The Air Force Falcons start their 2010 campaign against the Northwestern State Demons. The Falcons open their schedule against an FCS opponent for the third year in a row. Last year the Falcons dominated Nicholls State 72-0 and had 474 rushing yards. This game should be over by halftime, but lets try and learn something about Northwestern State.
My favorite part of playing FCS schools is guessing where these schools are exactly. Take a quick guess and play along with my train of thought. The Northwestern of Northwestern State throws you off a bit if your think of the Big 10 Northwestern. If you think of Northwestern State and expect someplace along the pacific coast you are wrong again. Of course Northwestern State is in Louisiana of all places, right by the town of Natchitoches, LA. Yup, that Northwestern State.
The NWState Demons were outscored last year 401-158. They had a rough year going 0-11, they did face two FBS schools in Houston and Baylor. In week two they played Nicholls State and lost 21-28. Opponents averaged 4.9 yards per carry and 164.5 yards per game on the ground against the Demons. This could be a bigger blow out then the Nicholls State game last year.
Air Force will start with Tim Jefferson at quarterback and get some live action reps with the rest of the first string offense. I imagine that once a comfortable lead is built that Troy Calhoun will pull his starters and look to stay healthy for next weeks game against BYU at home. I would expect the Falcons to run a pretty vanilla offense and just use the run to dominate the game and clock throughout the contest.
This is almost an extended scrimmage for the Falcons. A chance to see some live action and run through the triple option. The one thing to look for will be seeing how the offensive line plays together. I don't see any chance of an upset as Calhoun and the Falcons seem to be one of the more focused teams in college football and rarely have let down games.