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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Just outside Denver, in the Front Range Urban Corridor, the best college football team in Colorado is flying under the radar.

At the Air Force Academy, that is usually by design. The capability is a state secret.

In this context, though, success leads to visibility. Off to the best start by a service academy in more than two decades and carrying the nation’s fourth-longest winning streak (11), No. 22 Air Force (6-0) opens its defense of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy against Navy on Saturday (noon ET, CBS) as the top-ranked Group of 5 team in the country.

“We’ve always said if we go undefeated and win the conference, but we lose the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and we lose against one of the service academies, it’s a wasted year,” said senior linebacker Bo Richter. “We want to go out and dominate every week, but these games [against Army and Navy] just mean so much more.”

This year, the stakes are raised. The usual ramifications exist, but with each win, the Falcons inch closer toward the possibility of claiming the Group of 5’s New Year’s Six bowl berth — an accomplishment that would stand as one of the most significant by a service academy in college football’s modern era.

If it seems as if the Falcons have come out of nowhere to their current perch, it should not. They are the only Group of 5 team to win at least 10 games in the past three full seasons (2019, 2021, 2022) and one of just seven at the FBS level. Only Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and Michigan have better winning percentages over those seasons.

If it seems improbable, that checks out. Air Force’s elevated success in recent years has come despite a confluence of events that seemingly should have made winning more difficult.

In an era when teams reload and fill holes through the transfer portal, Air Force cannot. While other schools can attract talent with even modest name, image and likeness benefits, Air Force cadets are not eligible for the same. This year, the NCAA adopted a rule change in the name of player safety that had an outsized impact on the triple-option offenses employed only by the service academies. Even the U.S. Congress passed a law in December that, after this season, will eliminate the opportunity for service academy graduates to defer their service requirements and pursue professional sports.

Given all of that, it’s hard to make sense of Air Force’s incredible run.

“I don’t know if you can, if you just leave it unfiltered,” said coach Troy Calhoun, the former Air Force player in his 17th year as his alma mater’s head coach. “It might not make sense.”


FOR CALHOUN, GAME WEEKS against Army and Navy always present a unique dynamic.

“What resonates so strongly is you have players on both teams that are going to go serve,” he said. “You don’t get along for those three hours, but in a much bigger picture, holy cow, you just never know where you could be. All over the world, we’re really joined at the hip, and you don’t know if that’s going to be in the Middle East or if that’s in Korea or wherever that may be. That’s the reality of this game more than anything else.”

Roughly seven years ago, Calhoun went on a coach’s tour to visit troops overseas. There were multiple stops in Europe and the Middle East. At Ramstein Air Base in Germany, he was greeted by current Air Force defensive assistant Anthony Wright. At Aviano Air Base in Italy, he ran into former players who were flying F-16 fighter jets. And in Bahrain he saw an old nemesis: former Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who set the NCAA record for touchdown runs by a quarterback in 2009 (27).

“We wanted to beat him so bad,” Calhoun said. “But when you go interact with the human being, your thought is, ‘I’m so glad this guy is on our side.'”

All three service academies face similar challenges. It’s hard enough, anywhere in college football, to piece together enough good players to be competitive. Adding the additional obligation of military service, plus demanding academic and physical obligations on top of football has a way of thinning out the talent pool.

“That’s hard to find,” Calhoun said. “And then you want somebody who can make a play in the open field on Saturdays, too.”

The barriers to entry have always been steep. Few high school players enter the recruiting process with a future military career in mind. The dream of an NFL career is exponentially more prevalent, and for many of those kids, the thought of signing with Air Force, Army or Navy can represent an admission that it is unlikely to come true.

In 2019, a policy change removed the requirement for service academy graduates to spend two years on active duty before they were allowed to pursue a career in professional sports. Instead, they were able to seek a waiver to defer their service and pursue professional sports immediately after graduation.

The way Calhoun saw it, the waiver system made sense. It didn’t mean anyone was getting out of their service obligation, only that in some cases it would be delayed. In theory, it allowed the academies to recruit more ambitious future leaders, which, at their cores, is what the academies are all about.

However, last year a congressional bill reversed the 2019 decision, reestablishing the two-year service requirement, although it did retain the waiver option for players through the current senior class.

“We’re waiting to see [what happens], and, candidly, I think that would be a mistake for our country [to reinstitute the two-year waiting period],” Calhoun said. “If they were to go play in the NFL, it’s the rarest of the rare, but if you went for two or three years, you’re still going to serve a good number of years on active duty or in the reserves.

“Why would we deter that? Why would we want to take somebody that’s maybe looking at Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, Rice and the academies? We want that person. If they have those intangibles, the drive, the unity, the ability to build teamwork. We want them.”

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers coach Chad Hall was a standout running back and receiver at Air Force 2005-2007, and for the two years after graduation, he described himself as “the most boring 22-to-24-year-old you’ve ever met.”

That’s what it took to keep his NFL dream alive. Hall worked in aircraft maintenance after graduation.

“All I would do is wake up at 4 a.m., go to work, finish work, go train, go to sleep, wake up, do it all over again,” Hall said. “I didn’t take any leave during those two years just in case I had the opportunity to get into an [NFL] camp, I could take leave.”

When the opportunity arrived, he was ready. After Hall attended a pro day in Salt Lake City in March 2010, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him a few days later.

“For those next, really, two months, I flew to Philly on Sunday night, had practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Flew back Thursday on the 1:30 flight, landed in Salt Lake City, went straight to work,” Hall said. “Worked a half-day Thursday, got up, worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday until my flight and then flew back. I had leave saved up where I was able to take some days off, and my [Air Force] leadership was working with me.”

He went on to spend parts of five seasons in the NFL with the Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs and Jaguars.

For several current Air Force seniors, the possibility of making an immediate attempt at an NFL career while the rules still permit it is intriguing.

“I think I’m going to do it,” said Richter, who leads the team with 7.5 tackles for loss and will graduate as part of the winningest class in school history. “I know Trey Taylor, our safety is definitely going to try to do it. I wouldn’t be surprised if John Eldridge, our running back does it. There’s a lot of guys that are going to try to make that opportunity for themselves.”

Before Austin Cutting (2019) and Jordan Jackson (2022), it had been 20 years since an Air Force player was selected in the NFL draft. No one has been selected earlier than the sixth round.


AFTER LEADING THE nation in rushing yards the past three seasons, Air Force again ranks No. 1. The Falcons’ average (334.2) is nearly 60 yards more than Liberty‘s (274.6), the nation’s No. 2 rushing offense.

This comes despite an NCAA rule that was adopted in the offseason that prevents blocking below the waist when outside the tackle box, something Calhoun felt targeted the service academies.

“I mean, it had to be. Let’s be real here,” Calhoun said. “I am a full believer in player safety, and I don’t think this was a player safety item. I think part of it was there’s a style of play that you didn’t want to encounter. … The service academy part of it, I think that was a factor.”

Army coach Jeff Monken was so spooked by the perceived impact the rule change would have on the triple-option flexbone offense that he instituted wholesale changes in the offseason to include more snaps from the shotgun and more passing. After averaging 8.2 pass attempts per game over the past five seasons, the Black Knights are throwing the ball 16.2 times per game this year.

For the Falcons, there has been no noticeable difference. Only once in the past 20 years have they averaged more yards per carry (2011), and they’ve never averaged fewer penalties per game (2.67) in that same span than this year.

Part of the offense’s success this season is a credit to the emergence of first-year starting quarterback Zac Larrier, the former Mountain West Conference 200-meter track champion, who is second on the team with 473 yards rushing. However, the Falcons will be without Larrier, a senior, against Navy — and for the foreseeable future — after he injured a knee in the 34-27 win against Wyoming on Saturday.

Larrier was replaced in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys by senior Jensen Jones, who proceeded to lose fumbles on back-to-back snaps before later icing the game with a 14-yard run.

“I wouldn’t say [losing Larrier] really impacts us a lot,” center Thor Paglialong said. “Zac, Jensen, Ben [Brittain], they’ve all been taking reps, so we’re confident with whoever we put back there.”

It helps that the Air Force defense ranks No. 9 nationally in scoring (14.7 PPG), and although that number is impacted by the fewer possessions in game dictated by Air Force’s offensive approach, the Falcons still rank No. 9 among Group of 5 schools in points allowed per drive (1.6).

Only Oregon and LSU average more points per drive in the FBS than the Falcons (3.84), who are one of just four teams to score touchdowns on at least 50% of their offensive drives this season.

Without the option to add players through the transfer portal, Air Force — the same goes for Army and Navy — has become even more of an outlier. Perhaps that’s a strength. It would partially help explain how Air Force is winning in the face of disadvantages.

“Coach Calhoun said this a couple weeks ago, but we don’t get ready-made guys,” Richter said. “We develop talent here. That’s so true. You see coaches ID a guy they want and say, ‘That’s the guy who is going to be the future of this position.’ Then you see them pour into these guys and see them blossom.”

At 6-0, there’s a temptation for Air Force to look ahead. Going to the Peach Bowl to play, say, Alabama carries a lot more intrigue than the Mountain West’s best bowl bid to play a midtier Pac-12 team in Los Angeles at the end of the year.

Recently, Richter overheard a teammate talking about how they could go undefeated. He shut it down quickly.

“It’s cool that we’re 6-0, but no one is going to remember that Air Force was 6-0 halfway through the season if you lose three games and go 10-3,” Richter said. “Nobody would care.”

At least that’s the case in these Rocky Mountains parts.

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Ohtani takes Miz deep but phenom fans 12 in win

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Ohtani takes Miz deep but phenom fans 12 in win

MILWAUKEE — Shohei Ohtani greeted Jacob Misiorowski with a leadoff homer, but the Milwaukee Brewers‘ rookie phenom got the last word.

After giving up Ohtani’s 431-foot blast, Misiorowski responded with another dominant outing. He struck out a career-high 12 batters — including two-way superstar Ohtani in the third inning — to lead the Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

“It’s Shohei Ohtani,” Misiorowski said. “You kind of expect [that]. It’s cool to see him do it in action, but it fires me up even more coming back the next at-bat and striking him out. I’m right there. I think it was a moment of like, ‘OK, now we go.'”

Misiorowski, whose fastball routinely tops 100 mph, threw an 88.2 mph curveball on an 0-2 count to Ohtani, who crushed it for his 31st homer. That’s the most by a Dodgers player before the All-Star break.

It was the 21st career leadoff homer for the three-time MVP, who struck out swinging on a curveball in the third and walked to start the sixth. That was the only walk given up by Misiorowski, who scattered four hits.

“Really good stuff, aggressive in the zone,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But what really stood out to me was his command and control.”

Misiorowski outdueled three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts in his previous outing. Asked Monday about his matchup with Misiorowski, Kershaw said he only knew that the 6-foot-7 right-hander threw hard.

“I know him now, huh?” Kershaw said Tuesday. “That was super impressive. That was unbelievable. It was really special. Everything. Obviously the velo, but he’s got four pitches, commands the ball. I don’t know how you hit that, honestly. That’s just really tough.”

Misiorowski was glad to get Kershaw’s attention.

“I saw something online that he didn’t now who I was, so I hope he knows me now,” Misiorowski said. “It’s kind of cool.”

In five starts since the Brewers called him up from the minors, Misiorowski has already beaten Kershaw and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. In another outing, Misiorowski carried a perfect game into the seventh inning.

“He’s just broken the shell,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s just out of the egg, all arms and legs. He’s still got gooey stuff coming off, you can see it, all arms and legs, but there’s something special about him.”

The numbers would indicate as much. Misiorowski is 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and has given up only 12 hits in 25⅔ innings.

He topped out at 101.6 mph and threw 20 pitches of at least 100 on Tuesday. He also threw 19 curveballs after using curves only 10% of the time before Tuesday.

He was coming off his only shaky performance, giving up five runs — including a grand slam by Brandon Nimmo — and three walks over 3⅔ innings Wednesday in a 7-3 loss to the New York Mets.

It looked as if it might be more of the same after Ohtani went deep. Misiorowski responded by striking out 12 of the next 16 batters.

“I think that’s my job, is to figure it out on the fly,” he said. “I feel like I did it tonight.”

He got out of a jam in the sixth. The Dodgers trailed 2-1 and had runners on second and third with one out, but third baseman Andruw Monasterio fielded a grounder and threw out Ohtani at the plate, and Misiorowski retired Michael Conforto on a grounder.

Misiorowski pumped his fist as he headed toward the dugout, then watched the Brewers’ bullpen nail down the win.

“It’s so satisfying,” Misiorowski said. “It’s just a dream come true, to do what I did.”

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Giants walk off on Bailey’s inside-the-park homer

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Giants walk off on Bailey's inside-the-park homer

SAN FRANCISCO — Patrick Bailey hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run with one out in the ninth inning, lifting the San Francisco Giants to a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.

Bailey became just the third catcher in MLB history to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park home run, joining the Chicago Cubs’ Pat Moran in 1907 and the Washington Nationals’ Bennie Tate in 1926.

Bailey’s homer would have been an outside-the-park home run in 29 of 30 ballparks, with Oracle Park being the exception.

Mike Yastrzemski reached base twice and scored to help the Giants to their sixth win in seven games.

Casey Schmitt began the rally with a leadoff double. After Jung Hoo Lee popped out, Wilmer Flores lined a single to center.

Bailey, who grounded into a double play and struck out in two of his previous at-bats, then smashed a 1-0 fastball from Jordan Romano (1-4) into right-center field that ricocheted off the brick part of the wall.

Ryan Walker (2-3) retired one batter, with two on in the top of the ninth, to earn the win.

Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber had two hits, including his team-leading 28th home run.

Schwarber flew out, struck out and was hit by a pitch before homering off Giants reliever Spencer Bivens into McCovey Cove. Brandon Marsh, who singled as a pinch hitter leading off the inning, scored on the play.

Two days after being named an All-Star for the second time in his career, Robbie Ray gave up four hits and one run in 5⅔ innings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mets’ Mendoza: Snubbed Soto ‘an All-Star for us’

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Mets' Mendoza: Snubbed Soto 'an All-Star for us'

BALTIMORE — The New York Mets consider Juan Soto to be a bona fide All-Star, despite the snub he received from those who selected the National League squad for the Midsummer Classic on July 15.

Soto, in his first year with the Mets, has performed well enough to earn the respect of his manager and teammates. In their opinion, he’s deserving of a place in the All-Star Game next week in Atlanta.

“He’s an All-Star for us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday night after the Mets beat Baltimore 7-6. “It’s frustrating, but I’m hoping in the next couple of days we hear something and he makes it.”

Soto drove in the winning run with a sharp single on the first pitch of the 10th inning. That capped a night in which he went 3 for 5 to raise his batting average to .269 with 21 homers and 52 RBIs.

Soto has walked 72 times, by far the most in the majors, but he can also lash out at a pitcher when necessary.

“He’s got a pretty good understanding of what the pitchers are trying to do to him,” Mendoza said. “There is his awareness of the game, he’s going to see pitchers. There are times when he’s going to be aggressive. Tonight was one of those nights. First pitch in the 10th, he’s attacking.”

Soto made the All-Star team as a member of the Nationals, Padres and Yankees each year since 2021. The streak appears to be over. But his teammates believe he deserves to go.

“What he done all year is just incredible, and the results are good enough,” Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes said. “The consistency he’s showed up with, at the at-bats he’s taken, is more than an All-Star. He’s one of the best in the game and a big part of our lineup.”

Soto seems rather philosophical about the snub.

“Sometimes, you’re going to make it and sometimes you don’t,” he told reporters after Sunday’s loss to the Yankees. “It’s just part of baseball.”

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