1997 Air Force Falcons football team

1997 Air Force Falcons football
1997 Air Force Falcons football
Las Vegas Bowl, L 13–41 vs Oregon
Conference	Western Athletic Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 25
Record	10–3 (5–2 WAC)
Head coach	Fisher DeBerry (14th season);
Offensive scheme	Wishbone triple option
Co-defensive coordinator	Cal McCombs (8th season)
Co-defensive coordinator	Richard Bell (3rd season)
Base defense	3–4
Home stadium	Falcon Stadium
	Seasons ← 1996 1998 →

The 1997 Air Force Falcons football team competed for the United States Air Force Academy in the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was led by 14th-year head coach Fisher DeBerry and played its home games at Falcon Stadium. It finished the regular season with a 10–2 record overall and a 6–2 record in Western Athletic Conference games. The team was selected to play in the Las Vegas Bowl, in which it lost to Oregon.^[1]^[2]

1997 Western Athletic Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
Mountain Division
New Mexico x	6	–	2	9	–	4
Rice	5	–	3	7	–	4
SMU	5	–	3	6	–	5
Utah	5	–	3	6	–	5
BYU	4	–	4	6	–	5
UTEP	3	–	5	4	–	7
Tulsa	2	–	6	2	–	9
TCU	1	–	7	1	–	10
Pacific Division
No. 17 Colorado State x$	7	–	1	11	–	2
Air Force	6	–	2	10	–	3
Fresno State	5	–	3	6	–	6
Wyoming	4	–	4	7	–	6
San Diego State	4	–	4	5	–	7
San Jose State	4	–	4	4	–	7
UNLV	2	–	6	3	–	8
Hawaii	1	–	7	3	–	9
Championship: Colorado State 41, New Mexico 13
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
August 30	2:00 p.m.	Idaho*		Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO		W 14–10	41,331	^[3]
September 6		at Rice		Rice Stadium Houston, TX		W 41–12
September 13		UNLV		Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO		W 25–24	39,027
September 20		at No. 23 Colorado State		Hughes Stadium Fort Collins, CO (Ram–Falcon Trophy)		W 24–0	34,071
September 27		San Diego State		Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO	ESPN2	W 24–18 ^OT	48,399
October 4		The Citadel*	No. 23	Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO		W 17–3
October 11		at Navy*	No. 19	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Annapolis, MD (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy)		W 10–7
October 18		Fresno State	No. 18	Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO		L 17–20	45,597
October 25		at San Jose State		Spartan Stadium San Jose, CA	ESPN2	L 22–25
November 1	11:05 p.m.	at Hawaii		Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI (rivalry)		W 34–27	29,850
November 8		Army*		Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy)		W 24–0
November 15		Wyoming		Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO		W 14–3
December 20	4:00 p.m.	vs. Oregon*	No. 23	Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas, NV (Las Vegas Bowl)	ESPN2	L 13–41	21,514
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

1997 Air Force Falcons football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
Sr	`67`	Rob Evert	Sr
OT	`68`	Karl Faulk	Sr
WR	`6`	Matt Farmer	So
FAL	`8`	J. T. Felton	So
QB	`14`	John Flynn	Jr
OL	`74`	Frank Mindrup	Jr
OT	`78`	Troy Monson	So
QB	`11`	Blane Morgan	Jr
WR	`9`	Dylan Newman	Jr
OT	`79`	James Norman	So
QB	`15`	Stephen O'Neill	So
FB	`33`	Ryan Paroda	Jr
C	`52`	Jeff Parr	Sr
C	`50`	Brian Phillips	Jr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
OLB	`56`	Steve Fernandez	Sr
OLB	`91`	Sean Finnan	Sr
DT	`78`	Bryce Fisher	Jr
LB	`51`	Chris Gizzi	Sr
LB	`99`	Michael Yanovitch	So
LB	`54`	C. J. Zanotti	So

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class

Roster
Last update: 1997-10-25

^ "Football Schedule/Results: 1997-1998". Air Force Athletics. Archived from the original on October 8, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
^ "Air Force Yearly Results 1995-1999". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
^ Page, Steve (August 31, 1997). "Tough loss leaves Idaho hurting". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.

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