Coulter, who was All-American at Army and a two-time Pro Bowler with the New York Giants in the 1940s, remains the only player from a service academy ever to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Indeed, only one service academy player --- Army's Caleb Campbell in 2008 --- has been drafted in the 2000s.
I pondered this notion as I sat in front of my television set on Saturday, watching every last ounce of emotion, every last bead of sweat, every last gasp being drained from every player on the field during Air Force's overtime win at Navy.
Later in the day, we were presented with such "marquee" matchups as Alabama-Florida and Nebraska-Wisconsin, schools that have produced a combined 211 NFL picks since 2000.
As if that means anything to the advancement of mankind.
In a lot of ways, we've lost our way. We pick Heisman Trophy winners in April, post preseason Top 25 lists before the gray of winter gives way to the greening of spring and plot bowl projections based on nothing more than a host of hunches and a wagonload of hyperbole.
Fortunately, the chase for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy remains unsullied by unnecessary embellishment, unfettered by football gurus whose television gabfests unfailingly dictate pumping hot air into the following week's Game of the Decade.
Hey, ESPN, you want an Instant Classic? You want drama, triumph and tragedy? Cries of elation and tears of frustration? You want football without the warts of NCAA violations, player arrests and postseason bans? Man, you shoulda been there.
These are men (and women) who will forever put country above self, who face the prospect of walking off a football field and into a mine field, who hopefully give pause to those intent on defining LSU's pending engagement with Alabama as an "epic battle."
Air Force-Navy was as football as football gets, a chance for those otherwise occupied with our national security to briefly revel in the spirit of competition, while reminding us of the relevance of sportsmanship. Opponents for a day, the prospect of being reunited in a corner of the world where sudden death has nothing to do with overtime is far too real.
And in the event I never see a single player from Saturday's game in an NFL uniform, so be it. From where I'm sitting, I've seen all I need to know.
Extra Points
• Seven Air Force players had seven or more tackles against Navy, led by senior linebacker Brady Amack, who amassed a career-high 23. Senior defensive lineman Harry Kehs also established a career high with 15. Junior linebacker Alex Means tied a career high with 12, while senior linebacker Jordan Waiwaiole also finished with 12, a season high. Sophomore linebacker Jamil Cooks totalled 12 tackles in the contest, while senior defensive back Josh Hall and freshman defensive lineman Nick Fitzgerald each had seven.
• Boise State senior quarterback Kellen Moore, who now has 12,004 career passing yards, became the 16th player in NCAA history to pass the 12,000-yard mark during his career in Saturday's win over Nevada. Moore now ranks 16th on the NCAA's career passing yardage list after passing Byron Leftwich (Marshall, 1998-2002; 11,903). Moore also moved into eighth in NCAA history for career touchdown passes with 113. He is one of only 12 players all-time to throw 100 or more TD passes. Moore passed Colt McCoy (Texas, 2006-09; 112) on Saturday with two scoring passes.
• Colorado State has 19 sacks as a team, nine more than it had during the entire 2008 season, the last time the Rams went to a bowl game. CSU, which matched a single-game team record with nine sacks in the season-opening win at New Mexico, is on pace for 46 this season. Since the NCAA consistently began tracking the category in 1982, the school record is 44 in 1982.
*New Mexico sophomore Ben Skaer's 56-yard punt in the fourth quarter against New Mexico State on Saturday was his longest of the season. His four punts inside the Aggies' 20 were a season-high and three punts landed at the NMSU 3.
• TCU wide receiver Brandon Carter set a career-high with five receptions for 57 yards against SMU on Saturday, including his first career touchdown with an 11-yard fourth-quarter scoring reception. Carter, a true freshman who turned down Oklahoma, among others, entered the game with five catches on the season.
• Colorado State and TCU remain undefeated in MW women's volleyball. The No. 21-ranked Rams are 4-0, while TCU is 3-0 after the first two weeks. The Horned Frogs are 16-1 overall, their lone loss coming to No. 8 Texas.
• San Diego State women's volleyball coach Deitre Collins-Parker earned her 200th career win as a collegiate head coach with a 3-0 win over Wyoming on Sept. 29.
Mick McGrane has covered the Mountain West since the league's inception in 1999. He spent 12 years at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he served as the beat writer for San Diego State football and men's basketball. He currently represents the MW as a member of the Football Writers Association of America All-America Committee and is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. McGrane serves as senior writer to the Mountain West, providing readers with exclusive, in-depth information about the Conference by highlighting its 10 member institutions and contributing feature stories on student-athletes that participate in the league's 18 sponsored sports.
Mark Knudson is a Colorado State journalism school graduate and a 12-year veteran of professional baseball. During his playing career, Mark pitched for three major league teams, including the Colorado Rockies, where he was the first Colorado native to play for the hometown team. He recorded wins over three of the four legendary pitchers who make up the 4,000 strikeout club: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. His win over Ryan came for the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day in 1991.
