Standing on a stage in the middle of Arizona Stadium, Air Force coach Troy Calhoun accepted the champion’s trophy for the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl. He turned around and held it aloft so every Falcon could see it.
They let out a huge roar after a hard-earned victory.
The final score — Air Force 45, South Alabama 21 — makes the second Arizona Bowl seem like a blowout. In the end, it was. But the 24-point margin belies what transpired as Friday afternoon turned into evening.
Air Force, a 14ƒ-point favorite, trailed South Alabama by 18 points less than five minutes into the second quarter. It looked like it would be a blowout, all right — for the Jaguars.
But the Falcons are a veteran team that will “keep pounding away,” Calhoun said. They chipped away at the Jaguars until they crumbled.
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“We’re definitely a battle-tested group,” said Tyler Williams, the junior receiver from Ironwood Ridge High School who had 108 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. “We’ve been through the wringer once or twice. No one was panicking. No one was shook.”
This Air Force team had been down before — several times, in fact. It just hadn’t been down by this much.
In four of the Falcons’ previous five victories, they fell behind early. Air Force trailed Fresno State by 14 points, and Colorado State, San Jose State and Boise State by seven apiece.
So even as the Jaguars raced to a 21-3 advantage with 10:41 left in the first half, the Falcons knew they could rally. Sophomore quarterback Arion Worthman, who earned Offensive MVP honors, told his teammates: “We’ve got a lot of football left. We’re all right.”
Worthman’s 49-yard pass to Jalen Robinette jump-started Air Force’s comeback and led to a field goal. Everything changed in the final few minutes of the first half.
After scoring touchdowns on three of its first four possessions — and coming within a red-zone fumble of a fourth — South Alabama’s offense finally stalled. Tackles for losses by Lochlin Deeks and Claude Alexander III led to a South Alabama punt, which traveled only 8 yards.
Air Force took over at the South Alabama 35-yard line. Four plays later, Ronald Cleveland scored on a 14-yard touchdown run to make it 21-13 with 1:49 left in the first half.
On the second play of the ensuing possession, Jaguars quarterback Dallas Davis cocked his arm to pass. But the ball slipped out of his hand. It bounded backward. Air Force’s Santo Coppola eventually recovered it at the South Alabama 1-yard line.
Jacobi Owens punched the ball in from there, giving the Falcons two touchdowns in a span of 1 minute, 24 seconds. Worthman’s pass to Robinette for the two-point conversion tied the score.
“You could feel a swing,” Calhoun said.
“That was probably the turning point in the game,” South Alabama coach Joey Jones said. “In those situations, you’ve got to be able to handle that.”
Air Force took its first lead on the first play of the second half — a 75-yard bomb from Worthman to Robinette. The play matched South Alabama’s quick strike from Davis to Josh Magee on the first play of the game. It is believed to be the first time in a bowl game that each team scored a 75-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in each half.
“I liked ours better than theirs,” Jones said.
South Alabama’s next three possessions ended with two punts and an interception. Air Force scored two touchdowns and a field goal. The Falcons scored 42 consecutive points after being down 21-3.
Calhoun beamed like a proud papa afterward.
“The heart, the grit, the perseverance that they have, those are qualities and attributes that they’re going to carry forth so far beyond just football,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep battling, which we did.”
The victory was Air Force’s fourth in nine bowl appearances for Calhoun. The Falcons finished the season 10-3.
South Alabama was seeking the first bowl victory in school history in its second postseason appearance. The Jaguars, in their eighth season of football and fifth on the BCS level, finished 6-7.
“We’ve pushed this cart way up the hill,” Jones said. “It hasn’t gotten to the top yet. We are going places and doing things the right way.”
Air Force loses 32 seniors but has a foundational piece in Worthman, who took over at quarterback in late October. Worthman completed 7 of 10 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 71 yards.
The defensive MVP was All-America safety Weston Steelhammer, whose performance mirrored Air Force’s. Steelhammer was victimized on the opening touchdown. He responded by forcing a fumble in the second quarter and intercepting a pass in the third.
“I guess it was kind of a bold strategy there to get burnt on the first play,” Steelhammer joked.
The truth was, Air Force’s victory wouldn’t have meant as much without everything that preceded it.
