Troy Calhoun: Leadership Coach
10/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2008
In 1985, a bright-eyed, enthusiastic service academy greenhorn from Roseburg, Oregon, got his first taste of Air Force football.
Recruited as a quarterback by then coach Fisher DeBerry to run the triple option offense, Troy Calhoun learned quickly what it was like to be part of a successful and competitive team. He lettered his freshman year as the team went on to finish with a nationally ranked 12-1 season that culminated in a win over Texas in the Bluebonnet Bowl.
As if experiencing déjà vu, Calhoun is back on the Falcon gridiron, albeit, in a different capacity.
"I hope I coach a heck of a lot better than I played," he joked as he reminisced his own glory days.
If his first year as the Falcon's head coach is any indication, he may just be reaching that goal. Last year was a tremendously successful turnaround with the team going 9-4, but loosing to Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl. Calhoun remarked he was happy with the overall outcome, but realizes there's more work to be done.
"I think every game you play, as a competitor, you think you're going to win, and you probably have yourself convinced you're going to win by nine touchdowns too; but it was a remarkable season, and one that certainly gives a cornerstone from which to build."
He also admitted he couldn't have foreseen himself replacing coach DeBerry as the Falcon's next head coach, but now that he's here he intends to give it his all.
"I think you've got to know your craft inside and out. I think that's the only way you're going to be extremely skilled, whether it's recruiting, whether it's offense, whether it's defense, whether it's special teams, and the other part is I think you've got to give every bit of yourself. You can do anything from part of the way or most of the way, you're all in from a passion standpoint."
While Calhoun said he holds extreme respect and reverence for DeBerry, he also stated no two people are the same, and that his background as a graduate and football player gives him a different approach in dealing with his players.
"I probably don't let them complain a whole lot, so they can't come down here whining, and yet deep down I think they respect that," he mater-of-factly stated. Yet, he admitted due to his own experience he does have great understanding and appreciation for the demands and obligations each player faces. This lends his coaching style to be more adaptive and flexible, yet still focused and effective.
Calhoun will be the first to admit he has high expectations, but he does put it all into perspective.
"First and foremost, what your obligation is here as a staff member or coach in this case is to make sure these guys are extraordinarily well prepared to graduate from the Air Force Academy and to serve on active duty," he explained, adding, "You want to try and optimize the experience for every kid that's involved. I think certainly you're aware that there will be a few all-Americans, not an enormous number, and yet, just from a character standpoint, you want to make them feel like they really grew and ... that means they're going to be able to handle more responsibility in future endeavors, and you never know ... where that may be."
That doesn't mean he doesn't expect to win. But in a division that seems to get more competitive each year, the Falcons face some very unique challenges when it comes to preparation, practice and depth. While other schools in the Mountain West Conference have seemingly unlimited time to game plan, practice and work out, the military, academic and operational commitments each Academy athlete must complete means time for football is much more limited.
"You have to be very meticulous, very thorough in your practice preparation because once school begins basically you have about 95 minutes to practice and so that means you have to move at a rapid pace from a tempo standpoint," said Calhoun. "It means that everything you do has to be organized in a manner that you get a chance to cover everything so that you know you're well prepared once you get to Saturdays." He added, "The other part of it [which is] as challenging of an endeavor as I think you're probably ever going to have in coaching is being at a service academy and competing in one of college football's seven major conferences playing a schedule where year-in and year-out you're going to have to face six bowl teams."
This means Calhoun has to heavily rely upon the team leaders to help get everyone focused and on the same page.
"I think, really, to have complete credibility as a leader ... I think you have to have some playing experience; I think legitimately you have to have shown that, `ok, I've don it.' The other part is you have to be a phenomenal example. That's in the weight room, that's in, film study; it's in the kind of vigor that you bring to practice each day and you've got to be a guy that produces," Calhoun explained, describing his ideal team leader.
"We've got a bunch of them that I think will emerge as tremendous leaders, which they should, especially being here at the Air Force Academy," encouraged Calhoun in reference to team leaders like tight end C1C Travis Dekker, defensive end C1C Ryan Kemp and nose guard C1C Jared Marvin. Though, they will definitely have their work cut out for them, as Dekker, Ryan and Marvin are three of only eight starters returning from last year's team. This year's recruiting crop and core of younger players has potential, but lacks playing time.
"For this year, the single biggest challenge I think is trying to equip these guys from an experience standpoint and try to replace the game-day experience that they don't have and that means you have to do a superb job in training and development, and that's on the practice field doing everything you possibly can to simulate what a game day is like," Calhoun stated.
The Falcons certainly have a lot stacked against them, but there is a reason why the Falcons continue to be competitive each year. Calhoun said it's evident year in and year out.
"This is the ultimate team institution, and the thing you try to breed here is individual drive, but collectively it's always going to be about unity and team spirit," he encouraged, adding this unity, as well as the academic reputation, is what drives many recruits to want to come here.
"One, you have an extraordinary opportunity--that's the education part of it, the chance to graduate from the Air Force Academy. And the other part of it too is that you make some phenomenal friendships. Those are the bonds that probably separate this place from any other institution in the country."
You can bet the football team will come together as a collective unit, but one thing that has been lacking in recent years is fan support. According to the USAFA Athletic ticket office, average attendance last season was 38,068; a slight gain from the previous year, but nowhere near where Calhoun hopes. Falcon stadium capacity is 52,480.
"First of all, we need an immense amount of support from the graduate community and I think sometimes we're shy about asking. I've always thought there's nobody that is more proud of where they went to school than graduates of the Air Force Academy," he beamed, adding, "I think specifically, it means buying season tickets, it means purchasing bowl tickets whenever we have those opportunities ... and then certainly coming out to Falcon Stadium because as a team and an institution we certainly feed off of that spirit."
Calhoun stated it's that spirit that drives him to work hard every day.
"You feel a ton of pride being a part of this school, especially as a graduate of the Air Force Academy, I mean, this is the best school. This is the world's greatest leadership institution and when you talk about academics, when you talk about relationships, when you talk about toughness, when you talk about heart, when you talk about spirit, that's the United States Air Force Academy and absolutely I allow that to propel me every single day that I work at the Academy."
