Air Force Football: Ranking 2022’s Opposing Quarterbacks
The Falcons will face off with a unique slate of quarterbacks throughout the 2022 season.
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The option and more are on the schedule.
12. New Mexico – Miles Kendrick or Isaiah Chavez or CJ Montes
The Lobos quarterback situation wasn’t quite so dire when they faced the Falcons last year, but the passing offense eventually plummeted once Terry Wilson was lost for the season to injury and would finish by averaging only 5.3 yards per attempt, the second-worst figure among all FBS teams. Whoever wins this job in 2022 can hopefully spur them in the right direction: New Mexico has just one game against Air Force where they threw for at least 200 yards since 2007.
11. Northern Iowa – Theo Day
Day’s first year as the Panthers starting quarterback was a solid if unspectacular season. He completed 56.2% of his throws for 2,316 yards (8.3 yards per attempt) and 16 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. The team is set on revamping its style, however, so another FCS playoff bid will depend in part on how well Day improves within it.
10. Navy – Tai Lavatai
Lavatai came into the Midshipmen’s starting role early last year, but he’s got a long way to go to match the production of previous Navy quarterbacks like Keenan Reynolds and Malcolm Perry. He ran for 371 yards and seven touchdowns on a team-high 170 attempts, so he isn’t shy about shouldering a big workload, and he completed 37-of-61 pass attempts for 449 yards and five touchdowns.
9. Colorado – Brendon Lewis or JT Shrout
Shrout missed all of 2021 after suffering an injury at the start of fall camp, but he might get another crack at being QB1 after Lewis underwhelmed in his stead. In Lewis’s defense, he didn’t get a lot of help from the offense around him, which partially explains why he was only able to complete 58% of his passes for six yards per attempt, though he did have ten touchdowns and an interception rate of 1.1%.
8. Nevada – Nate Cox or Shane Illingworth
Whoever ends up replacing Carson Strong is going to have their work cut out for them, especially since he had one of his finest games as a member of the Wolf Pack last year against the Falcons. Strong threw for 340 yards and four touchdowns in the penultimate game of his Nevada career, though both Cox and Illingworth looked sharp in limited duty over the past two years.
7. Wyoming – Andrew Peasley
What can Peasley give the Cowboys this fall that Sean Chambers and Levi Williams could not in 2021? His previous two games against Air Force are something of a mixed bag: You could make a case his 2020 performance against the Falcons was the worst of his career and his 2021 performance the best.
6. San Diego State – Braxton Burmeister
Burmeister is a mobile playmaker who can make some noise with his arm and his legs, but the biggest problem in his career to date has been consistency. In games where he had at least ten pass attempts, his longest streak of games with a 60% completion rate is… three.
