The Air Force Falcons football program represents the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

(formerly Division I-A) level. Air Force has been a member of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

since its founding in 1999. The Falcons play their home games at

Falcon Stadium Falcon Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in the western United States, on the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the home field of the Air Force Falcons football and lacrosse teams of the Mountai ...

Air Force Academy, Colorado Air Force Academy is a census-designated place (CDP) located in El Paso County, Colorado, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The CDP includes the developed portion of the United States Air Force Academy, including the cadet housing facilit ...

, north of

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

. Troy Calhoun has been the team's head coach since 2007. The three major service academies—Air Force,

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

—compete for the

Commander-in-Chief's Trophy The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy (CIC Trophy) is awarded to each season's winner of the American college football series among the teams of the U.S. Military Academy ( Army Black Knights), the U.S. Naval Academy ( Navy Midshipmen), and the U ...

which is awarded to the academy that defeats the others in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

that year (or retained by the previous year's winner in the event of a three-way tie).

History

Falcons on offense at 2009 Armed Forces Bowl 2

The Falcons are not only recognized by the lightning bolt on the side of their helmets, but their traditional option attack. Air Force is one of the premier rushing teams in the nation. Since Fisher DeBerry took over as Falcons head coach in 1984, they have ranked among the nation's top 10 in rushing 19 times in 21 years. The Air Force football team has enjoyed success not only on the field but also in the classroom. In 49 years of Air Force football, there have been 39 Academic All-Americans.

The 1985 season

1985 was the most successful season in Air Force football history. Under 5th-year coach Fisher DeBerry, the Falcons came within one win of playing for the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

. They recorded 10 straight wins to start the season, climbed the polls to No. 2 in the nation, but lost to BYU 28–21 in the penultimate game of the regular season. Air Force rebounded with a

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

win over

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in the

Bluebonnet Bowl The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas. A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium (Rice Univ ...

and finished with a 12–1 record as the No. 5 ranked team in the nation.

Conference affiliations

Air Force has been affiliated with the following conferences. * Independent (1955–1979) *

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(1980–1998) *

(1999–present)

Championships

Conference championships

† Co-champions

Division championships

Conference Championship Game appearances

Air Force has appeared in 2 conference championship games in their history, winning 1 of them. Note: Includes appearances where the conference did not use divisions to determine championship game participants.

Bowl games

Air Force has played in 30 bowl games in their history, with a record. Their highest finish in the polls was fifth ( UPI coaches) in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Head coaches

In over 60 years of play in college football, the Falcons have had seven head coaches.

Top 25 finishes

The Air Force Falcons have finished in the AP poll and/or the

Coaches poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has ...

8 times in the program's history, with the highest-ranked finishes being No. 6 in 1958 and No. 8 in 1985. Note: The AP poll began in 1936, and the Coaches' Poll began in 1950. Before 1990, only the top 20 teams were ranked in the AP poll before it was expanded to 25. In addition to the major polls, the BCS produced rankings from 1998 to 2013 which helped select teams for the BCS Bowls. Then, starting in 2014, the CFP committee began issuing rankings to determine which teams were selected for the playoffs.

Falcon Stadium

Home games are played in

, which sits below the main campus at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Falcon Stadium is the 2nd highest stadium in the FBS division, with only Wyoming's stadium at a higher elevation. Pre-game activities include flyovers by

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

aircraft, including the

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's des ...

and B-2. Opened in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

, its highest attendance was 56,409 in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, when the Falcons hosted Notre Dame.

Players

Individual accomplishments

Notable individual records

* Beau Morgan: He became the first player in NCAA history to rush and pass for over 1,000 yards in a season twice. He broke the NCAA single season rushing record for a quarterback, along with being only the second player in NCAA history to run and pass for 3,000 yards in a career.

Alumni in the National Football League

* Sid Abramowitz * Shane Bonham * Larry Cole * Austin Cutting * Bryce Fisher * Ben Garland * Ron George * Chris Gizzi * Garrett Griffin * Chad Hall * Chad Hennings *

Ernie Jennings Ernie Jennings (born January 30, 1949) is an American former college football player who was a wide receiver for the Air Force Falcons football, Air Force Falcons. He was named a consensus College Football All-America Team, All-American in 1970. ...

* Bill Line * Beau Morgan * Steve Russ *

Anthony Schlegel Anthony Schlegel (born March 1, 1981) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). Schlegel played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes football, Ohio ...

* Jeff Smith * Ted Sundquist * Mark Simon

All-Americans

Academic All–Americans

Volunteers on offense at AFA at Tennessee 2006-09-09

Academic All–Americans at Air Force.

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of February 6, 2025.

Rivals

Commander-in-Chief's Trophy

Air Force has a traditional rivalry against the other two FBS service academies,

and

; the three play for the right to hold the

. Air Force has won the trophy 21 times, more than either Army or Navy. * Commander in Chief's Trophy Winners (AF-Army-Navy): 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989–1992, 1994, 1995, 1997–2002, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2022.

Colorado State

Air Force has played more games against Colorado State and

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

than any other school, having played each school 60 times since 1957, the Falcons' first season. Since 1980, the Falcons and Colorado State Rams have competed for the Ram–Falcon Trophy. Air Force holds a 27–15 advantage over Colorado State in games that the trophy has been contested in.

Colorado

In 2019 Air Force renewed a rivalry with

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, winning at Folsom Field on Sept. 14 by a score of 30–23. The teams had not played since Oct. 5, 1974, a game that Colorado won by a score of 28–27. Air Force won the first meeting between the teams in 1958. The 1963 game between the two college football teams was postponed due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 1973 game, the last one played in Boulder before the 2019 clash, was marred by a riot. Fans threw eggs and beer at Air Force personnel and cadets.

Hawaii

The Kuter Trophy is awarded to the winner of the game between Air Force and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. The trophy is named after General Laurence S. Kuter, who was appointed the first head of the Pacific

Air Forces #REDIRECT Air force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct ...

Command (located at

Hickam Air Force Base Hickam Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) United States Air Force installation, installation, named in honor of aviation pioneer Lieutenant Colonel (United States), Lieutenant Colonel Horace Meek Hickam. The installation merged ...

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

) in 1957. The two teams have met 23 times, with Air Force leading the series 14–8–1.

Top 10 rivals

Below are Air Force's records against its top ten most-played opponents since 1957.

References

External links

* {{Mountain West Conference football navbox 1955 establishments in Colorado American football teams established in 1955