Greetings from Falcon Stadium

It’s 4:30 p.m., and I’m watching a handful of TCU and Air Force players warm up on the field below me. The stadium has yet to fill up.

The weather, right now, is gorgeous. About 65-70 degrees, not much breeze. But the temperature should dip quickly. It’s supposed to get down to 48 by the end of the night.

While we’re waiting for kickoff, here’s an interesting point brought up by a reader of the blog: Senior Chad Hall, through two games at Z receiver, is averaging 70 combined yards rushing and receiving (down from 75 a year ago when he was at tailback).

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun moved Hall to Z receiver in the spring to help get him the ball in the open field more. Hall has looked really good running the ball on reverses and running after he makes catches.

And though his rushing/receiving yards are down a bit, it must be noted that Hall has added returning punts and kicks to his list of duties (he did neither last year). If you factor in his return yards, he’s picking up an average of 134.5 all-purpose yards per game, fourth-best in the conference.

Calhoun was asked Tuesday if Hall is getting enough “touches.” Here’s what Calhoun said:

“I think you’re always going to go back and look and say, ‘How can we get him more?’ And yet it’s not something you can probably force either. There’s the right balance in there, and every Sunday you come back in, you always look back and say, ‘You know what? Here are three or four other ways we could have gotten it to him. Let’s make sure we carry some of those over into a given week.’ And yet I also think he’s most effective when he’s in that 14, 15 number. In that area. That’s kickoff returns, that’s punt returns, that’s receptions. I think you can get to a point, too, where maybe we’ve got to pick our spots where he’s out of there so the times that he does handle it he’s got all the TNT in him.”