At the United States Air Force Academy, some things never change. Especially on the football staff.

Head coach Fisher DeBerry begins his 19th season with the Falcons this year, having guided them to 15 winning seasons since taking over in 1984. He has the third longest tenure at one school in the country.

The Air Force staff ranks fourth nationally in terms of coaching experience on the Division I-A level. The trio of DeBerry, defensive coordinator Richard Bell and offensive coordinator Chuck Peterson has a combined 86 years of coaching experience. DeBerry enters his 34th year at the Division I-A level, while Bell is in his 40th and Petersen in his 12th.

Bell has been on the Air Force staff for seven years, while Peterson has been with DeBerry 12 years. And other than the coordinators, the rest of the staff has been with DeBerry for years, including tight ends coach Dick Enga (18, plus six years at the Academy before DeBerry arrived), special teams/outside linebacker coach Tom Miller (18), defensive line coach Jappy Oliver (7), kickers coach Lt. Col. Jeff Hays (5), defensive backs coach Vic Shealy (3), receivers coach Tim Horton (3), running backs coach Dean Campbell (2), offensive line coach Ed Warinner (2).

Partly because of that veteran staff, success is expected at the Academy. DeBerry is the winningest coach in Air Force history with a 141-78-1 record. He was voted WAC Coach of the Year in 1985, ’95 and ’98 and national coach of the year in ’85. He has a 6-5 record in bowl games and a 30-6 record in Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy games. He has led the Academy to 13 of its 15 Commander-in-Chief’s trophy titles.

The Falcons were 6-6 last year after going 9-3 in 2000. The Falcons closed the 2000 season with five consecutive 30-point scoring efforts, including three games with 40 or more points. After scoring just three points in last season’s opener against third-ranked Oklahoma, the Falcons averaged 33.1 points the last 11 games. Air Force has scored 30 or more points in 12 of its last 17 games.

The Falcons also led the nation with seven blocked kicks last year and tied a school record with three blocked kicks against Tennessee Tech.

Last year, Air Force returned the fewest starters (7) of any team in Division I-A. And even with a first-year starting quarterback, four new starting offensive linemen, four new starters at linebacker and two in the secondary, the Falcons avoided a losing season.

DeBerry suspended 12 players, including five seniors and four starters, with a losing record hanging in the balance in the season finale against 7-3 Utah. The Falcons responded to the challenge and upset Utah, 38-37, to preserve a winning season.

"That’s a dead issue," DeBerry told the Denver Post. "People learn from their mistakes. It’s important that players learn that the team comes first. If this group learns that, we’ll have a very competitive team next fall."

DeBerry lost three players who decided to leave the team. Safety Sam Meinrod, a starter last fall, reserve running back Brandon Brown, and senior-to-be Andy Lueckenhoff, a backup at tight end, decided not to continue in football.

Also, junior wide receiver Brian LaBasco was suspended from the football and baseball teams in the spring. Academy officials would not discuss details of LaBasco’s suspension. Troy Garnhart of the sports information office said there is no "clear word" on whether LaBasco will miss the entire 2002 season.

The starter will be junior Chance Harridge (5-11, 180), who displayed signs of brilliance last season as a backup. He takes over for Keith Boyea, who completed 102-of-196 passes last year. Boyea threw six touchdown passes and was intercepted six times.

Harridge completed 3-of-10 passes for 48 yards against Hawaii and rushed for 85 yards on eight carries. He finished the season with 181 yards on 30 carries for a 6.0-yard average, and completed 7-of-24 passes for 119 yards.

"I have a lot of confidence in Chance," DeBerry said. "He’s demonstrated more leadership on and off the field than any young quarterback we’ve had here. I think he’ll be an outstanding option quarterback. I have a lot of confidence in all our young returning players."

Harridge ran for 35 yards on six carries in the Air Force Blue-Silver scrimmage at Falcon Stadium. He completed 2-of-11 passes for 3 yards.

"I think we had a great spring season," DeBerry said. "Today should not take away from all the positive things we did in the other 14 practices. The spring game is tough because we split up the team. In the other practices the entire units are working against each other."

Harridge started to emerge as the Falcons’ future starter in the spring before the 2000 season. He entered the drills as the No. 4 quarterback, but came out No. 2 behind Boyea.

"The quarterback job is Chance’s to lose," DeBerry told the Denver Post. "He got some good experience last fall, but I think that’s a good way to put it."

Backing up Harridge this season will be junior Travis Thurmond (5-10, 190) and sophomore Brad Baca (5-11, 180).

Harridge will have plenty of backs to work with in DeBerry’s option attack. Three-year starter Leotis Palmer (5-8, 174), a senior, and fellow running back Don Clark (6-0, 195), a senior, will get most of the carries.

Two of the Falcons’ three fullbacks return, along with sophomore Anthony Butler (5-9, 180), a sophomore.

Palmer led the Falcons in rushing last year with 516 yards on 106 carries and three touchdowns. He also caught nine passes for 75 yards. Palmer rushed for 71 yards on 12 carries at Hawaii, and added 65 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries against Navy. He also completed 2-of-5 passes for 52 yards.

In the spring game, Palmer led the Silver with 97 yards on 11 carries. He also had three punt returns for 57 yards and earned his third lunch pail, which goes to the hardest worker each practice.

"He probably had as good a spring as anybody," DeBerry told The Gazette.

Clark stepped in for Tom Heier (5-9, 180) when he went down with a knee injury last season and started the last five games. Heier, a senior, should return in the fall, but did not see much action in the fall.

Last season, Clark rushed for 78 yards on 21 carries and caught six passes for 64 yards. Heier’s knee injury was his second. He rushed for 21 yards on 12 carries and scored one touchdown last year. He also caught seven passes for 77 yards.

Butler and sophomore Darnell Stephens (6-1, 185) give the Falcons an outstanding young tandem at halfback.

"We have a fine group of halfbacks," DeBerry said. "Darnell and Anthony give us two of the finest halfbacks we’ve had since I’ve been the head coach."

The fullbacks will be juniors Todd Leslie ( 5-10, 213) and Dan Shaffer (5-11, 230).

Two of the top four receivers return in senior Ricky Amezaga (5-11, 180) and junior Anthony Park (5-11, 170). Also in the mix will be senior Bryan Blew (5-11, 190), who is moving over from quarterback.

LaBasco, who was suspended in April, finished second on the team in receiving last year with 25 catches for 361 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 14.4 yards per catch and 32.8 yards per game, and caught at least one pass in all 11 games. He played second base on the baseball team.

"When I found out [about LaBasco’s suspension] I was almost in tears," Amezaga told the Denver Post. "We’ve been competing together since prep school. A lot of my ability came from competing against him."

Amezaga, who replaced LaBasco at the top of the depth chart, had five catches for 51 yards last year with his best performance (three catches for 26 yards) coming against Oklahoma. Park had three receptions for 11 yards and scored his first career touchdown on a 27-yard run against Utah.

Blew played in seven games as a backup quarterback last year. He rushed for 42 yards on 15 carries and completed 1-of-7 passes for 3 yards.

Gone from last year is tight end Kevin Runyan. The starter will be junior Adam Strecker (6-6, 235) and his backup will be junior Richard Diehl (6-5, 267). Runyan caught one pass for 9 yards last year and is considered a talented blocker.

Four starters must be replaced on the offensive line, where only junior right guard Brett Huyser (6-4, 295) returns. He started five games last year, including the final four. He recorded 97 knockdown blocks, including a career high 20 against Colorado State.

"I’d like to have a few more guys back on the offensive line," DeBerry said. "But I like our attitude and the way Ed [Warinner, offensive line coach] brought them around last year is encouraging. We have some athleticism there."

The other starters are expected to be junior Blane Neufeld (6-5, 275) at left tackle, junior Jesse Underbakke (6-3, 280) at left guard, senior Wayne Southam (6-2, 245) at center and senior Scott Meyer (6-3, 275) at right tackle.

Neufeld played eight games as a reserve last year and recorded 38 knockdown blocks. Southam returns after a two-year church mission and Meyer played in seven games last year as a reserve.

Junior Joey Ashcroft (6-0, 210) was the team’s kickoff specialist last year. He kicked off 67 times and had 32 touchbacks, with the opponent’s average start after his kickoffs the 23.

"We need to find a kicker," DeBerry said. "I’m encouraged to have Joey Ashcroft back and we’ll see if he can handle the additional duty this season."

In the spring game, the Silver team missed four field goals, two by Ashcroft.

"Our place-kicking in the spring game was poor, but we’ll get it worked out," DeBerry said. "We’ve given all our kickers a chance this spring instead of working with one or two, so that’s a factor."

One of DeBerry’s biggest concerns is in the defensive front, where three starters must be replaced, all of whom started for two-plus years.

"It’s going to be hard to replace Zach Johnson, Justin Pendry and Dan Probert," DeBerry said. "It’s a lot like our offensive line, we have some guys that have played and they will have to step up now."

The starters at the tackles will be seniors Eric Thompson (6-2, 265) and Jon Hicks (6-1, 260). Thompson played in eight games as a backup defensive lineman last year and started at nose guard against Tennessee Tech. He made 10 tackles and had one pass breakup. Hicks played five games at backup nose guard.

The starter at nose will be junior Nicholas Taylor (6-4, 265), who played in six games last year as a backup. He forced one fumble.

The key backups in the line will be junior Charles Bueker (6-4, 255), sophomore Rick Fry (6-3, 265) and junior Todd Jolly (6-3, 240).

The strength of the multiple defense will be at linebacker, where sophomore Anthony Schlegel (6-2, 245), junior Monty Coleman (6-2, 225) and senior Matt McCraney (6-2, 230) return.

"Our linebackers are potentially the best we’ve ever had here," DeBerry said. "Besides the starters, we had a lot of guys get valuable playing experience a year ago."

Schlegel was a third-team freshman All-American a year ago. He will anchor the inside, where he averaged nine tackles per game last year as a starter. He had 11 tackles in the final game against Utah, including a game-saving stop on the 2-yard line on the game’s last play. In the spring game, Schlegel led the Blue with 10 tackles.

Coleman started seven games at outside linebacker last year. He made 41 tackles, including a career-high 12 against Army. McCraney received a medical red-shirt after undergoing knee surgery during the 2000 season. He left school to rehab the injury and returned in January.

The other starter will be junior Marchello Graddy (6-1, 236), who played in nine games as a backup last year. He made his first career start in the finale against Utah and recorded a career-high nine tackles.

Junior Trevor Hightower (5-11, 225) was not on the two-deep pre-spring depth chart, but was the No. 1 draft pick for the Blue-Silver game. He was a standout and tied Palmer with three lunch pails, which go to the hardest worker each practice.

The Air Force backfield is talented and deep with seniors Paul Mayo (5-10, 180) and Wes Crawley (6-0, 190) back at the corners, along with junior safety Larry Duncan (5-10, 205).

Also expected to make a full recovery from last season is junior safety Jeff Overstreet (5-10, 180), who DeBerry believes could be considered with the all-time Air Force greats at the position. Overstreet was en route to an all-conference year before an injury in the fifth game of the season sidelined him. He was second in the MWC with 12 tackles per game through the first four games.

Sophomore Mark Marsh (5-11, 205) is listed as the starter at safety. Other defensive backs who should compete for playing time are sophomore Charles Akinyemi (5-8, 175), junior Adam Larson (6-2, 190), and senior Joel Buelow (6-1, 195).

Senior John Welsh (6-3, 195) returns as the punter after being a part-time starter last season. Sophomore Robert Barkers (6-3, 185) will provide the competition.

"The key to our spring drills is to solidify some positions and find out who will compete when they’re tired, bruised and don’t have a lot to look forward to," DeBerry said. "Our goal is to get the top 22 players on the field and hopefully this spring will help us to that. I’m also very interested to see our leadership emerge."

Welsh averaged 45.2 yards on nine punts in the spring game. His longest was 69 yards.

Halfback Palmer was among the league leaders in punt and kickoff returns last season. He returned 22 punts for 198 yards and had a 19.5 average on 12 kickoff returns.

The Falcons don’t release the names of their recruits until mid-summer when appointments to the Air Force Academy are officially made.

Freshmen rarely play at Air Force and most end up on the junior varsity team. There is no red-shirting at Air Force.

"I'm very pleased with our recruiting class," DeBerry said. "I think we have several players that can come in and help us right away. They have shown a commitment to the Academy and to their nation."

Air Force will play seven games at home this season, including Big Ten power Northwestern, Notre Dame, service rival Navy and conference rivals Colorado State, Brigham Young, New Mexico and San Diego State.

The Falcons’ road schedule begins with non-conference Pac-10 opponent California and Army. The Falcons also travel to Utah, Wyoming and UNLV.

The Falcons appear to have more depth than in recent years and possibly more talent. Returning are 10 starters -- three on offense and seven on defense -- along with several more players with significant playing experience.

The offense must replace four starters on the offensive line again, a quarterback and a fullback. The defense will be looking for new starters -- three in the line, one linebacker and one safety. Also gone is Walters, the place-kicker.

The Air Force offense is always tough for teams to defense. A switch to more speed on defense looked good in the spring, but it will still be difficult for the smaller linemen to defend against teams with large linemen and solid passing attacks. The defensive backs must player better this year after the Falcons gave up 386 points last season. The return of Overstreet at safety should help.