Air Force's recruiting classes continue to shrink under coach Troy Calhoun. But the academy graduate believes by being more selective, the classes have gotten better.

"Every year it's smaller and smaller," he said. "But I think the quality has increased."

The Falcons previously had brought in large numbers of players because they are not bound by scholarship limits. They figured they would lose players who decided they didn't like the military lifestyle or couldn't handle the rigors of academy life.

But when Calhoun took over, he noticed that the Falcons' retention of their official-visit recruits was extremely poor. So he changed the recruiting philosophy. Air Force would do far more research up front and take fewer players—but ones who were more likely to ...More