New Yet Familiar Faces on Sideline
First-Year Air Force Staff Knows Navy
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Friday, September 28, 2007
Copies of the 2002 Navy-Wake Forest game have been circulating among Navy's defensive coaches as they prepare for tomorrow's game against Air Force. Troy Calhoun was the Demon Deacons' offensive coordinator that day; he currently is in his first year as the Falcons' head coach.
Wake Forest used a balanced attack -- 210 yards passing, 200 rushing -- in a 30-27 victory.
Navy defensive coordinator Buddy Green said Air Force has a similar offense to Wake Forest, complete with misdirection plays, reverses, the option and play-action passes.
"You've got a lot to defend," Green said. "They show you a ton of formations to prepare for. . . . You run out of paper charting their formations."
Meantime, new Air Force defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter may have left some clues to his game plan in a 1999 meeting between Air Force and Navy.
That day, DeRuyter was defensive coordinator for the Midshipmen. He rotated defenses on almost every play and wound up using 3-4, 4-3, 6-1, 5-2, 5-3 and 4-4 schemes. The Midshipmen also blitzed and stunted on many plays. Air Force won, 19-14, but was held to a season-low 270 yards of total offense.
Air Force (3-1) and Navy (2-2) renew their rivalry tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game is sold out.
The meeting is the first since Fisher DeBerry retired as Air Force coach last December after 23 seasons. But Air Force's new coaches do not need any catch-up time to learn about the rivalry. Eight members of the staff, including Calhoun and DeRuyter, played at Air Force. Their combined record against the Midshipmen as players was 28-4.
DeRuyter joked that he had some explaining to do to his classmates when he took the job at Navy in 1999.
"You find out pretty quickly who your friends are" when you are an Air Force grad coaching at Navy, he said. "They finally let me rejoin my class when I came back here."
But DeRuyter believes there are more similarities than differences between the players on both teams.
"Navy's got the same kids we've got," he said. "They buy into what you're saying, they have character and they're never going to give up."
