Looking For the Stamp of Approval
Banks excited for the challenge of Air Force's offense
Mike Brohard
The normal feeling is one of dread.
It is just one week on the schedule, but preparation requires a bit more than just five days leading up the day. Time is spent during spring practice. More time added in fall camp, all in order to face the most unique of systems in the Mountain West.
Air Force’s triple option. At the base, that’s what it’s remained, but under Troy Calhoun’s guidance, it has been updated a bit for the modern era. It requires a special approach and certain asks of a defensive team. All of this for just one game.
But Freddie Banks is obviously built a bit different.
“I told the staff Sunday night, we really get to see how good of coaches we are,” said Colorado State’s first-year defensive coordinator. “We have to get these dudes prepared for a totally different offense. You have to get them up for a game you aren’t typically up for, to go play ground and pound and a tough football game. You just have embrace it for a week.
“I take it on as a challenge. I have to take more time rehearsing. We put our plan together in the spring and the fall, but it’s so different, I was here until midnight (Sunday), going over the rules again, going over the new things. Coach AP (Adam Pilapil) is a real expert on it, so we’re relying on him a lot. I’m just excited for it.”
Actually, so are the players. They know what’s coming, know it’s going to be a physical game. Defenders love those types of assignments. Yet, unlike last week, when Wyoming came at them head on for the most part, save for the run-pass-option part of the game, Air Force will come at them from all angles, and each running play is designed to have as the name of the system spells out – options.
Which is the part requiring discipline, something the Rams must have in droves on Saturday evening, which promises to be chilly and crisp in the mountain air. As much as the Falcons love to run, they have a penchant for hitting the Rams deep through the air.
In the past four meetings, the Falcons have thrown at least one touchdown pass. In the past two, it’s five combined. Maybe the 92-yard pass a year ago rings a bell, the longest offensive play in Canvas Stadium history.
“We have to be really disciplined with everything we do, especially against Air Force, because it’s such a wonky offense,” nickleback Ayden Hector said. “They can slip a tight end past us, and we’ll be looking in the backfield for the run, but it will be a deep pass down the middle. Coach Banks is really hammering down on our eye discipline; we have to keep our eyes on our man and stay pinned to him. If he releases, we’ll know because we have our eyes on him, we’ll be discipline and we’ll be ready to go.
“It's going to be tough, and they’re probably going to want to run tempo on us as well, so we’ll really have to have a good week of practice and a good week of just hammering down on our discipline and being more disciplined than them. That’s how we’re going to win this game. They’re obviously a very disciplined team, so just us having our eyes on our man, not being lulled to sleep, taking no plays off will be the key to winning this game.”
Lulling folks to sleep makes the air attack work. Setting it up requires a discipline by the person calling the plays, and Air Force is a team which is strong-willed in regard to what it does on offense and what it requires. It means run after run in a game of wills, waiting for the other team to break.
It’s what they count on, and it’s why Colorado State’s mantra this week has been repeated through the years and screamed from mountain tops by defensive coordinators since the confounded system was created in the Texas schoolyards.
“We have to be able to stop the dive,” Banks said. “That’s our motto this week.”
Saying it doesn’t make it happen automatically. The Rams have to do as Brad Hamilton instructed the patrons of All-American Burgers – Learn It. Know It. Live It. If not, a fullback may hit for 260 yards, as Cole Fagan did a few years back, not one of them off a fancy play.
I think you can stamp yourself as a good defensive staff if we can flip this thing around and play good defense.Freddie Banks
Colorado State middle linebacker Dequan Jackson is set to play the Falcons for the third time. In fact, he’s looking forward to the assignment, much like his coach, because the challenge is enticing. He didn’t get to play last year due to injury, and the 2020 game was wiped out by the pandemic. Don’t read that wrong. It doesn’t mean Jackson is going to miss facing the Falcons ever again, either.
But he knows what’s coming his way, and by name it is Brad Roberts.
He’s the Air Force fullback, and the heartbeat of the only team in the nation averaging 300-plus yards rushing per game, 334.1. Of the team’s nearly 600 rushes, he’s taken the handoff 39.4 percent of the time. His 236 carries are more than double the total of the next Falcon on the list, quarterback Haazig Daniels, who has 103.
Roberts has eight 100-yard rushing games this season, good for 1,248 total yards, having only lost 7 yards on carries all season. He has three rushes of 70 yards or longer. By the end of the game, Jackson’s goal is to make sure Roberts knows the fragrance of his deodorant.
“It’s going to be that. It will be that,” said Jackson, who had 11 tackles in the 2018 meeting. “From a linebacker standpoint, that’s what it is. You have to give a lot of respect to those guys, because they do their thing and consistently. It will be a good game. They will remember me.”
Remembering assignments and techniques is of the utmost importance this week for the Rams. That’s the thing about Air Force, the offense is unique. It requires some reads which are not passed along week to week. It calls upon techniques which are not so common. Assignments will change, but in the system Banks runs, it does not require a player to do anything outside of their realm.
His asks are what they’ve done before, just maybe a bit more often. Or less, depending.
He’s familiar with the option when he was a younger secondary coach at Midwestern State, when the final week annually against Eastern New Mexico, which ran option, was virtually the title game. They didn’t wait until that week to get ready for it, either.
“During spring ball, we installed it. During fall camp we repped it again for a couple of days,” Banks said. “Now it’s recall for our guys. Now it’s not like, ‘oh my God, this is completely new.’ It’s no different than a pressure we’ve been waiting on we needed against somebody. We rep it so it’s recall so there’s better execution.
“We spent probably around eight days total before this week. That’s huge because our guys aren’t completely confused.”
One confused player is all it takes.
In a way, it’s a chess match. There are a bunch of pieces on the board, but only a few key ones. The Rams know who they are, they’ve studied tendencies and what they like to do. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, and even if 10 guys are in total recall, one key defender out of place can hurt.
The Falcons are fine moving the ball 4 yards at a time. They’ll also gash a defense with 72 runs of 10 yards or longer, nine rushing plays of 40 or more, four of them exceeding 70. It’s not blinding team speed which produces those plays. It’s a packed box with one gap left open long enough so the defense has to change direction and run somebody down with a 20-yard head start.
“I really like the opportunity to go out there and be physical and make tackles and to know that it’s man vs. man. There’s not a lot of triggering,” Jackson said. “You know what they’re going to do, it’s just if you’re going to be disciplined enough to stop them. Technically, it is tough, because they capitalize on whenever you do make a mistake, but I look forward to the game personally.
“I think they pride themselves on being disciplined and making us pay when we mess up. You have to be on your top game, because if not, they make you pay. If everybody does what they’re supposed to do and read their keys and play football, be physical, we’ll come out. It’s who is going to be the toughest and more disciplined in the game.”
It’s a defensive challenge without question, but part of the riddle can be solved by the offense.
Staying on the field hasn’t been a strong suit for a young Rams’ offense this season, but this could be a game where if they can take a step forward, it would earn a big “attaboy” from their defensive mates.
“The big thing is you have to take control of the game. You can’t allow them to control the ball and control the clock,” Norvell said. “If you do, you’ll end up having very few possessions and very few offensive snaps. Their defense has great statistics, and one of the reason’s they have great statistics is they’re not on the field very often. That’s the best defense you can possibly have.”
Nothing about the task is easy. It’s not impossible, either. The Falcons won the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy this year, and both Army and Navy kept them in the 200s rushing, because it’s what those teams do, too. But Wyoming beat the Falcons and limited them to 171 on the ground. So did Boise State, holding them to 175. Utah State gave up 264 and won a shootout.
Everybody else? It’s been 400 or more yards on the ground for Air Force.
It’s not rocket science, but it does require a solid plan and across-the-board execution. Which is what leads to a defensive coordinator staying in the office until midnight.
Happy to do so, too.
“I like it because it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge as a coach,” Banks said. “It challenges my brain, and it’s a challenge to get our guys after we lost a rivalry game to get them back up, so, I’m excited. I’ve got one goal, to play good defense, and this is a unique week. I think you can stamp yourself as a good defensive staff if we can flip this thing around and play good defense.”