Air Force Beats UConn 35-26 as Kemper Hodges Runs for 200 Yards, Four Touchdowns

Air Force threw the ball three times on Saturday and never completed a pass. It did not matter even a little. The Falcons ran it 74 times for 366 yards, held the ball for 41 minutes and 49 seconds, and leaned on senior fullback and quarterback Kemper Hodges for 200 rushing yards and four touchdowns in a 35-26 win over UConn at Falcon Stadium on Halloween afternoon.

The win moved Air Force to 6-2 and made the Falcons bowl eligible with a month of the regular season still to play. UConn fell to 4-4 and left Colorado Springs with a stat sheet that looked competitive and a game that never really felt like one. The Huskies outgained Air Force 368 to 359, did not turn the ball over, and still lost by nine, because they spent most of the afternoon standing on the sideline watching the clock melt.

This was the second meeting between the programs and UConn's first trip to the Academy. The Huskies won the first one 26-16 in East Hartford last November. The rematch belonged to a team that had every reason to look shaky at quarterback and simply decided the position did not need to throw.

Air Force Goes Back to the Fullback

The Falcons arrived at this game thin under center. The Denver Gazette reported during the week that Air Force had lost its top options to injury, with one starter out for the season with a knee injury suffered against Navy and another sidelined by turf toe from the loss at Wyoming. The same reporting noted that Air Force had used nine different starting quarterbacks across its last 34 games. Freshman Howard Fisher IV was expected to take on a big role, with Hodges, listed as a senior fullback and quarterback, also in the plan.

It turned into Hodges' day almost immediately. He carried on the opening possession, a 10-play, 55-yard march, and finished it with a 7-yard touchdown run at the 8:43 mark of the first quarter. Late in the period he went straight up the middle for 62 yards and a second score, and Air Force led 14-0 after one quarter. Fisher's afternoon was quieter: two incomplete passes and minus-3 yards on three carries.

UConn found its footing in the second quarter. Quarterback Kalieb Osborne moved the Huskies 90 yards in 10 plays, helped along by an Air Force personal foul, and running back Trey Cornist punched it in from a yard out. Hodges answered with an 11-play, 77-yard drive that ended on his 3-yard touchdown run, and Osborne answered right back, hitting Ryder Treadway for a 2-yard score with 1:56 left in the half. Air Force went to the locker room up 21-14.

The Third Quarter Squeeze

The third quarter is where Air Force did what Air Force does. The Falcons opened with a 16-play, 81-yard drive that ate 9:40 of clock and ended with Gage LaDue scoring from 4 yards out. That is most of a quarter on one possession, and it pushed the lead to 28-14.

UConn needed exactly two plays to respond. Osborne found tight end Alex Godavitarne for a 55-yard touchdown, the longest play of the day for the Huskies, though the extra point was missed and the gap stayed at 28-20. Early in the fourth quarter, running back Kenji Christian broke loose for a 46-yard touchdown run to cap a four-play, 87-yard drive, and suddenly it was 28-26 with 14:46 to play. UConn went for two to tie it. The try failed.

That missed extra point and failed conversion loomed large for the next 11 minutes, because UConn would not see the ball again for nearly that long.

Turning Point: The 19-Play Drive

Down two with almost a full quarter left, Air Force took the kickoff and did not give the ball back until there were 3:09 on the clock. The drive went 19 plays and 75 yards and burned 11:37, a slow, grinding march of handoffs and keepers that finished with Hodges plowing in from a yard out to make it 35-26.

It is hard to overstate how brutal that sequence is for an opponent. UConn's offense had scored on back-to-back possessions, both of them in four plays or fewer. None of that mattered from the bench. By the time Osborne got the ball back, the Huskies needed two scores in a little over three minutes. UConn could not get that next possession going, and Air Force ran out the clock from there.

Air Force went 5 for 6 on fourth down and 7 for 16 on third down. UConn went 0 for 2 on fourth down and 4 for 10 on third down. The Falcons also picked up 24 first downs to UConn's 18. On a day without a completion, Air Force simply kept moving the chains on the ground, and that was enough.

By the Numbers

Hodges finished with 35 carries for 200 yards and four touchdowns, a workload more associated with a feature back than a quarterback. Owen Allen added steady yardage as the second option in the rotation, LaDue scored once, and Rocco Conti and Keegan Sack chipped in quick gains.

For UConn, Osborne completed 17 of 33 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Godavitarne's lone catch went for 55 yards and a score. Ky Wilson caught three passes for 44 yards, Shamar Porter had two for 43, and Treadway led the team with four receptions for 36 yards and the touchdown. Christian carried only five times but made them count, with 68 yards and the long touchdown run. Cornist added a short touchdown, and Cyncir Bowers, who powered UConn's rivalry win over UMass a week ago, did not get much room on four carries.

Linebacker John Lista was everywhere for the Huskies with 15 tackles, and linebacker Hayden Pegg had a sack. Air Force defensive back Max Mustell led the Falcons with eight tackles.

Neither team committed a turnover. UConn was flagged five times for 46 yards and Air Force three times for 35. The time of possession split, 41:49 to 18:06, tells the real story.

What It Means

For Air Force, this is a big bounce-back after the 28-14 loss at Wyoming a week ago, a game in which Wyoming forced three fumbles. This time they took care of the ball and controlled the game with the one thing nobody could take from them, a power run game that refuses to get bored. It is also the second time this season the Falcons won without completing a pass, following a 28-7 victory at Northern Illinois.

Reaching six wins at the end of October keeps Air Force in a good place. The Falcons are 3-2 in the Mountain West, behind New Mexico and Wyoming in the race at the top, and the next stop is a trip to Army on Nov. 7. Air Force already beat Navy 14-9 this season, so the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is in play at West Point.

For UConn, a .500 record with four games left puts the Huskies in a tight spot as an FBS independent. They did plenty right on Saturday. They hit explosive plays, they protected the ball, and Osborne gave them a chance into the fourth quarter. The defense held up for long stretches and Lista was relentless. But an offense that needs 18 minutes of possession to score 26 points cannot afford a missed kick and a failed two-point try against a team that can take 11 minutes off the clock on one drive.

The Takeaway

The scoreboard says nine points. The real margin was the clock. Air Force turned a 28-26 game into a must-score situation for UConn without ever throwing the ball, and Hodges was the hammer on almost every important snap. In a season in which the Falcons keep running out of quarterbacks, they found one who barely needed to be a quarterback at all. Army will know what is coming next week. Knowing and stopping it are different problems.

Sources: ESPN box score (opens in a new tab), ESPN play-by-play and team stats, Denver Gazette, Air Force Athletics. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: UConn Athletics.