Week one Cupcake

Hooray at last college football is back upon us, starting with Florida and Miami in the Camping World kickoff game this past weekend, we now don’t have to worry about going through a weekend finding another sport to veg out in front of the TV to. Football is back and ready to take its seven month seat atop the sporting world. Detractors may say that the first weeks of the college football season is filled with foreseeable routs that are no more fun to watch than a preliminary match in the Wimbledon tennis tournament, but for those of us who love the game can sit and watch any two teams lineup along the line of scrimmage and play.

Coming into the 2019 season expectations are high for the Air Force Academy Falcons having missed bowl eligibility the last two seasons, coach Calhoun and the athletic director of USAFA have done what most major Division 1 schools do in the first weeks of the season and scheduled what most consider a layup game for an early victory. As Adam Sandler stated in his version of the Longest Yard, “This is fairly simple you need a tune up game... Every year for the first week we’d play Appalachian state or some slack Division 2 team.” No offense to the fans of Appalachian state as their upset over highly ranked Michigan in the early 2000’s has turned into somewhat of a foreboding tale to tell in the locker rooms of teams across the country, but this game should be just that, a tune up.

This Saturday, August 31st at 1:30 on ESPN 3 the Raiders of Colgate University will trek across the country from their small corner of New York State to the mountains of Colorado Springs into famed Falcon Stadium for what will be the Raiders second game and the home opener and Family weekend game for the Falcons. The Falcons enter the weekend with an absurd -17.5 betting line according to ESPN.com and most think that Colgate would be better suited to just stay home and collect a chek rather than enter the Falcon’s nest. However, this is why football is special because even with all those expectations there still is a chance that the Falcons can get upset by what is seen as a lesser opponent on paper.

Bolstered by giving up 27 points in the second quarter last week against Villanova the raiders found themselves on the wrong end of a 35-7 score for their 2019 season opener. AS one would expect the reason for the lopsided score would be a pair of turnovers by the Raiders that turned into 14 points on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Determined to fight to the end the Raiders did come back in the second half to push the score to 27-14 in the fourth quarter but didn’t have the firepower to finish out what would have been a dramatic comeback. Leading into this week and the long trip ahead for Colgate they will not just be traveling back to the middle of the country but as if the odds weren’t stacked against them enough they also must contend with over a 5,000ft elevation difference between Hamilton, New York(1,122ft) where the Raiders are from and the over 6,621ft at Falcon Stadium in the Springs. Defending any offense at elevation when you are not used to altitude’s effects on your body is tough but going up against an offense like the triple option that the Falcons will be using that grinds both on the clock and on the defense Colgate will need to have multiple rotations ready to go on the defensive side of the ball.

On the Air Force offense experience at key positions like quarterback and offensive line, whom have now played four games together dating back to last season should be able to fight off the jitters and mistakes often seen in the first weeks of the season. Senior leadership in the backfield will also help Air Force push the pace on offense. Cole Fagan will be looking to follow up his 200+ yard performance in the 2018 finale against CSU. On the defense size will look to be an advantage for the Falcons over the Raiders as that is what you expect to see when moving between Division 1a and Division 1aa. Another inherent advantage you see at the higher levels of college football is overall team speed, do not be surprised if you see blue and white all over the field smothering the red of the Colgate Raiders.

Score Prediction

Obviously with the -17.5 betting line in favor of the Falcons I chose them to come away with the victory, rather easily. I am going to guess the score to be 31-10 in favor of the Falcons. The Raiders proved they refuse to give up but in the end I believe the Falcons will have too much fire power to be stopped. However, anything can happen any given Saturday in the fall.