#7: Air Force

4-8, 2-6
It's not that I'm necessarily down on Air Force, it's more that I'm up on everyone else in the conference. Calhoun is a great coach (I believe), but this is a tough task for anyone. The Academy has to replace it's only ever 4-year starter at QB in Shaun Carney. It will have to replace Mr. Do-It-All Chad Hall. That's enough to replace on offense if that were it. Jim Ollis had a few clutch performances as well, including a 80-some-odd yard TD run on 4th down against TCU to tie the game. He had several 100-yard rushing games. With that said, the Academy has a system, and they have been able to plug in players and put together decent squads through the years. The years they win 8 and 9 games though, are the years they have a great QB. With the rest of the conference (SDSU excluded-maybe Wyoming too) improved, they will struggle to score points.
Defensively they will have a bit easier of a time, as they still return 5 players, granted their best one in Fowler is gone. The MWC, excluding BYU (and perhaps Utah this year), isn't a prolific offensive conference so they'll have time to grow into the defense. Once again they have a tiny D-line, but what they lack in size they make up for in toughness and stamina.
Good wins: @Army, week 10; UNLV and SDSU?
Bad losses: @Houston, week 3 (this is a bad matchup for the Academy); CSU, week 11 (week after an emotional game against Army, week prior to BYU, watch out); Navy, week 6 (it's always bad to lose to a fellow service academy)
Potential season-changing game: Wyoming, week 2. A win here could prove that Air Force is an underestimated squad. Wyoming always comes out strong out of the gates. Wyoming has some decent LBs in Dobbs and Juergens, so they should be able to foil the triple option attack.