Air Force Falcons vs Utah Utes Football Preview

Some teams see their seasons get derailed because they get distracted or overconfident. For the Utah Utes, a loss could very well occur this Saturday, but only because the opposing team is both talented and desperate.

Utah, like the TCU Horned Frogs, is just one win away from setting up not just the Mountain West game of the year on Nov. 6, but the non-automatic-qualifier game of 2010. Yet, unlike TCU, the Utes shouldn’t be tempted to look ahead. Whereas the Horned Frogs take on a lowly UNLV squad this Saturday, coach Kyle Whittingham’s Utah roster will travel to Colorado Springs and take on an Air Force outfit that has rarely made life very easy for the Utes. When Utah steps onto the gridiron at Falcon Stadium on Saturday evening, there will be no reason for the visiting team to dream of the date with TCU; a confrontation with the Air Force Academy is a big-enough game in its own right.

Here’s the signature fact that towers above everything else as the week of preparation unfolds for both the Utes and the Falcons: The last time either game in this series was decided by more than eight points was 2004, the year Utah ran the table in the regular season and earned a Fiesta Bowl bid against Pittsburgh. Indeed, it took Urban Meyer’s best Utah team to beat the Falcons by 14 points, 49-35, when Alex Smith was a lauded quarterback and not a consummate NFL failure with the San Francisco 49ers. In the five seasons since that not-exactly-lopsided but still somewhat decisive victory by the Utes, these teams have engaged in fiercely-contested struggles.

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In 2005, Utah barely survived the Falcons, 38-35, and then pulled another three-point win out of the fire in 2006, 17-14. In 2007, the year before an improving Utah team ripened into form, the Academy caught the Utes by a 20-12 score, but in 2008, Whittingham’s best Utah club fought its way past coach Troy Calhoun’s Falcons in Colorado Springs by a 30-23 score. Last year, these two schools traded blows in the arena for 60 minutes and beyond, as a pigskin passion play extended into overtime at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Utah scored a touchdown to start the first overtime inning, and then the Utes’s defense rose up to stop quarterback Tim Jefferson and Falcons’ offense on the subsequent possession, sealing a riveting if ragged 23-16 win.

This year, the main principals are back. Jefferson is under center for the Falcons, and a more seasoned Jordan Wynn comes back to quarterback the Utah attack. These are cagey foes who know each other’s dance steps. Utah simply needs to show to itself, the Air Force Academy, and the nation as a whole that it can surmount this kind of challenge on the road. The Utes know that if they don’t leave Colorado Springs with a win, they’ll lose the right to claim that they should have a BCS bowl bid.

The cards are on the table for the Utah Utes. America will get to see if the Utah-TCU matchup will hold a maximum of intrigue… and meaning.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer