Alex Perez succinctly described the service academy experience, even if his experience has been anything but typical.

“I understood what I was getting into,” said the sophomore nickel defensive back. “But you don’t really understand until you’re actually in it.”

Perez was “in it” from the get-go, emerging from basic training about 13 months ago and stepping into a whirlwind.

Listed No. 4 on the team’s first depth chart, he saw little action in the first half of the season. But by the end he had climbed into the starting lineup, starting five of the final six games.

There’s a reason Air Force football so rarely puts its freshmen on the field. They emerge from basic training — generally sporting a weight loss — just as practice begins. Then they start taking the full class load with courses like calculus and chemistry and adjust to the schedule, military demands and general change of lifestyle.

That’s a tough time to also make strides in football.

“Those days were definitely long, trying to balance football and school,” said Perez, who is expected to return to his starting spot this year as a sophomore. “The classes were very challenging. To get in for extra instruction with my teachers was kind of hard because I had practice, obviously.

“It kind of took some growing pains for me to get used to the whole thing, but eventually kind of around midseason I kind of got on my feet and was able to balance both worlds there.”

Coach Troy Calhoun understands this, having found his way into playing time as a freshman in 1985.

Calhoun recalls waking up on his third day at the academy and desperately wanting an out. What was he going to do, though, place a call to his mother as she worked a shift as an emergency-room nurse? Those complaints would have rung hollow compared to her daily life.

As he’s now experienced 20 years as the program’s head coach in addition to his time as a cadet, Calhoun has learned a few lessons.

He has seen that it takes a player of unique character — and not just talent — to make it while playing as a freshman or even as a sophomore. There are simply too many tests of behavior and honor thrown your way.

There’s also the issue of being a good classmate and teammate.

“As soon as you become high maintenance because you think maybe the rules don’t apply to me,” Calhoun said. “Well, there are going to be consequences.”

And then there’s the grind. Every day. On little sleep.

“Part of it is realizing in high school you could wait until the last minute to do things. Here, you will get crushed if you wait till the last minute,” Calhoun said. “The organization planning out a semester, and then being able to balance football, the intensity. You get your (butt) kicked in football here, along with everything else.”

Not only did Perez navigate it, he excelled.

His individual stats were solid, averaging 4.7 tackles in his starts with a hand in a pair of tackles for loss. The team impact was even greater, as Air Force gave up an average of 45.4 points over its first five games against FBS competition. After Perez made his first start, that number dropped to 20.7.

Perez entering the lineup wasn’t the only difference, but it’s reasonable to assume his presence had something to do with it.

He brought a few advantages in handling the task as a freshman.

First, he came from one of the nation’s top high school programs in Bishop Gorman. The Las Vegas program won a national championship — as recognized by MaxPreps, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and Fox Sports — during his junior season and took the state title all four years.

“It definitely gave me a taste of what a winning team is supposed to look like and how they establish themselves,” Perez said. “We’ve had a lot of dudes go to a lot of big schools and just the expectation every day at practice over there was everything had to be crisp to the minute details and everything. That definitely prepared me to come into the college scene and kind of step up in that realm.”

Second, Perez didn’t feel the physical impact of basic training like some do.

“Weirdly enough, coming out of basic his body didn’t really look like it had changed too much,” said linebacker Vinnie Canosa, whose own experience at basic training was dropping from 242 pounds to 225 and spending time “trying to feel like an athlete” again.

For Perez, the weight loss amounted to no more than 5 pounds.

“What he did was really special,” Canosa added. “It really was. Just everything that he did during that season for us, especially coming and being able to play like he did. It was special, man, because it doesn’t happen a lot here and it’s very difficult to do here.”

Perez also excelled academically at Bishop Gorman, graduating with a 4.0 GPA.

His college offers were from service academies and Ivy League teams to give an idea of where he stood as a student.

So, he was equipped for what Air Force threw at him. Or as much as that might be possible when considering his added football demands.

Now, he’s clear of that initial burst. Mostly. He went through survival training this summer, which requires rising sophomores to spend five days with little food in the wilderness. That occurred during the first three-week period of the summer, allowing time for recovery.

As he looks at the way the game has changed for him over the past year, he recalls a version of himself 12 months ago just trying to absorb all he experienced as best he could and keep his head above water.

That is no longer the case.

“I was just trying to get used to the speed of college football and really just trying to integrate myself into the game the best way I could,” Perez said. “I was kind of just playing. Now I’ve got a better understanding of the game, for sure.”