The Air Force Academy is renowned for having three options, but the Hawaii football team has but one if it wants to pull off a rare victory in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday.
Coming off a disappointing, down-to-the-final-play home loss against Fresno State last week, UH resolved it’d play with an acute attention to detail for its 10 a.m. Hawaii time contest at Falcon Stadium, elevation 6,621 feet and capacity 46,000. The game will be nationally televised on FS1.
UH (3-2, 0-1 Mountain West) has two wins in eight all-time games at Air Force (1-2, 0-2), most recently in 2016. But the Rainbow Warriors are also in possession of the Kuter Trophy thanks to their 27-13 upset win in Manoa in November 2023.
All three FBS service academies — Air Force, Army and Navy — run some variation of the triple-option offense, a deceptive ground attack that can make up for deficiencies in size and athleticism.
“Everybody’s got to have gap integrity, everybody’s got to have a guy, everybody’s got to know the different aspects of what they can do and what they present,” UH coach Timmy Chang said this week. “It’s 100% a different look, so the guys getting accustomed to seeing it, watching it, doing it, kind of repping it over and over and over is key for us.”
Air Force rarely fails to generate offense out of the scheme, try as opponents might to stop it. The Falcons have posted 250 rushing yards and three touchdowns in seven straight games, a Mountain West record, including last week’s 49-37 loss to Boise State. They’ve topped 100 yards on the ground in 88 straight games, the nation’s longest active streak.
The Falcons were favored by 6.5 points as of Friday night.
Boise State didn’t stop Air Force — the Broncos just kept pace and then some, rolling up 592 total yards of offense. AFA topped 500 as well, as sophomore quarterback Liam Szarka had a career game by going 13-for-18 for 242 yards passing, plus 110 plus on the ground.
The 5-foot-8 Cade Harris is a dual threat rusher and receiver, with 153 on the ground and 323 on the catch. Air Force has passed more than is typical the last two games as it has been mindful of the clock as it has trailed; the Falcons are still No. 4 of 134 FBS teams in time of possession at 35 minutes per game.
Chang wanted his group to get used to facing the triple-option, even mentally, in a lighter-than-usual Tuesday practice. It is UH’s sixth consecutive game week.
“It’s big because it tests your discipline, to do your job day in and day out, each and every play,” said defensive lineman De’Jon Benton, UH’s leader in tackles for loss with five. “That just correlates to how you live your life. So I think that’s going to be interesting, for sure.”
The team then dialed up the intensity on Wednesday to provide a physically challenging situation to get the players wheezing, comparable to the thin air of high altitude, though Chang acknowledged there was no true way to simulate it at sea level.
“That’s where you use your mind to push past your limits,” Benton said.
Seventy-four players made the trip via charter to Colorado on Thursday. UH is 2-16 on the road in the Chang era, including 2-10 in conference play. In the only road game of the season so far, UH got hammered at Arizona, 40-6, and quarterback Micah Alejado went down with a foot injury.
Alejado resolved to be better after his three-interception performance in the 23-21 loss to Fresno, his return game after two missed weeks.
He could have something approximating a full offensive unit to work with this time as slotback Nick Cenacle (knee) could be back after going against Arizona. Wideout Jackson Harris is also closer to 100% after getting partial work against FSU.
“(Cenacle) does everything,” said receiver Pofele Ashlock, UH top option (60.6 yards per game) who has topped 100 yards only once in 2025, against Sam Houston three weeks ago. “He’s very vocal, and he just smiles all the time. When he comes back, it’ll be an amazing thing for him, and us as a unit, and especially for me.”
Falcons coach Troy Calhoun raved about the twitchiness and physicality of Dennis Thurman’s defense, which has allowed 4.54 yards per play, 32nd nationally.
“How many of those guys have been involved with college football for four years or more? This is a very difficult matchup,” Calhoun said during his weekly AFA press conference.
The 18th-year coach was particularly complimentary of UH senior safety Peter Manuma.
“It won’t take an announcement to know where he is. He is very, very good,” Calhoun said. “The open-field tackling, how good it is, how comfortable he is, whether it’s in pass coverage or playing close to the line of scrimmage. To have that ability, and he’s played a LOT of football, usually when that happens, your instincts increase, you play faster, you know really when to unload your powder.”
Air Force has two direct local ties in sophomore receiver Astin Hange, a Punahou graduate, and senior corner back Evan Rau, a Kamehameha alum.
Chang said he sees past the competition on the field any time his team goes against a service academy.
“It’s a tremendous respect game because what they do as cadets, what they stand for as an academy, it means a lot,” he said. “It means a lot to us, it means a lot to this country. Those are future leaders that are going straight in and protecting us.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
