Six members of the Air Force Falcons football team have been named to the National Football Foundation (NFF) Colorado Chapter All-Colorado team, according to an announcement from the organization. Senior offensive lineman Costen Cooley received first-team honors, while senior receiver Cade Harris, senior punter Luke Freer, senior nose guard Payton Zdroik, junior inside linebacker Blake Fletcher, and sophomore safety Roger Jones, Jr. were selected for the second team.
Cooley led an offensive line that contributed to Air Force finishing third nationally in rushing yards per game with an average of 261.4. This marks the 12th consecutive year that the program has ranked in the top ten for rushing. The Falcons also led all teams in yards per completion at 17.96 and scored over 30 points in each of their first six games for the first time since 1998. Additionally, they finished fourth in time of possession with an average of 33 minutes and 52 seconds per game. Cooley was previously recognized as a first-team All-Mountain West selection.
Harris was Air Force’s leading receiver this season with 35 catches for 584 yards and two touchdowns—the most receptions by a Falcon since Jalen Robinette’s 35 in 2016 and the most receiving yards since Brandon Lewis recorded 600 in 2021. Harris also contributed on the ground with 321 rushing yards and four touchdowns, leading the team with a total of 1,065 all-purpose yards.
Freer averaged 44.5 yards per punt with a long kick of 60 yards. He placed eleven punts inside the opponent’s twenty-yard line and had eight punts exceeding fifty yards. Although he did not have enough attempts to qualify for national rankings, Freer was a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award.
Zdroik registered thirty-six tackles this season, including six tackles for loss totaling twenty-four yards. He led both his team and ranked among conference leaders with nine quarterback hurries and earned second-team All-Mountain West recognition.
Fletcher topped Air Force’s tackle chart with one hundred eight stops—the highest by any Falcon since Jordan Pierce’s one hundred seventeen tackles in 2014—and is one of only three players on the team to record more than one hundred tackles in a season over the past decade. He led his team in tackles during seven games this year and averaged nine per game, ranking third within the Mountain West Conference and twenty-first nationally.
Jones, Jr., finished second on his team with seventy-six tackles—thirty-nine unassisted—and set a career high with thirteen stops against Navy. He also recorded ten tackles along with an interception against Wyoming—a performance that earned him conference defensive player of the week honors.
Air Force concluded its season with a record of four wins and eight losses overall (3-5 Mountain West), placing eighth in its conference standings. The Falcons secured victories in three out of their final six games after starting out at one win and five losses; notable wins included those against Wyoming, San Jose State, and Colorado State. In their last game of the season—a forty-two to twenty-one win over Colorado State—Air Force claimed the Ram-Falcon Trophy for the eighth time over ten years.
