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News
Adoptive family seeks award for bomb dog that went to war
News Published: Wed, June 19, 2013
Ruby and Wade Ridpath with their combat veteran dog, Carlos, who served five years as an explosive-detecting dog in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ridpaths nominated Carlos for the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards in the military dog category. by Erin Prater erin.prater@gazette.com – “Bring him home.” As Ruby Ridpath typed those words into an [...]
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- Bernie Herpin may face Sen. John Morse in recall, if he gets signatures
- FIRE NOTEBOOK: Reception canceled for Waldo exhibit
- Red flag fire warning for El Paso County, dry conditions all week
- Man in custody after traffic stop
- UPDATES: New areas to open temporarily Wednesday morning to Black Forest fire residents
Life
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s ‘gentlest giraffe’ dies at age 32
Life Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
Courtesy of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo The Gazette – The most recognizable giraffe at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, known for her unique, nearly all-white coloring, died Tuesday morning due to complications of old age. Becky, a 32-year-old reticulated giraffe, had been on a “quality of life watch” for about a year and a half, the [...]
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A&E
DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: The dogs who went Hollywood
Arts & Entertainment Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
by t.d. mobley-martinez tracy@coloradosprings.com – I love dogs. And I’m not alone. Which is probably why they have found themselves pictured or portrayed since men began to walk upright. Cave paintings and Egyptian murals. Those “Blue Dog” paintings. Tin Tin’s Snowy, L. Frank Baum’s Toto in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Astro, Scooby Doo and [...]
Sports
Sky Sox use Chris Volstad’s pitching, solid defense to top Tacoma 4-1
Sports Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
by JOE PAISLEY joe.paisley@gazette.com – Colorado Springs starter Chris Volstad got into a rhythm and the Sky Sox defense came up with three big double plays to down Tacoma 4-1 Tuesday night. The first two double plays ended Rainier scoring threats in the second and seventh innings and the final, a line drive grab by [...]
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- Former Rockie Esmil Rogers shuts down former team in 8-3 Toronto victory
- Northern Colorado football camp entry fees given to Red Cross after fire
- Subhead
- KLEE: With limited roster, CSU football must rely on flexibility of coaches
- McBride and Paulsen can’t carry Colorado Springs Sky Sox to victory in 12-7 loss to Las Vegas
Business
New hires, promotions & honors
Business Published: Wed, June 19, 2013
The Gazette – Tom Reiter has been named chief executive officer and president of Rocky Mountain Health Care Services, which provides a continuum of services to people who are elderly, blind, brain injured, disabled or living with diabetes or AIDS. Reiter will start July 1. He has more than 23 years experience in health-care organizations, [...]
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Military
Army show at home base brings a case of nerves for Fort Carson soldier
Military Published: Mon, June 10, 2013
In The Soldier Show, the stars of the show are not only performers, but soldiers. The Soldier Show travels the world to entertain our soldiers and their families. The show came to Ft. Carson on Thursday, May 30, 2013. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette) by erin prater erin.prater@gazette.com – hen the Army’s “Soldier Show” rolled into [...]
Our offense is playing great. I see our defense coming around and improving.
When we get to the point where we dont have to play perfect on offense and our D gets some stops, this offense could be as good as any. It amazes me how they run guys on there and they play, no matter who is hurt. They put backs out there and they produce, their offensive line is absolutely amazing. It blows my mind how they play center, guard, tackle, just whatever the team needs, they do!
Great win to a deserving bunch, they are fun to watch play.
They exemplify what the word TEAM means.
GO AF!
The offense is a Machine – just plug and play. No Getz? Just put in Cobb. Alot of credit to the offensive line. I’d still like to see Jon Lee get more carries – but Wes Cobb never fumbles.
Agree with BG and would add that pass coverage for anythign other than the dinks and dunks has been solid and if the front 7 on D can continue to be aggressive, yet gap sound we will see a nice uptick in 3rd down stops and takaways. This D is better than their stats and press coverage suggests.
Lov agreed….
they played their best game last night,
made more negative plays than they have all year and
seem to be gaining a bit of confidence and improving.
I think Bengay sums it up very, very well. GO Falcons! Proud of all of you. Keep it up!
FINAL SCORE:
Ball State–30
Army–22
I mentioned at the beginning of the year that Nevada, Fresno State , and Hawaii have not seen the AF offense. Nevada didn’t have a clue what to do. Fresno will have more of a clue, but will the players actually execute what DeRuyter tells them to do? San Diego State has had our number in recent years and knows what to do against the offense. Some more hard work and more holding onto the ball and 2nd place is possible.
Great win by the Falcons. Enjoy Cadets.
But 31 points on the D. Not good. The O was the best D.
Army is lying in wait at the Point. It’s now a two game season for the no bowl possible Black Knights. Navy may still be Bowl bound.
I presume a Falcon victory at WP gets AFA a bowl. Does Idaho State win count?
Rest, heal, dream of success at New York’s Hudson River fortress, aka West Point.
All northeast Falcon fans be there.
Beat the Army!
I can’t tell you! I’ve been following Falcon Football since my freshman year in ’07. That was our first year being bowl eligible. But this is some high octane offense. I hate to say what if, but if we hadn’t dropped that terrible game to UNLV and had done what we needed to do versus Navy, we’d be ranked and people would be talking about AF.
This is an offense that can literally shut down every defense we play the rest of the year. There’s no reason why AF can’t win out the season. We just need to minimize the fumbles and our defense needs to keep stepping up like they’ve done these past few weeks but do so even better.
Let’s go Falcons! Beat Army.
This AF bunch has great chemistry. They are fun to watch.
We have a high octane offense for sure.
I think we will get better.
One game at a time!
Alabama plays grown man football.
Hey, East Coast Falcon … I hate to be right all the time! Just joking. I thought SDS would be our best chancE for a win, but he guys came up big. We need to keep it going. We have had a tendency the last few years to play to the level of our opponent. Wen dont need to let that happen next week.
And where we’re our hardy fans Friday? Gee, a little weather never should be an excuse in the Springs! Maybe this Thursday/Friday night stuff should be canned after mid-October, at least in the MWC.
We saw the Falcon game plan executed almost perfectly–keep the ball for long stretches to limit possessions by the other side (AF didn’t even punt once–I can’t remember ever seeing that happen), score every time you have the ball, shut down the other side’s main offensive weapon, and maintain continuous defensive pressure so that the other side can’t keep up with your pace.
The big news for me was the performance of the offensive line in manhandling the Wolfpack, and the defensive pressure up front. AF gambled a lot with blitzes, stunts, and changing coverage–the Falcons made every Nevada possession a struggle. Excellent .
The fumbles are still a problem, but we didn’t have a lot of idiotic penalties, and everyone kept cool and did their jobs. Well done.
[With my tongue planted firmly in my cheek let me say...]
Now wait just a darn minute there WEASEL! You want to call a halt to these Thursday and Friday night games in the MWC after mid-October?
That would mean denying our friends from Hawaii the chance to play at the academy this coming Friday November 16 at 7:30 P.M. Mountain Time. I’m well into my fifth decade of living in Colorado and I know quite well along the I-25 corridor the weather for a November 16th might be sixty-five degrees. It also might be twelve degrees, with high humidity, howling winds and lots of snow. I’m confident if you reconsider your position you’ll openly welcome the opportunity for our island friends to experience the conditions I described above, and especially if you add the notion of playing at roughly 6,500 feet above sea level. Cold, damp, windy, snowy and at high altitude. Yeah, it would be just like playing in Honolulu.
I watched a bit of yesterday’s CSU-Hawaii game played in Fort Collins with a five o’clock kickoff and more than a bit of cripsness in the air. Final score: CSU 42 Hawaii 27. And please bear in mind CSU entered the game having lost six consecutive contests.
It was a treat to see the Falcons explode on offense against Nevada as well as see the team’s defense author some important stops in third down situations. I hope the team can duplicate that effort at West Point next weekend.
GO AIR FORCE! BEAT ARMY!
Couldn’t believe how the team performed on Friday. I don’t think anyone expected a complete dominant performance on both sides of the ball. I still think that USAFA has the most talented group of coaches in the NCAA and, without a doubt, gutsiest players. Unfortunately it’s Mountain West that just doesn’t get credit for fielding competitive teams. Maybe this will turn people’s heads. Already have my tickets for the Army game and looking forward to seeing the Falcons live in New York. GO AIR FORCE!
I suppose the waiting and watching has now begun to see what effect Hurricane Sandy will have on the AFA-Army game. Will AFA be able to fly into N.Y. state? If so, when? Will the day and date of the game need to be moved? The AFA coaching staff may pay as much attention to the Weather Channel as it does to game film this week.
GO AIR FORCE! BEAT ARMY!
This was certainly an impressive win. I have to admit, throughout the 2nd half, I was waiting for something bad to happen….another costly fumble like UNLV or Navy, or a defensive collapse. But fortunately they never came!
Air Force played well at 4 quarters, utterly dominated the Nevada defense, and came up with a big win! Now it’s off to West Point for our 6th victory and bowl eligibility!!
Go Falcons!
To answer DR’s question: the last time I saw this much domination by the offense was vs. Houston in the 2009 Armed Forces Bowl…yeah, the defense was big (6 int’s against Case Keenum) but don’t forget Jared Tew, Asher Clark, Tim Jefferson, et al, putting up 47 points on the Cougers…having said that, this past Friday vs. Nevada probably still tops that game.
Loss @ UNLV is plain ol’ embarrassing; it rarely happens to kids of this character, but AF didn’t show up that night with the intensity necessary to win as clearly they’re the better team when viewing the season on the whole (even though UNLV is markedly improved this year).
Loss to Navy may be equally embarrassing, albeit for different reason: if AF doesn’t beat themselves (3 fumbles after long drives) that game likely ends in regulation at something to the tune of 42-14.
Michigan game was disappointing. Birds carried the play (especially with the offense on the field), but couldn’t keep the superior athleticism of Denard Robinson from rearing its ugly head on several big plays.
Point is this: AF is a couple plays in those 3 games away from being undefeated and highly ranked; margins, at this level, are paper thin and the 3 losses are what they are, but this team has enough talent (especially offensively) to win out and share the MWC title with Boise (I’m counting on Nevada to wonderfully execute the puke-and-rally, culminating with a upset of Boise in Reno).
Go Birds, give ‘em hell! (And don’t feel sorry for Army this weekend – you’re the better team, but if you let them hang around… I don’t want to think about it…)
Both the 1998 and 2000 AF offenses packed plenty of punch.
1998 (12-1, #8 in the country in final poll) group’s stats weren’t quite as spectacular as some other AF teams, but – when the chips were down – that team came up clutch many times (Spanky Gillam’s hard running @ Wyoming, long TD catch by Matt Farmer on an inside screen in the WAC title game to put BYU in their place, there were more) and the obliteration of Washington in the bowl game was impressive (run and pass…Blane Morgan to Farmer over the top a couple times).
2000 (9-3, beat Fresno in Silicon Valley Classic) offsense packed plenty of punch. Mike Theissen, some dominant fullbacks (Nate Beard, Scott Becker) & capable halfbacks (Scotty McKay) and a strong OL (even by AF lofty standards) lead by Matt Daoc, Dave Hildebrand and others.
I’ve been attending AFA football games for over forty years and the 1998 defensive secondary with Jason Sanderson and Tim Curry is the best one I’ve seen at the academy.
I’m showing my age here, but in ’68 the Falcons beat Colorado 58-35, and that was pretty impressive. The Wing’s impromptu cheer near the end of the game was “first your team, then your girls,” as I recall. And anyone who ever saw Ernie Jennnings do his magic will never forget it!
Victories over Oregon in ’69 (60-13, the famous “Fog Bowl”) and over Stanford (31-14, Jim Plunkett) in ’70 are noteworthy. And as for a series, the four-in-a-row over Notre Dame (’82-’85) is up there. The Falcons’ first win over BYU (39-38, in ’82) was special, partly because it was the first game at their new stadium! The bowl wins over Washington, Fresno State and Houston have been mentioned, but let’s include the victory over Ohio State in the ’90 Liberty Bowl.
All of these were memorable team efforts, as well as offensive shows. Let’s see how the rest of the season unfolds!
In 1963, Air Force beat CSU 69-0. After Air Force scored its 7th touchdown, the Cadet Wing started cheering “block that kick!” And guess what, we missied the extra point…..
We can all dream of a perfect storm of Falcon recruiting that would produce a backfield of Dee Dowis (or Beau Morgan), John Kershner, Chad Hall and (you pick Asher Clark, a healthy Cody Getz, or a no-fumble Jon Lee).
A few odds and ends to consider while waiting for AFA & Army to kick off the action on Saturday.
===> Army’s has lost 13 straight games in the Commander In Chief’s Trophy series.
===> Air Force has not lost in Michie Stadium since 1996.
===> Air Force is 12-9 all-time in Michie Stadium.
The politically correct thing to say before the game is that it will be a hard-fought, close contest. That simply has not been the case for many years, to wit:
===> Only one of the last 16 games has been decided by a touchdown or less (27-24 Army win in 2005), and only three games in that span have had a single-digit margin of victory (31-22 Air Force in 2004; 27-24 Army in 2005; Air Force 16-7 in 2008).
===> Army has seven players who have gained 100 or more yards rushing thus far this season. Air Force has seven players who have gained 100 or more yards rushing this season.
===> The Army rushing offense is not only No. 1 in the nation in yards per game, but also leads the country in most rushes that cover at least 10 yards. The Black Knights have 89 runs that have gained a minimum of 10 yards, which is 16.7 percent of their total rushing attempts.
===> Air Force has completed 50 passes for 915 yards or 18.3 yards per completion. Army has completed 32 passes for 506 yards or 15.8 yards per completion. These figures show neither team completes many passes on a per game basis, but when they do complete a pass it results in a healthy gain.
===> There are 120 teams playing division 1 football. Air Force ranks 30th in points scored per game at 34.50. Army ranks 85th at 24.75 points scored per game.
===> In total offense Air Force ranks 17th having gained 480.63 yards per game. Army ranks 34th having gained446.38 yards per game.
===> Air Force ranks 33rd in the country having lost 12 fumbles. Army ranks 57th having lost 14 fumbles. These figures suggest it will not be an error free game and that both teams may have drives short-circuited by a fumble.
===> It may happen but don’t EXPECT to see many interceptions. Air Force ranks 3rd in the nation in interceptions thrown having thrown just one. And that was by punter David Baska in a fake punt situation. Army ranks 5th in the nation having thrown just 2 interceptions.
===> In total defense Air Force ranks 84th allowing 421.50 yards per game. Army ranks 101st allowing 459.50 yards per game.
===> Air Force ranks 65th in points allowed per game at 27.50. Army ranks 109th at 36.88 points per game.
Dee Dowis was unstoppable. Since 1967 I have seen many potent offensive machines at the Air Force Academy, and what we saw Friday night was a team that finally showed a flash of the enormous potential that it has. As AFAfan said, the fact that the team is able to do this without Getz and LaCoste is impressive. Considering that many young players have been thrust into major roles unexpectedly and have produced very well, the future looks bright.
The 1971 Sugar Bowl team had a powerful running game and fast, explosive passing game. Brian Bream steamrolling on the ground and Bob Parker throwing to Ernie and Paul Bassa produced an offense that was very hard to stop, although Colorado and Tennessee did just that. But I think that it is hard for an Academy team to maintain that edge for an entire season, and that did them in more than the opponent in those two games.
Totally unacceptable performance against Army, period. Very disappointing.
Ever since this article was written, the AF offense has been pathetic.