Those Unbeaten Falcons Catch Scouts’ Eyes

Channel 7, the local Eyewitness News team, was right on the story.

“Look, Bill, there’s the Sugar Bowl scout!” said Stan, Channel 7’s enterprising sports guy.

So Bill, the mini-cam man, swiftly went to work, camera rolling right outside the Air Force Academy locker room. Tom Wicker, the Sugar Bowl scout, was accommodating, saying, for the record, that if Air Force can stay unbeaten, the “Sugah Bowl will be interested.”

Then Stan said: “Look, Bill, there’s the Cotton Bowl scout!”

They interviewed him, too, then found a Holiday Bowl scout and repeated the procedure. Unfortunately, they didn’t do a thorough job, because they ignored the Freedom Bowl scout, who appeared a little hurt.

Still, Air Force, a 31-10 winner over San Diego State on Saturday, did little to hurt their bowl chances, and it even seemed to have the foresight to run up the score in the final seconds, although this was denied by Falcon Coach Fisher DeBerry.

“I can’t tell the players not to score,” said DeBerry of their last touchdown, which came after San Diego State fumbled a punt with 16 seconds left. “If we hadn’t scored on that play, I was going to run out the clock.”

Anyway, DeBerry is a religious man who had just experienced a difficult week personally, and he probably wasn’t lying.

But, those AP and UPI voters will like those 31 points.

Even though the players aren’t real big, Air Force football has hit the big time. And Falcon fans are getting cocky.

And the players, for the most part, overlooked San Diego State, and looked ahead to next week’s game against Army.

“Yeah, some might have been looking ahead,” defensive back Dwan Wilson said. “But you’ve got to make yourself not do that.”

At Air Force, they’re so nice it’s sickening. After the game, all the cadets in attendance stood and said a prayer. The football players took part, too, holding their helmets over their hearts. Aztec players, in awe, watched before leaving the field.

“Far out,” one said.

Inside the locker room, those Falcons looked so small. They have to be if they’re going to fit in the cockpit of a plane. Quarterback Bart Weiss took some extracurricular hits from Aztec linemen, and since he’s only 172 pounds, this could have been a detriment. One time, Craig Skaggs simply flipped Weiss over, a surprise because Weiss is a gentleman, a scholar who turned down Dartmouth to come here.

What had he done to upset Skaggs?

“I don’t know,” Weiss said. “I should have called him ‘sir.’ ”

Really, he does call most everyone “sir” or, at least, all his elders. Each cadet does this.

This all couldn’t be happening to a better group of guys, or a better guy--DeBerry. His priorities deal with faith and family first, then football. On Thursday, his father-in-law died and a cadet and an instructor were killed in a plane crash. He had his players pray.

“And I’ve seen the results in some of the lives we pray for,” he said. “Some of our players’ parents have recovered from illness after we’ve prayed.”

No, he won’t have them pray for a bowl bid.

“No sir, we don’t think about all that stuff,” he said. “Right now, we’re thinking about Army. The rest will take care of itself.”

Said Air Force defender Scott Thomas: “Yeah, but did you see all those Sugar Bowl scouts!”