'Assignment Football' Will Be Crucial For Buffs Vs. Falcons

BOULDER — If there has been one overriding theme this week for the Colorado Buffaloes, in particular the defense, it has been "assignment football."

While always important, it is imperative against the Air Force Falcons' option-oriented offense. The Buffs host Air Force in an 11 a.m. game Saturday at Folsom Field (Pac-12 Network).

"Do your job, do your job," CU head coach Mel Tucker said of his message to his players. "We have to play assignment football, we have to be relentless with our effort, stay on our feet, stay alive, play harder and play longer."

The Falcons are masters of baiting defenders into over-pursuing, then hitting that empty gap for a big gain. They are patient with their approach, and experts at taking advantage of mistakes.

 "It might not happen every time — but it just has to happen one time that you go somewhere you aren't supposed to be and they shoot out of the gap and bust it for 30," Tucker said. "There are so many options we have to cover, you have to stay focused on your assignment."

Making the CU defense's job even more difficult this week is the fact that the Buffs are facing an offense they have not seen — nor anything even similar. Perhaps the only player on the roster who has seen anything comparable is graduate transfer safety Mikial Onu, who faced Navy's option attack three times while playing for SMU.

"It's almost like they have an eye on the sky — on any specific play, if they see you even flinch toward a direction, they'll burn you," said Onu, who has been putting in extra film study time this week. "You have to be extremely disciplined with your eyes, you can't creep, you can't be trying to make the play on the other side of the field. That's how they get people. That's how they compete with bigger schools. They get people out of their gaps … we have to be at our best to stay on our keys, be disciplined and line up."

The Falcons run their option from a variety of formations, which adds another problem for defenses. They will line up in a two-back set with the quarterback under center, in an I-formation, a spread formation and even with the quarterback in the shotgun set.

The offense makes it particularly hard on safeties, Onu said, because players at that position will find themselves not making tackles — and then want to "cheat" up and get in on the action.

"They'll run the ball 50 times in a row," Onu said. "So let's say the safety has zero tackles. So play 51, he's like, 'OK, I'm going to go get a tackle.' He runs up and they burn you deep and that's the only pass of the game, a touchdown. It's very, very difficult, simply because every play you have to reprogram yourself to know, 'I can not peek.' The best way to do it is take it play by play. You have to tell yourself that every single play."

And that, Onu said, isn't easy for safeties — players who usually thrive on contact.

"You have to know that my play is going to come up," he said. "If I keep doing my job, I'll get a chance to really hit somebody. But until that comes, I have to make sure and do my assignment."

The Buffs have spent plenty of time preparing for the Falcons' offense, dedicating portions of practice in the spring and fall camp specifically to Air Force. But, as defensive coordinator Tyson Summers noted, no matter how unfamiliar the scheme, the basic goal is still the same: stop the guy with the ball.

"Ultimately, it's still playing defense," Summers said. "Option, spread, pro — you have to get off blocks and you have to make tackles. A lot of times what happens to you when you're defending option football teams is you get so caught up in the discipline of the assignment and the scheme that comes with it that you forget at the end of the day that you have to whip the block, take good aim at the ball and gang tackle. If you do that, you have a chance against any type of offense."

TRAP GAME? Colorado's Tucker made his feelings clear earlier this week when asked if he thought this week's game against the Falcons was a "trap" game, i.e. one for which the Buffs might not be fully prepared — especially coming off an emotional win over Nebraska.

"You have to be totally clueless to get caught off guard by a team like Air Force," Tucker said. "This particular game I don't see as a trap game. I think everybody in America and the world who knows anything about football knows that when you play Air Force, you better strap it up. They know what the heck they're doing. They've got talented guys that are tough, that are physical, that are disciplined. They attack people and they get after it and their belief factor is at the highest level. So, if we don't realize that shame on us."

FAMILIAR WITH FOLSOM: While the Buffs and Falcons haven't played since 1974 — and AFA hasn't visited Boulder since 1973 — at least one member of the Air Force coaching staff is very familiar with Folsom Field.

AFA inside linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden served as the defensive line coach for the Buffs under Bill McCartney from 1983 to 1991. He left to go with former CU assistant Gary Barnett to Northwestern, then later became head coach at Maryland. After that, he coached at Penn State as an assistant for 13 years before moving to Air Force, where he is now in his sixth season.

TUCKER WAS ALMOST A FALCON: Tucker, by the way, is also familiar with Air Force. In fact, he committed to play for the Falcons when he was in high school as an option quarterback. It wasn't until Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez — in his first year with the Badgers — came calling that Tucker changed his mind.

Tucker was recruited to the AFA by then-Falcons coach Fisher DeBerry.

 "It wasn't a tough pitch for me," Tucker said of his original commitment to AFA. "Coming in from Cleveland and flying in on one of those prop planes over the mountains was a little eventful. But when O got off the plane I smelled the air — it smelled a lot different than Cleveland, Ohio. Really great atmosphere, winning program, great education, great academic foundation. Coach DeBerry, he's one of the greatest coaches that's ever done it. Not just as a coach, but as a man. A role model-type guy, a guy obviously you want to play for."

FALCONS CONFIDENT: AFA quarterback Donald Hammond had the opportunity to watch the Colorado-Nebraska game last week on television, as the Falcons enjoyed a bye week.

He told the Colorado Springs Gazette that the Buffs are "beatable."

"Everybody's beatable," Hammond said.

The Falcons are narrow underdogs, but they are by no means intimidated by the Buffs.

"I think it's really important that we're confident, and we are confident," Air Force linebacker Kyle Johnson told the Gazette. "But I wouldn't say we're cocky or anything. We recognize the situation and how close of a game we know it's going to be. That kind of drives our preparation."

SERIES NOTES: The Buffs lead the series 12-4, including a 28-27 win at the Academy the last time they played, in 1974 … CU has now won eight straight non-conference games, the longest such stretch since a 13-game run from 1993-1996 (including bowl games) … The Buffs have a 7-3 advantage in the series in games in Boulder … CU's Tucker never faced the Falcons as an assistant, while AFA's Troy Calhoun has also never faced Colorado, either as a head coach or an assistant … Colorado is 1-4 all-time on Sept. 14, with the only win on that date a 21-17 win over Oregon on Sept. 14, 1985.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu