Gatorade came first, a most traditional postgame celebratory bath. Then came a wrinkle Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun didn’t expect: He was also doused in Cheez-Its.



“We had a good mixture,” Calhoun later told The Athletic, laughing. He compared the texture to that of a “grog bowl,” something Calhoun last experienced at a formal ball as a freshman at the Air Force Academy. A grog bowl is a concoction of random edible items and liquids (a dinner roll, chocolate chip cookie, milk, orange juice, etc.), all mixed together in a giant punch bowl. If you were out of line in regard to protocol, someone sent you to drink or eat from the grog bowl. “That’s what flashed through my mind right away,” he said. “Like, we’re immune to this to a degree.” He laughed again.



Calhoun and the Falcons had just beaten Washington State, 31-21, to win the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 27. So Cheez-Its only made...