Shortly after Air Force’s first official preseason practice Monday morning, Tim Jefferson stretched and joked with some teammates.

The junior quarterback wore a big, happy smile and looked at peace ­– as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Compared to last year, he doesn’t.

After winning Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 2008, Jefferson began last season with not only the burden of increased expectations but the cloud of academic uncertainty. He sat out most of spring practices to focus on his grades, which had slipped.

Then, in the second quarter of the Falcons’ opener, he tore the meniscus in his right knee. That and an ankle injury he suffered in the third week of the season plagued him throughout the 2009 campaign – one that saw him lose his starting role briefly to classmate Connor Dietz.

But while Dietz remains a dogged competitor for the starting spot, Jefferson enters his third season without the other distractions that cluttered his mind last season.

“I’m completely healthy and my grades are in order, and I’m not really worried about anything except what’s going on with the football part of things,” he said. “So I’m not really worried about anything. And I do pretty much have a clear head, and I think it is going to help me in the fall.”

Jefferson said he hopes to “raise my game to that next step to become a more complete player.” That includes taking on a bigger leadership role. Jefferson said he typically has been “more of a lead-by-example person.” But this year – even though it doesn’t come naturally, he said – Jefferson is trying to be more of a vocal leader.

“I’m consciously telling myself, ‘Go say something to this person,’” he said.

It’s already noticeable.

“He takes more command of the play-calling,” Falcons junior tailback Asher Clark said. “He’ll get people in the right positions.”

“You can just tell there’s a little more comfort there,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “Just the command of everything that goes on. He’s been around a little bit.”

Briefly usurped by Dietz in October, Jefferson was reinstated as the Falcons’ starter after Dietz broke his hand at Utah. Back in the starting lineup for the final five games of the season, Jefferson appeared to eliminate any notion of a quarterback controversy.

In four of the games, not including the regular-season finale at BYU, when he left early in the second quarter with a rib injury, Jefferson completed 63 percent of his passes for 529 yards and three touchdowns. Those aren’t staggering numbers for most college signal-callers, but they’re outstanding for the quarterback of Air Force’s run-heavy offense.

This season, Jefferson hopes to continue to throw the ball like he did in those games but also run like he did as a freshman. He averaged 2.9 yards rushing last season, down nearly a full yard per carry from his freshman year.

“I do feel like I want to be that more complete package,” he said. “So I’ve been working on my acceleration, my top-end speed and getting my agility and my cutting down so I can make somebody miss in the open field. I kind of feel like last year I wasn’t able to do that too much because I was too worried about hurting my knee again or hurting my ankle or something like that. I’m just like, clear head, no injuries, not worrying about it, just go out there and play.”

Quarterback Tim Jefferson (right) fakes a handoff to running back Nathan Walker on Monday during Air Force’s first official preseason practice. Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE

MARK REIS