There is only one aspect of Air Force’s bye week timing leading up to its clash with Army on Saturday that isn’t a glowing positive for the Falcons – the visiting Black Knights will be enjoying the same advantage.

The schedules for Air Force (2-5) and Army (3-4) each had them idle this past weekend, providing a longer runway to this year’s clash.

“It’s definitely nice to have a couple weeks to get ready for this game,” Army coach Jeff Monken said on his radio show Monday. “Hopefully we’ll be going out to Colorado Springs with a healthy, prepared and ready-to-go football team.”

Each team was also off last year prior to their meeting, which Army won 20-3 at West Point, N.Y.

This year’s game will kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday inside Falcon Stadium and be broadcast on CBS.

The opening in the schedules came as Air Force had played on six consecutive Saturdays and Army on five.

Falcons coach Troy Calhoun said the extra week was valuable to work on fundamentals for his young team that started three freshmen in its victory over Wyoming on Oct. 18.

“It’s a blessing that we get that week of rest and recovery before going into a physical opponent like Army,” said Air Force fullback Owen Allen, who ran 27 times for 297 yards in the two games before the break. “Just getting my mental clarity right so I can have a clear mind and a sound body going into this game.”

Allen assumes the same feeling is felt by quarterback Liam Szarka, the sophomore whose intense workload has included an average of 26 carries over the past three games.

“Whether he’s saying it or not, I’m sure his body needed some recovery just like everybody else’s here,” Allen said. “Not just physically, but mentally, just a point in the season to reset, look at what we’ve done right, done wrong and obviously try to capitalize on our opportunities the rest of the season.”

Players said they took the time to catch up on sleep and schoolwork.

The preparation was also valuable from a scheme standpoint. Much is made of the conventional teams’ headaches in preparing for the triple-option offenses of the service academies, but some of those same issues are felt by the academies as their defenses typically face more traditional offenses.

The advantage to Air Force, Army and Navy is that their defenses spend most of spring practice facing a triple-option attack run by their own offensive teammates. However, the variances between the offenses run at the academies means it is not an exact replica from what they encounter with opponents.

The teams schedule practice periods throughout the season to brush up on their preparation for Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy games so it’s not all thrust upon them at once.

“It’s really hard to simulate what the other team does at a game speed,” Monken said. “It doesn’t matter what teams do, it’s difficult to simulate. But we try to do our best to have our guys kind of up to speed, so when we get to these weeks it’s not like, ‘Oh, we have to play a completely different sport here.’”