Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun pumps his fist his team beat Army in Arlington, Texas last Saturday. (AP Photo/Emil Lippe)
During Troy Calhoun’s weekly news conference on Tuesday, the Air Force football coach had some words of high praise for New Mexico defensive coordinator Rocky Long.
The conversation started with a question about Long’s aggressive 3-3-5 defense. But Calhoun, who’s preparing his team to play the Lobos at the Academy on Saturday, took it in a different direction.
“I don’t know if there’s been a more impactful person in this league (the Mountain West Conference),” Calhoun said. “Not just football, but beyond that, too.”
Later in the session, Calhoun was asked to elaborate.
“I mean, just the elevation of the league,” he said. “You look at how many games they won and how many bowl games they went to at New Mexico (during Long’s tenure as head coach from 1998-2008).”
The hot rumor this week is that San Diego State, where Long served as head football coach from 2011-19, is leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12. If so, Calhoun said, the vast improvement of the Aztecs football program during Long’s tenure is among the reasons the Pac-12 found SDSU attractive.
“I mean, golly, that was a huge part of it,” Calhoun said. “Just the level of play and the talent level and the consistency and the belief that was generated, and nobody generated more than he did.”
Unquestionably, Long has played a unique and impactful role in the history of the Mountain West. He and Commissioner Craig Thompson, who announced his retirement in September, are among the few people who have been in the conference from its inception until now.
Long’s 143 victories during his 19 years as a Mountain West football head coach, 10 at UNM and nine at San Diego State, are by far the most in league history. (Calhoun is a distant second with 117.) Long’s teams played in 14 bowl games, five at New Mexico and nine at SDSU. His San Diego State teams won three MWC titles.
Long stepped down as SDSU’s head coach after the 2019 season and took the job at his alma mater as new UNM head coach Danny Gonzales’ defensive coordinator the following January. Long was a Lobo quarterback from 1970-72, leading the team to 7-3 and 6-2-2 records in his junior and senior years.
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On the field, Long certainly has earned Calhoun’s respect.
After Calhoun succeeded Fisher DeBerry as Air Force’s coach in 2007, the Falcons and the Lobos split two games before Long stepped down as UNM’s coach after the 2008 season. But the Falcons were 0-7 against San Diego State during Long’s tenure as the Aztecs’ head coach. In 2015, Long’s Aztecs beat Calhoun’s Falcons 27-24 in the Mountain West championship game.
Of Long’s defense, Calhoun said on Tuesday, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody that lines up in more variety.”
OH, THOSE THIRD QUARTERS: What a contrast.
As pointed out before in this space, New Mexico (2-7, 0-5 Mountain West) has scored only one touchdown this season – that in a 41-0 victory over Maine – in the third quarter.
As not previously noted, Air Force (6-3, 2-3) has allowed only a single third-quarter TD in 2022 – that in a 34-27 loss to Utah State on Oct. 8th.
Air Force has outscored its opponents 79-7 in the third quarter. New Mexico has been outscored 79-16.
Of his team’s success in the third quarter, Calhoun said, it’s experience and continuity in a program he’s headed for 16 years.
“I’m talking about the synergy of a teammate,” he said. “I think the other part, too, is you taking a system and you’re always trying to tweak it, change it and improve it.
“We’ve made the commitment to do that, especially on offense.”
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