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Air Force report: Navy defense doing its job

By Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 1, 2008 at 10:14 p.m.

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Numbers game

21-17-3 record for the the Falcons all time after a bye week. But in an odd twist, Saturday will mark the first time a Troy Calhoun-coached Air Force squad has had a game after a bye week. The Falcons played 12 consecutive weeks without an off week last season.

He said it

"I don't know anything about the outside world right now. . . .I didn't know what was happening with the economy until I turned on the TV at the hotel last Friday. When you are a coach, you are in a dungeon all day."

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy coach, on keeping up with current events.

AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Everyone knows about Navy's potent rushing attack, which hasn't finished lower than third in Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) the past six years. (The Midshipmen are second this season with an average of 335 yards a game.)

But it has been the defense that has spearheaded Navy's victories the past two games against Rutgers and previously unbeaten and then-No. 16 Wake Forest.

The Midshipmen limited those opponents to a combined 38 points.

"They have been playing great," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "The most encouraging thing from a coaching standpoint is they continue to get better every game."

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun is duly impressed.

"The thing that's quite noticeable is the way, in pass coverage, that they respond to the ball on defense and just to see them physically up front, too," he said. "Wake Forest is a pretty good team, and they rushed for (only) 43 yards and they threw four interceptions."

Etc.

* Recording artist Bettina is scheduled to sing the national anthem Saturday. Her father, Brig. Gen. Charles V. Bush, is a 1963 graduate of the academy and is the first black to graduate from Air Force.

* Falcons tight end Travis Dekker is one of 30 FBS players on the list for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible, a player must have notable achievements in the classroom, character, community and competition. Dekker has a 3.75 grade-point average in biochemistry and has been on the academy's superintendent's list for military, academic and athletic excellence for four semesters.