As the most experienced offensive lineman for Air Force, Alec Falk knows it will be up to him to impart wisdom upon his teammates.

Some of that wisdom will have nothing to do with picking up a blitz or other finer points of the position.

“Wyoming’s locker room, it’s not the most favorable spot for us,” Falk said. “I’ll definitely tell some of the guys to prepare for that. It’s not comfortable at all.

“It’ll just be stuff like that throughout the season.”

The rest, Falk knows his teammates either already know or will figure out quickly.

Technically speaking, the Falcons will feature an overhauled offensive line. Of the five projected starters on the team’s depth chart issued Monday, Falk owns 17 career starts and the other four have a combined two.

However, left tackle Brandon Nazworth, a junior, saw extensive action in last year’s season finale at Colorado State. Right tackle Luke Vonderhaar, a senior and preseason All-Mountain West selection, started a pair of games last year. Right guard TJ Tarascio has appeared in 16 games. Reserve right tackle Nathan Elwood started 10 games last year. Reserve right guard Jon Ashford appeared in 10 (starting one).

That leaves only center Rudy Varela, a 6-foot-4, 315-pound senior who has spent the past three years playing behind All-Mountain West teammates as the relative newcomer.

“I’ll say this, they are not brand new,” coach Troy Calhoun said. “They are not young, they are not inexperienced.

“The way (offensive line coach Steed Lobotzke) works these guys, the preparation that’s involved that way, and just the way they train. … We’re going to ask them to play at a high level, and they absolutely can. And they want to.”

Military backgrounds, multisport athletes

This line features an eclectic collection of backgrounds.

Three of the five projected starters have family ties to service academies. Falk followed the path of his father, Karl, to Air Force football. Vonderhaar’s father served in the military and his younger sister, Rachel, joined him at the academy. Varela leaned on advice from cousin Sayler Butters, a 2023 Army graduate and volleyball player, in navigating the recruiting process.

“She obviously wanted me to go to West Point,” Varela said. “But, I don’t know, Air Force just had something that none of the other schools did.”

Calhoun, whose older sister, Callie, was an All-American runner at Air Force, feels those with family experience can bring a broader perspective of what they will encounter at a service academy.

“Maybe you see a little longer range,” Calhoun said. “I think that’s very real, you know, to understand the structure and to respect the quality of that discipline and organization and the way, really, it helps you. It helps you while you’re at the academy, while you’re going through the experience. And probably more than anything else, there’s just a stronger belief that the system works.”

There’s a mix of athletic portfolios among them. Nazworth and Varela played lacrosse. Tarascio, a California native, placed fifth in the state as a heavyweight wrestler. Vonderhaar also wrestled, placing sixth in Iowa and played catcher, first base and outfield across eight years of baseball as a youth. Falk was a Colorado state champion in the discus for Palmer Ridge.

Varela, who wore his hair shoulder-length from sixth grade through the start of basic training, can often be found on the golf course. He’ll fire 98 … on a good day.

“I have a great time out there,” the Arizona native said. “My father and brother play golf, and that’s how we connect a lot.”

Those skill sets — Varela’s golf game notwithstanding — translate in various ways.

Nazworth once matched up against quick, 150-pound attackers in lacrosse. So when he’s protecting against a speedy defensive end, “it allows me to feel a little more calm and cool under pressure.”

Tarascio learned through wrestling to “move people against their will.” And as an offensive lineman, “that’s pretty much your job.”

“For any young lineman, I couldn’t recommend wrestling enough,” Tarascio said.

One teammate called Vonderhaar the fastest lineman on the team. Another said he was the strongest. Sure sounds like a wrestler who could also speed around the bases in the spring.

Elwood might be the most versatile of the group, owning high school letters in football, basketball, wrestling, golf and track and field.

“I love guys that play a bunch of sports,” Calhoun said, “especially offensive linemen.”

‘Hit in the teeth a few times’

How much game experience does it take for an Air Force offensive lineman to graduate beyond newbie status?

Calhoun placed the number at around 25 snaps.

Granted, that’s not the number where anyone would be expected to master the position. But that’s the point where Calhoun figures someone has been exposed enough to college football as a lineman to understand what is required to succeed.

“If a guy’s played 25-plus snaps, he’s gotten hit in the teeth a few times and realizes, ‘Holy cow, man, I’m going to have to keep raising my game,’” he said. “I just think the intensity that occurs in the weight room, the focus assignmentwise, and every single drill, even the fundamental aspect of it, they realize, ‘Nah, I’ve got to be even better and this is going to make me gain a little more edge.”

That level of experience, small though it may be, perhaps separates this line from the one Air Force featured two years ago.

The 2024 squad replaced all five starters on the line. While it was upperclassmen stepping in as the new starters, the group had, collectively, only scant game experience.

The line was a major part of the early struggles in 2024. The team started 1-7. Things then improved. Falk entered the lineup and the team closed the season by averaging 302 rushing yards during a four-game winning streak.

This squad has seen enough action to have an idea of what to expect, with Varela being the lone exception.

“I’ve only had a couple snaps in some late-game situations,” said the senior center. “But they’ve really taken me under the wing and kind of helped me, giving me tips and tricks on how to play.”

The line is also a position where Air Force doesn’t have significant age disparity with the majority of its opponents.

Elwood, Falk, Varela and Vonderhaar came from the high school graduating class of 2022. Ashford and Tarascio are one year behind them.

“That is the one spot where you look and they have a pretty stout birth certificate or a driver’s license,” Calhoun said. “You just kind of feel like, OK, those guys really, when you look at their bodies compared to the collisions that are going to occur, they’re probably going to hold up a little bit better by being older.”

The bodies are also different from those of past Air Force teams. The listed weights of the five projected starters average 299 pounds, though the weights the players have self-reported to The Gazette have generally come in around 10 pounds higher than listed.

The size, the age, the experience has equipped this line with no shortage of confidence.

“We could be the best in the country, I feel like,” Tarascio said. “We are a bunch of older guys, a lot of experience playing, playing a lot of games, a lot of good teams. We feel like we can be the best.”

‘The heartbeat of the offense’

A warning to local restaurants: On Thursday nights, the offensive linemen generally gather for a meal away from the academy.

“We really like to bond,” Nazworth said.

It’s easy to imagine the group eating, discussing the academy, eating and discussing what lies ahead of them in a football season that opens against Duquesne at 11 a.m. Saturday.

And then eating.

“We like to think of ourself as the heartbeat of the offense,” Falk said. “Not in a cocky way. We don’t get all the glory and anything like that, but our pride comes from giving those guys the chance to get all the glory and score all the touchdowns.”

Members of the line also spent time together outdoors in the summer, meeting up on a river for fly-fishing.

It’s a tight group, and one that feels the responsibility for leading the team out of a two-season funk.

They’ve all been around long enough to know what that entails, without Falk or anyone else needing to point the way.

“Honestly, talking to every single one of our linemen, we love that burden,” Nazworth said. “You know, we really feel like we have a nickname for the elite O-linemen of Air Force, the Diesel group. We really feel like we are that fuel to the fire. It’s our job to put this team on our shoulders and really just set the tone when we come out, fire off.”