Nov. 17, 2000

By Meri-Jo Borzilleri
The Gazette

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Matt Pommer, Air Force's feisty senior linebacker, will play the final regular-season football game of his career when the Falcons host San Diego State at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Is he sentimental? Yes. Pommer has played the game since he was a little kid. Sure, Air Force will play in a bowl game some time in December, but that'll be a largely ceremonial farewell in a foreign stadium.

Saturday Pommer's saying goodbye to Falcon Stadium, his home field for three years.

Everyone has their moment, a freeze-framed memory that 20 years from now they'll be able to conjure up when they want to remember playing college ball.

Pommer's came last week, in the snow during Air Force's wild, 44-40, win over Colorado State at Falcon Stadium. It's right out of NFL Films.

"You're standing out there at linebacker," he said, "And you look and you see the steam coming out of the lineman's mouths. Then you look and the snow's coming down in your face. The crowd's there, the TV cameras. It was really like a dream to me. It was so fun being out there."

Some can't look back. Not yet, anyway. Count quarterback Mike Thiessen, bidding for first-team all-conference honors, and tight end Chris Jessop among the unsentimental seniors.

"I haven't really thought about it much," said Jessop, who caught a surprising seven passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns while platooning with senior Andy Malin.

Thiessen's not getting all choked up about the Falcon Stadium finale - he knows the team has some additional business waiting.

"We're going to have another game after this," Thiessen said Thursday. "Besides, there are a lot of other implications (riding) on this game. We could finish second in the conference rather than fourth. We're still searching for a little respect. There's a big difference between 7-4 and 8-3."

Air Force (7-3, 4-2 MWC) needs to beat San Diego State (3-6, 3-2) for sole possession of second place in the league.

Fullback Scott Becker sees a bigger picture. Slated to start, he'll be focused on the game. But he'll also see it as one of life's great lessons that he'll be lining up in Falcon Stadium at all.

Becker is 5-foot-10, 225 pounds, like many teammates considered too small by other schools to play Division I football. They were wrong.

"In a lot of ways everyone goes through points in their career, maybe in college, maybe in high school, maybe in middle school where they get knocked around or get an injury, or maybe they're an underdog, or maybe their coach tells them they'll never play," said Becker, who has rushed for 398 yards and one touchdown on 79 carries this season.

"At some point, you get that opportunity to go out and play. And maybe you don't even realize it at the time but your career comes to an end like it is now for me...and you say 'Wow, I persevered through that.' I'm a better person today because of the game and the people I've been around."