AIR FORCE ACADEMY — With all of the buzz this fall about the Mountain West Conference's three nationally ranked teams — BYU, Utah and TCU — Air Force has flown under the proverbial radar.

As the season winds down, the Falcons are 8-2, knocking at the door of the top 25 and vying for a piece of the league championship.

Air Force, which hosts the No. 16 Cougars Saturday at Falcon Stadium, is on a roll, having won five consecutive games. A victory over BYU would command considerable attention, shake up the conference race and mark a major milestone in Troy Calhoun's rebuilding job.

Indeed, Calhoun and Air Force football have proven to be a perfect fit.

The second-year coach, and former Falcon quarterback, has breathed life into what had become a flat-lining program in the final years of Fisher DeBerry's long tenure, which concluded with three straight losing seasons.

A year ago, in his first season at the helm, Calhoun orchestrated one of the best turnarounds in college football. He inherited a 4-8 team and produced a 9-4 record and the program's first bowl bid in five years.

This season, Air Force fell to Utah, 30-23, in September, then dropped another close contest to service academy rival Navy, 33-27 — both at home. Since then, the Falcons have not lost a game.

Calhoun, who spent four seasons coaching in the NFL prior to being hired by the academy, understands the recipe for winning here.

"We don't have a guy, we don't have a guru, we don't have a superstar, we don't have a sensational all-world candidate. We're a team school," Calhoun said. "That's just us. I don't want to say that's the only way, but it probably is to give us the best opportunity to taste some success."

In his two years at the academy, Calhoun has recruited plenty of young talent. In fact, two of his best players, quarterback Tim Jefferson and running back Asher Clark, are freshmen. In Air Force's 38-17 victory over Colorado State last week, Jefferson completed 6 of 8 passes for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns while Clark ran for a career-high 136 yards on 16 carries.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall praised Calhoun for his ability to re-energize the Falcons' famed triple option attack and turn the program around.

"He's done a phenomenal job in very short amount of time," Mendenhall said. "He's really leveraging the type of young men they have with the system that they're playing."

Calhoun hired nine other Air Force graduates to his staff and the results have been remarkable.

"He's very wise in hiring former Air Force players as assistants," Mendenhall said. "They relate well to the young men they're coaching.