Air Force needs accountability, not excuses

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 1, 2006 | by MILO F. BRYANT Gazette Sports columnist

Fisher DeBerry has earned the right to name the time he retires, but the Air Force football coach has not earned the right to hold hostage a program he helped build.

It's time for ownership, and an admission that the biggest problem the Falcons have is that DeBerry refuses to admit the program has a problem.

DeBerry can start helping his program by holding everybody in it, starting with him, accountable.

The Falcons' program has been a manifestation of insanity the past few seasons. You can't continue doing the same things and expect different results.

The offense lacks imagination. The defense lacks basic tackling skills. DeBerry has lost the ability to infuse the Falcons with the controlled intensity needed to start and finish a game.

But, the biggest problem the Falcons have doesn't begin with their monotonous, predictable and too often mistake-filled play. Again, the Falcons' biggest problem is the stubborn refusal to own up to the recent past and admit to reality.

DeBerry has blamed everything from the coin flip to miscommunication for losses. He has talked ad nauseam about losing games by miniscule amounts.

"We've lost five games by a total of 12 points," DeBerry said during his weekly news conference. "We lost two games in the last two seconds of the game. Sometimes that can suck the heart and suck the strength out. Sometimes that's the way you grow the most, when times are tough and whenever you have adversity. I think this team has handled its disappointment and adversity."

If the Falcons are handling adversity, that handling isn't showing up on the field or on the scoreboard. Many of the Falcons' issues are selfinflicted. Better coaching and better understanding of that coaching prevents those wounds.

This year marks the Falcons' third consecutive losing season. Teams handling adversity that way typically get new coaches.

If DeBerry is telling his team remotely what he's telling the masses, then the Falcons haven't dealt with the adversity. They've dealt with a smoke screen.

DeBerry has become clich when asked about problems his team must address or stress. There are no problems, only positives. Air Force is sixth nationally in turnover margin, second in third-down conversions and tops the Mountain West in possession time.

Dealing with the positives is fine. But focusing on the problems and how to correct them is what returns a team to dominance.

Colorado just finished a 2-10 season in Dan Hawkins' first year as coach. There were times Hawkins gave his "growth and maturity from losing" speech. But he never provided explanations of "if this happened" or "if that happened."

There are no smoke screens in a 2-10 season. That's a bad team, a team with problems.

"F... minus," is how Hawkins graded the Buffaloes in his season- ending news conference. "I'm one of those guys where you can't put makeup over a pimple. When you're 2-10, you're 2-10. I think you face up to that, and you own up to that. I think the critical thing is knowing why you're 2-10 and how not to be 2-10, and I think that is important."

Hawkins has a book filled with 27 pages of things to fix.

That's accountability.

The Falcons need some.

But accountability can't start until DeBerry and the Falcons admit they have something to be accountable for, something they have to fix.

"I was told when I took this job that we'd like to be .500 or a little better and maybe go to a bowl game every three or four years," DeBerry said. "That's never been my standards for the program, I can assure you."

And I'm almost certain that the DeBerry of 10 or 15 years ago would not have made these comments: "We lost four games last year by a total of 10 points. That's nine games by 22 points that we have lost."

That DeBerry would've been incensed. That DeBerry would've held coaches and players accountable.

Where has that DeBerry gone?

Minutes after the Falcons' opening loss to Tennessee, DeBerry sat behind an old table in the bowels of Neyland Stadium, angry. The coach talked about the players "fighting their guts out." He also talked about the loss being "unacceptable."

Where has that DeBerry gone?

Wherever he is, he needs to return because Air Force needs a coach who doesn't continue to make excuses for a bad program.

Columnist Milo F. Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. Check out Milo's blog, The Extra Milo, at http://milobryant.blogspot.com/