The finish line for Air Force football players remains at the same fixed point as always, but in relation to the rest of college football it is as if players are being plucked just as they’re hitting the final straightaway.

The team will celebrate 32 seniors in their final home game vs. New Mexico at 5 p.m. Saturday at Falcon Stadium. Many are undoubtedly ready to go. After all, the academy is, by design, a challenging place. But some are being pushed to the exit ramp just as they’ve accelerated to the speed of the surrounding traffic.

“I think every guy feels like they have more to give,” said senior Levi Brown, who moved from safety to cornerback this year and has been instrumental in the defensive turnaround in recent weeks after recovering from an injury. “I feel like this year, especially at corner, I’m picking it up a little bit more. It would be fun to have an extra year, but at the same time I feel at peace with what I’ve done so far and what I’ve been able to contribute.”

Brown will enter the Space Force following graduation along with teammates and friends Kaden Cloud and Tre Roberson.

Some seniors will take different paths.

Bruin Fleischmann, and likely others, will hit the transfer portal and attempt to play next year as graduate transfers, following the path of recent players like Isaiah Sanders (Stanford), Charlie Scott (Alabama) and Caleb Rillos (Florida). It’s not like the tight end doesn’t want to play for Air Force any longer. But he can’t. The academy’s structure firmly remains eight semesters and out. College football’s eligibility and transfer rules have changed, permitting more and more players to remain in the game through a fifth, six, sometimes seventh year.

For Air Force players to tap into those extra years they have to earn the right by qualifying for a graduate school spot and then jumping clearing many hurdles of making it work and aligning with a program seeking their services.

The Falcons, as a result of staying largely the same, have grown younger by comparison.

“Five years ago, the guys that were playing were 19, 20, 21,” coach Troy Calhoun said of the competition. “Now, so often the guys who are playing are 22, 23 maybe even 24 years old.

“A lot of times what happens here is about the middle of a guys’ third year … the light comes on,” Calhoun added, noting exceptions like Asher Clark, Weston Steelhammer and Liam Szarka – some of the program’s standout sophomores of past and present. “Their body is a little closer to where it needs to be to compete against those bigger, older bodies. The confidence and just the reps at that point. It’s kind of like playing the piano, hitting a baseball, whatever it may be.”

Calhoun said in the past, the bodies the team would see for most of the season were relatively similar. Then there would be a game against BYU, where players were often older as the result of church missions, and the look was different.

“Now,” Calhoun said. “A lot of teams look like BYU.”

But not Air Force. The finish line is what it is. Ready or not, off they go.

That leaves Calhoun, not one to spend much time worrying about what he can’t control, to give thought to what might have been for players like Brown.

“You think, gollee, man, if he was playing next year he would have a chance to be an all-conference football player,” Calhoun said.

Calhoun, an Air Force graduate, hasn’t lost sight of the bigger mission. Before discussing body types or eligibility or the Falcons’ place in the modern game, he emphasized the primary goal of his player throwing their hats in the air at graduation.

And the service academies are still finding a way to be successful.

Navy is 8-2. Army is above .500 at 5-4 a year after winning the American Athletic Conference. Air Force is 3-7 but suffered three losses by a field goal and averaged 10 wins in four full seasons from 2019-2023.

The Falcons work within their rules wherever possible. Two of the best players being honored on Saturday – nose guard Payton Zdroik and slot receiver Cade Harris – extended their careers through turnbacks (leaving the academy for a semester for medical reasons).

But by and large, the way of things at Air Force and their fellow academies remains as it always has, even as the environment in which they compete is drastically changing.

Some Falcons remain happy to reach the finish line, wherever it may find them.

“I’m just so grateful for this opportunity to play at Air Force,” said center Costen Cooley, who figures to be a candidate for individual postseason honors this season. “This was my dream for a long time. I’ll definitely be sad for my last game at Falcon Stadium. I’ve just made so many amazing friends and I’ve been so supported by them and my family. I’m really just grateful.”