimbo84. However, after reading the article earlier this week about South Dakota and its O-line averaging over 300 pounds, not to mention them being a veteran club, I’m wondering if perhaps this season’s opener won’t be a bit more competitive than year’s past, the first half of last season’s opener notwithstanding.
In Troy we trust! Also, look at the top 10 tems, most schedule several easy games at the beginning of the year. It’s NCAA football. The big teams get a breather for the experience; the other team gets a big payday!
Ted, I’m not sure that’s true, the reason they needed the 2nd FCS game was that the Mountain West went from 9 to 8 teams in the past 12 months – they had to scramble to find a 5th nonconference game. If Wake Forest dropped off (that would have happened before I got on the beat), that game was replaced by Notre Dame.
Not sure how, but I always forget about the vacuum caused by BYU’s departure. Thanks as always for the insight, Frank.
How about they schedule a real opponent for that first game, instead of an easy win? I mean, it’s kinda pathetic!
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