- Location: Fort Collins, CO (Canvas Stadium)
- Date/Time: Friday, November 28th at 1 p.m. MT
- Television: FS1
- Radio: KVOR AM 740, Colorado Springs
- Head-to-Head: Air Force leads the overall series vs. Colorado State, 39-22-1. Colorado State defeated Air Force last year at Falcon Stadium 21-13.
The Ram-Falcon Trophy is on the line in what will be the season finale for both Air Force and Colorado State, as neither is Bowl eligible. There is no way around it, the 2025 season has been a disappointment
for D1 programs in the state of Colorado. In Fort Collins, so much so that their coach was relieved of his duties mid season. After the dismissal of Jay Norvell, Tyson Summers has taken over as interim head coach. Summers has experience being the lead man, as he was the head coach at Georgia Southern for the 2016 season. Interesting enough, just this week the Colorado State administration announced the hiring of Jim Mora as their next head coach.
It’s not like things have been great for Air Force. Winning just one more game than the Rams, the Falcons have won just three games to date this year. While they were competitive in nearly every game this year, Air Force has just struggled to put a complete game together consistently. Early on, the defense was historically dreadful while the offense was thriving once Liam Szarka took over at quarterback. As the year wore on, the defense did improve and has continued to, while the offense slowly regressed. Losing Szarka to injury for the season in the first half of their loss against UConn two weeks back certainly didn’t help matters. But even leading into that game, the offense slowly drew closer back to the mean. This is expected when you consider they were performing at level that wasn’t reasonable to expect to be sustained all year long.
Now you have two teams with a rotation of quarterbacks trying to close out the season on a high note. The Rams just announced their new coach for next year, and he is a good one. Air Force is all too familiar with Jim Mora, as his Huskies defeated them just a few weeks back. Troy Calhoun and the Falcons have a real opportunity to carry the momentum into next season with a win over Colorado State before they depart for the Pac-12. If successful, this may generate a lot of optimism for 2026 should they be able to retain this core of young players that have developed this year.
If Air Force wants to close out the year with the Ram-Falcon trophy back on their mantle, it’s going to require that young group of cadets to deliver and help send this senior class off proper.
How Air Force can defeat the Rams
In the battle between two teams that have each started three different quarterbacks this year, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the offenses struggle. For Colorado State, they will likely be trotting out Tahj Bullock, their fourth different starter on the season as Fowler-Nicolosi (departed the team), Brousseau (injured) and Curry (suspended) are not options. Bullock does bring plenty of experience to the table though. He appeared in 22 games for Akron the previous two seasons, throwing for more than 400 yards with three touchdowns. Prior to playing for the Zips he was at Virginia Tech. He poses a running threat as most of his damage was done on the ground with 352 yards and 15 touchdowns in his collegiate career.
Ironically, it’s defending the ground game that has proven challenging of late for Air Force. For the first half of the season, the young pass defense was one of the worst in all of college football but has since shown much improvement. However, they have still been susceptible to the run. The Rams are near the bottom of the Mountain West in rushing offense, but with Bullock under center, I would expect the offense to operate a little differently.
The Falcons haven’t publicly committed on who would be under center for them on Friday, listing Kemper Hodges or Josh Johnson as the starter. If you watched last weeks game against New Mexico, the offense seemed to slightly more effectively under Johnsons operation. He provides a bit more burst and lateral threat in the run game. Hodges was essentially used as a battering ram up the middle, which really didn’t prove effective against a really good New Mexico defensive front. I would suggest the challenges the offense had moving the ball were more about the competition they faced than who was under center. I expect to see both Hodges and Johnson in the season finale. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a peak at Maguire Martin to give an even eight different quarterbacks to play this year between these two teams.
Each team has a dominant defensive player that will be challenging the opposition. Owen Long has been an absolute tackling machine for the Rams. The Redshirt Sophomore has collected 134 tackles on the season, and will be a major factor in gameplan to stop the Air Force rushing attack. The Falcons will be relying on Payton Zdroik to deliver one more disruptive performance in the heart of that line of scrimmage. The Senior nose guard has been so consistent all year long, and you have to believe he will want to add to his 6.5 TFL’s on the year. At minimum, he will be expected to disrupt the line of scrimmage and provide pressure from the interior.
Where I see Air Force having the advantage in this game is the supporting cast around Zdroik. The Falcons have a tackling machine of their own in Junior, Blake Fletcher, who has collected more than 100 tackles on the season. He’s flanked by Isaac Hubert who’s recorded 11.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. So for as much as the defense has struggled at times this season, they’ve improved a great deal the back half of the schedule. While not perfect, they’ve actually been what’s kept them in games and even secured their last two victories on the year. And the overall unit that Air Force deploys defensively, I believe presents a greater challenge to the Rams offense than their defense will do the Falcons.
Again, this is a lot of concluding based on what we know to-date in the season for two teams that had already struggled on the year and are now working down their depth chart at quarterback. The other major difference is the balance for the two teams, which I also think slightly favors Air Force. Offensively, yes, they have regressed. But for much of the year they have been one of the best in the Mountain West, which they needed while the defense got their feet about them. The Rams have been equal parts marginal to bad quite honestly, on offense and defense. Colorado State has mustered just over 60 points in total over their last five games— all losses. Maybe they will bring some juice having just announced their new coach for next season, but that is a little too intangible for me to lend enough weight to tip the scales in favor of their victory.
I expect yet another close game between Air Force and their opposition. It would not surprise me to see a field goal being the difference in victory for either team in this contest. For the reasons noted immediately prior though, I think the Falcons send the Rams on their way to the Pac-12 with their 40th loss at the hands of Air Force in a very physical matchup. Give me a whole lot of Owen Allen and Dylan Carson to close this one out.
Air Force 16- Colorado State 13
