Utah Utes football: Recent games at Air Force have been classic battles

There was a time, a couple of decades ago, when a visit to the Air Force Academy was the worst trip possible for the Utah football team. The Falcons would roll over the defenseless Utes with their triple option attack and send them scurrying back to Salt Lake with their tail between their legs.

The Utes were absolutely manhandled, dropping three consecutive games at Air Force by an average score of 46-21. They lost 37-15 in 1985, 48-27 in 1987 and 52-21 in 1990.

However, things changed in 1992 and since then, the series has been as competitive as any in America, at least in the games at the Academy.

While Utah has won four of the past six games in Colorado, those half dozen games have each been decided by a touchdown or less with most going right down to the wire. The average score of those games is 28.8 for Utah, 27.2 for Air Force.

The Utes are favored again for this year's visit, Saturday at 2 p.m. in Falcon Stadium, but once again a close game is expected with Utah favored by a touchdown.

"There's been some great games in the series with the Cadets," said Ute coach Kyle Whittingham.

He mentioned the 2006 win on Louie Sakoda's last-second field goal, the Ben Moa pass to win the triple-overtime thriller in 2003. As for the 2001 38-37 loss, he said, "The one before that we could have had the field goal ... let's not talk about that."

Whittingham knows from past experience that the Falcons will never give up.

"One thing about those guys, they're never put away," he said. 'They never roll over and die. They continue to come at you, more so than any team you'll ever play."

That's happened in the last five games at the Academy, where the Utes have lost leads, usually in the fourth quarter. Sometimes they've held on to win, in others they haven't.

Two years ago, the two teams squared off in a rare defensive battle where points were hard to come by. The Utes led 14-7 in the fourth quarter, only to see the Falcons drive for the tying score with four minutes left.

However, the Utes came back with a drive to the AFA 20 and Sakoda booted the game-winning field goal as time expired, giving the Utes a 17-14 victory.

Sakoda recalled the game earlier this week, saying, "I've had similar situations, but that was the absolute deciding factor as far as field goals. It was my first year kicking field goals, and there was a lack of confidence in my kicking."