Owen Allen caved to a brand of peer pressure unique to, and completely welcomed by, Air Force.

A week before the fullback’s list of job preferences was due, he had no intention of pursuing flying as a career. In fact, he said, “I was pretty against it.”

Among his group of friends on the football team who had their eyes on the skies, he was alone in that sentiment.

When his list was submitted, the rising senior with 1,085 career rushing yards had pilot listed No. 1.

“If we’re all doing it,” Allen said, “screw it, let’s go fly.”

Since adopting the triple option nearly 50 years ago, Air Force football has leaned into what makes it different from everyone else. Now, that difference can be found in a camaraderie and continuity uncommon in this era of college football.

Only Air Force and Texas Tech have yet to lose a player who took a snap last season to the transfer portal. Sure, it helps that the Falcons can’t lose a junior as their commitment has already kicked in, but sophomores and freshmen are free to leave. Considering 14 underclassmen made starts on offense or defense in 2025, there were plenty who could have explored that route.

They all stayed.

There are plenty of storylines to track from Air Force’s recently completed spring football session. Quarterback Liam Szarka was back throwing after breaking a bone in his right forearm in November. The skill positions are seeking new playmakers with graduation set to take five of last season’s top seven rushers and six of the top seven receivers. The replacements will play behind an offensive line that will average well over 300 pounds. A group of veteran linebackers is setting the tone under the return of defensive coordinator Steve Russ, while a slew of youngsters with game experience compete for spots in the secondary. Meanwhile, a wave of older but largely inexperienced players are in line to take over in the defensive front.

Those football-centric topics are versions of familiar refrains seen this time of year.

It’s the collective all-in mentality and intrinsic motivation at the full roster level that stands out as different, particularly against the backdrop of the conflict in Iraq that has added real, observable stakes to the larger mission.

“Honestly seeing it happen in real life probably brings a little bit more want to do it,” said tight end Simon Kibbee, whose initial reaction to a service academy was “No way,” but who is now also pursuing a pilot slot. “It’s an honor serving our country and honestly that’s something I really look forward to doing.

“I think it just says that we’re a bunch of fighters. We aren’t scared of much. We’re tough. We’re a brotherhood.”

***

Isaac Hubert’s face was smeared with blood as he entered the locker room as the heavyweight champion at Air Force’s Wing Open.

Hubert had defeated Thomas Kensinger when the referee stopped the fight in the third round.

“The most electric 15 minutes I’ve experienced at an academy sporting event,” said one Air Force assistant, whose experience in that realm stretches back nearly 30 years.

“It was sheer will,” football coach Troy Calhoun said.

The full football team was there to witness and cheer him on at Clune Arena, then celebrated his victory like it was a football game. The same song was sung. Water was sprayed.

“It was awesome. It was honestly probably the coolest sporting event I’ve ever been to,” offensive lineman Luke Vonderhaar said. “The (football team) basically filled up two sections at Clune Arena. … Electric atmosphere. Super cool.”

Hubert describes the football team culture like high school in that you know everybody and have grown with your teammates and you lose them only to graduation. This closeness not only enhanced the celebration, but Hubert said it spurred him to victory at a point when his bout seemed to be slipping away from him.

“I was super tired,” Hubert said. “But my corner was facing the football team and I saw them going berserk and bringing the energy, and that refueled me and allowed me to keep going.”

Does this mean anything for the football team? Maybe not. But is this possible at other programs who spent their spring getting to know each other? Probably not. Colorado State, for example, brought in more than 60 newcomers this offseason for new coach Jim Mora’s first season. That kind of mass turnover is not out of the ordinary. And it can work. New Mexico had 30 newcomers on its two-deep depth chart last season in coach Jason Eck’s inaugural season and had its best season in a decade, topping newcomer-less Air Force 20-3 at Falcon Stadium.

Vonderhaar said the vibe of togetherness felt in that February boxing match was indicative of the advantage Air Force’s continuity will show in the fall.

“We’re going to win a lot of games this year and it’s because of the guys who stay and keep playing for each other,” he said.

***

If there were a specific message that could stop an athlete from pursuing greener pastures, every coach would have the script memorized.

Each situation is different, and who can be faulted for looking out for what they perceive as their best interest?

“It’s always easy to say it’s too hard, I’m going to go somewhere else,” said Calhoun, an Air Force grad entering his 20th season at the helm of the program. “And in the short term it is certainly easier to do that, to leave.”

Transfers have bitten Air Force across many sports. The men’s basketball team featured no seniors this year as key players have departed en masse over the past five years. The baseball team won its first Mountain West regular-season title in 2024, then saw its record flip from 18-12 to 12-18 in 2025 largely because the most talented classes in program history departed. But losing five transfers didn’t help. Also, there was Paul Skenes, who was initially part of that 2024 class and is now a Cy Young Award winner.

A team that has largely avoided the portal? Take a look at the upperclassmen-led women’s basketball team that just made a run to the Mountain West championship game and earned a third postseason bid in three years.

The football team had largely been immune to losing impact players to the portal, but that changed following the 2024 season when defensive end David Santiago and nickel Lincoln Tuioti-Mariner jumped ship. The impact reverberated during a 1-5 start to the season.

Was there a difference in what the coaches did in the past two offseasons, losing the defensive pair one year and yet retaining a standout like sophomore quarterback Liam Szarka the next?

“In terms of the retention piece,” Calhoun said, “you’ve got to embrace challenges … the rigors and just positive pride in the will and the toughness that you have as a human being.

“I think the other part is you go back to the candor in recruiting. We have no secrets in recruiting. You’re going to get a great haircut, you’re going to go through basic training, after you graduate you are going to serve.”

No members of the sophomore class were made available to media during spring practice, so their specific testimonials as to their decision-making were not heard. Safety Roger Jones Jr. entered the portal but quickly pulled his name. It’s possible any lucrative offers simply weren’t there. And perhaps Tuioti-Mariner served as a cautionary tale. He went from being arguably Air Force’s best defender in the second half of 2024 to posting just 17 tackles in 10 games for FCS Southern Utah in 2025.

Or maybe there’s just something that can’t be measured.

“I think it just speaks to the locker room and the guys on this team,” linebacker Blake Fletcher said. “I think everyone knows we’ve got a lot to play for and we’ve got a pretty high ceiling here. I think everyone’s excited and no one wants to miss out on that.

“It’s just a different feel than anything we felt in the past. It’s a different vibe, different chemistry. Guys are fully bought in.”

***

Allen knows that signing up for pilot training comes with a decadelong service commitment.

“Actually, it’s more like 12,” he offered as a correction. “At that point you might as well do 20.”

So, while players at many FBS programs are assessing their situation on a year-to-year basis, Allen and Co. are already thinking about the timeline required to collect full retirement pay.

“I think that’s a great segue into our time after the academy to keep the Bolt Brotherhood alive and well,” Allen said. “And just to keep that team dynamic going that we all love so much.”

So maybe it’s not a surprise that no one left. Or that when Calhoun gathered the team following the 15th and final offseason practice he told them it was “hands down the best spring we’ve ever had.”

Sports have long been about finding a unique advantage. For Air Force, that remains a version of the triple option that can bleed the clock, reduce time on the field for the defense and provide a challenge to opponents that they won’t encounter any other week in the season.

Now, without the luxuries of incoming transfers and NIL money shut off, Air Force will try to find its niche — at least among 10 of its opponents, Army and Navy notwithstanding — in its culture. Can cohesion, familiarity and a sense of larger purpose counteract individual talent? Can this sum be greater than all those imported parts?

Calhoun doesn’t need football results to know the value of buy-in at the academy.

In recent weeks he’s heard testimonials from past players, many of whom were like Allen and Vonderhaar in their initial reluctance to fly.

“Now, eight years later, 12 years later, what they’re doing for freedom is absolutely astounding,” Calhoun said. “And they’ve chosen that path. They weren’t drafted. They weren’t conscripts.

“The other part is how many of them tell you how important football was in the leadership experience and being able to think immediately on your feet and how relevant it is to what they’re doing now in another area of the globe.”

Army and Navy aside, no other programs are likely having this discussion. And in a sport where a difference can be an advantage, this is a pretty solid one to explore to its fullest.

“There’s just a culture here,” Kibbee said, “that I think sails above a lot of other ones.”