A coach I know well and respect very much, San Diego State’s Rocky Long, used to tell me there’s no way to stop the triple-option on a chalkboard. We’d sit in his office when he was SDSU’s defensive coordinator under Brady Hoke and he’d draw it up for me.

His Aztecs did stop the option on the field, however, last week in the Mountain West championship game when they topped Air Force. And that put the Falcons on a collision course with Cal in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, on Dec. 29.

Now, it’s Cal’s job to stop an Air Force rushing attack that was second nationally with 4,183 yards and third nationally with an average of 321.8 yards per game. To say Air Force is one-dimensional is like saying Mike Leach likes to throw the football. The Falcons have scored 57 touchdowns this year -- including one on special teams and one on defense. Of those 57, 42 have come on the ground.

This presents a sharp contrast to the way Cal finds the end zone. The Bear Raid, often mistaken for fling-it-non-stop offense, is actually quite balanced. The Bears have a 55-45 pass-rush ratio this year, relying on a steady rushing attack to keep safeties from cheating.

And safety is who the Bears will be watching. Air Force safety Weston Steelhammer (who was totally born to play safety with a name like that), leads the Falcons with 80 tackles and 10.5 for a loss. But he’s also their most versatile defender in coverage with a team-high five interceptions.

On the flip side, Cal’s front seven will be tested by 1,000-yard rusher Jacobi Owens (1,038 yards, six touchdowns) and quarterback Karson Roberts, who has rushed for nine touchdowns and thrown for nine.

There are no true, triple-option teams in the Pac-12, so it’s an offense the Bears aren’t used to seeing. In fact, going back through Cal’s schedule, the last time it faced a triple-option team was probably the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl when it topped Air Force, 42-36. (That’s not a fact, just a guess).

The good news is the Bears have lots of time to prepare, which definitely works to their advantage when seeing an exotic scheme. It’s three weeks from Tuesday, so players will have a chance to brush up on their option rules they probably haven’t thought of since high school.

This is Cal’s first bowl game of the Sonny Dykes era, which looked like it might come to an abrupt end last week after he reportedly interviewed for Missouri's vacancy and was linked to a couple of other jobs. However, the latest reports are that Cal and Dykes are working on an extension and he’ll be in Berkeley a little while longer.

Air Force is playing in its eighth bowl game in the past nine seasons with a 3-4 record in the last seven.