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AIR FORCE ACADEMY, COLO. -- If you've been to an Air Force football game, you know that the actual game is just "part" of the overall big show. From the cadets doing pushups after every score to the Falcon mascot dropping in from the sky. And who doesn't love an F-16 or Stealth Bomber screaming overhead right before kickoff? There are several factors that go into making the show before the game perfect.
 
“Everything is scripted down to the minute. It's scripted down to the second, so time means everything to us.”
 
“You can actually feel the reverberation coming off that crowd onto you.”

Air Force football...excitement from the players to the fans to the cadets at every home game. But, game day preparations actually take place months in advance.
 
“It's all practice. From the day we get the cadets down here, it's all practice, practice, practice.”
 
Steve Hoehn is the Demonstration Coordinator for the Wings of Blue skydive team. They're the ones you see jumping into the stadium just before kickoff.
 
“The actual game, it's hyped up quite a bit because 40,000 people at a home game, 90,000 at the Rose Bowl, it is insanely, insanely crazy,” explains Hoehn.
 
These cadets practice their jumps for months ahead of time, not only dropping into Falcon Stadium, but huge college football games like the Orange Bowl and the BCS Championship game.
 
“I've jumped into this stadium a few times, but it was empty so you don’t get the same rush of the crowd going "yeahh!”
 
Jordan Loudenback is a senior on the Wings of Blue team. He's making the jump for the last home game of the season, a game kicking off at night.
 
“In a way, it's a little bit easier because it's the only place you can see. Well, everything else is dark and the most lit up place is the stadium,” says Loudenback.
 
“Everybody wants to jump. Everybody wants to make that game in front of the people,” says Hoehn.
 
The goal of the skydivers is to land right in the middle of Falcon Stadium. It may be easy to do with no one there, but what about when there's 40,000 screaming fans?
 
“We're pretty confident of, ‘hey i can land here,’ but it still gives you a little bit of nerves,” says Loudenback.
 
To make their entrance into the stadium perfect, it's all about coordination. That happens from the ground level, all the way up to the top of the press box.
 
“The drop zone control officer that allows the jump to happen has to monitor everything that's going on on the ground and relay that information up to the plane and the jumpers,” explains Hoehn.
 
All of this has to happen down to the minute on game day.
 
“Wings of Blue happens at 11 minutes on the clock. The flyover happens at one minute on the clock, that's before game time.”
 
Jess Souza is the Chief of Events Management for the athletic department.
 
“It's a lot of cooperation and a lot of coordination to put something like a football game together,” says Souza.
 
So what about those awesome flyovers?
 
“On game day, its basically execution and making sure they are overhead a minute prior to kickoff.”
 
Captain Stephen Slaughter is the Operations Flight Commander. It's his team's job to get the jets there on time.
 
“They're going to be overhead at a certain time and we just want to make sure on the ground they are matching that timing. It's a little stressful,” says Slaughter.
 
Mother Nature can also play a role in the big show.
 
“Weather is a big big factor. Weather causes issues. It causes issues for the skydivers and the gliders here.”
 
Winds have to be perfect and skies mainly clear for both the skydivers and the fighter jets. But if everything goes right, the landing is perfect and the game is ready to begin.