Air Force has lost three in a row, while Navy is unbeaten and receiving Top 25 votes.
The difference can be traced in large part to roster experience. Navy had four returning offensive linemen, Air Force had none. The Midshipmen had seven starters back on defense, the Falcons had three.
It’s no accident that the teams are so far apart this season in that respect, and Air Force will get no sympathy from its service academy rival for finding itself in this spot as they prepare for Saturday's 10 a.m. matchup to open competition for the Commander-in-Chief's trophy.
“Without getting into it too much,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said, “I think coming out of COVID, turnbacks, things like that, things that we didn’t do here, maybe some of the older guys in that program played a lot more snaps than some of the younger guys who didn’t get developed quite the same as they would have otherwise had you not had 15 fifth-year seniors or something like that. That’s not me being disrespectful from that sense, but those are the facts. You know, we didn’t do that.”
Asked to comment, Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said, “I don’t have a reaction to that,” and noted the freedoms for which the military branch serves include that of speech.
Here’s the backstory. In Aug. 2020, the Mountain West announced it was canceling the season because of the pandemic. At the same time, the Air Force Academy informed cadets that they would be allowed to depart for the semester because of the hardships caused by the coronavirus.
Roughly three dozen football players opted to leave on what is known as a turnback, doing so under the impression at the time that no football would be played. They went home for the duration of the semester.
Then, the Mountain West reversed course and decided to play an abbreviated season.
As a result, Air Force played what turned out to be a six-game 2020 season with a reduced squad. Over the next three years the Falcons subsequently had players whose time was delayed by one year. That continued through the 2023 season when Air Force had about 40 seniors, including about six key players who had first come to the academy in 2019.
Navy emphasized the Air Force turnback situation over the past few years. Last year’s game notes pointed out “fifth-year senior” five times when referring to Falcons players. No other opponent made the differentiation and Air Force’s rosters do not note a difference between players who have taken a turnback and those who haven’t.
A difference between turnbacks and redshirts is that redshirts stay with the team and practice throughout a season in which they don’t play. Turnbacks are not around the team.
Turnbacks are available to all service academies.
The wave of COVID turnback players at Air Force has graduated, leaving behind a roster that entered the season with the least experience in the nation. And it has shown through a slow start and three-game losing streak.
“We took some lumps because we didn’t,” Newberry said, continuing his assessment of the Air Force situation to The Gazette. “But those things are starting to pay off for us. A lot of guys who probably weren’t ready to play played and got valuable playing time because of that. The seniors on our team right now played a lot of snaps and played a lot of snaps together, probably earlier than they probably should have. But they did and hopefully we’re kind of reaping some of the rewards of that now.”
The Midshipmen utilized no COVID-related turnbacks, as Newberry, who was the defensive coordinator at the time, noted.
Air Force has won four consecutive games in the series with Navy, including a 40-7 victory in 2020 when the Falcons were without the turnback players.
This week Navy is favored by 9.5 points. The Midshipmen are averaging 46 points per game, while Air Force is scoring just 12.5 per contest.
When asked last week if there was any regret over the roster management — particularly lack of playing time among non-seniors — that led to such a steep drop in experience for the 2024 season, Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said there was not.
“Whatever we think in that given week gives us the best chance, that’s what we’re going to do,” Calhoun said. “That’s what I’m always going to do. Now, practice is different. The investment in practice time, especially early in the week on Mondays and Tuesdays for our 2s and 3s. I mean, we heavily invest in the younger guys on Mondays and Tuesdays. We’ve done that ever since I’ve been here and we will continue to do that.”
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