After this Saturday, the Buffalo Bulls (1-9, 1-5 Mid-American Conference) will have faced two of college football's Top 25 teams
If they are to have any chance of success against the nationally ranked No. 23 Northern Illinois Huskies, Buffalo will have to best their recent efforts put forth against their MAC rivals, and stay away from what happened in the second week of the season against Iowa.
The Huskies (8-1, 4-1 MAC) are currently ranked 23 in the nation in both the AP poll and the ESPN/USA Today poll. NIU climbed the polls with its efforts earlier this year, pulling out victories over Bowl Championship Series schools Maryland, Alabama and Iowa St..
ESPN analyst Trev Alberts rated NIU as the first-half's "Biggest Surprise" in college football and said "Northern Illinois has wins over three teams from BCS conferences and has spearheaded the resurgence of the Mid-American Conference."
Northern Illinois has established itself as a major power in the MAC, but as recently as 1998, the Huskies were in the same boat as Buffalo. NIU was a team who was showing gradual progression yet not seeing the results in the win column.
Head coach Joe Novak, however, has turned the Northern Illinois' program around by leading them to victories in 20 out of the last 26 NIU contests.
Novak is also a candidate for the 2003 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award along with the big name head coaches like Frank Beamer, Lloyd Carr, Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops and Larry Coker.
Novak has Michael "The Burner" Turner to thank for much of his program's recent success. Since arriving on the Dekalb, Illinois campus, Turner has rushed for 4,435 yards, which is good enough for third on the all-time MAC career rushing leaders list. Turner also has 18 games where he has totaled 100 yards or more.
Only the highest praises come from Novak for his senior tailback.
"In my opinion, there's no question who the best tailback in the country is," stated Novak in a press release. "It's Michael. Who cares if he doesn't have 1,900 yards like last year? Everyone-and I mean everyone-has tried to scheme him out of the game by loading up the box. When you consider what he's meant to this team and the fact that everything revolves around him, I don't care if he gets 250 or 120 (yards). The idea is to win football games."
"The Burner" has carried the ball 234 times in NIU's first nine games for 1,142 yards. He averages 4.9 yards per carry and has eight rushing TDs. These totals have put him in serious discussion for the Heisman Trophy consideration.
Turner is the workhorse for Novak's team, but Novak also has one of the most efficient pass offenses in the country.
The Huskies average 219.7 yards through the air a game. Quarterback Josh Haldi gives Northern Illinois a poise leader who takes care of the ball. The academic All-American has a quarterback rating of 145.5 and is completing passes at 61.8 percent for 1,913 yards and eighteen touchdowns.
Novak loves the balance that the Huskies have shown this year.
"The best thing about our team is that we're balanced. We're not great in any phase, but we can make plays on offense, on defense, and on special teams," stated Novak.
Haldi's favorite receiver is wide receiver P.J. Fleck. Fleck enters the contest versus the Bulls as the nation's number seven receiver by pulling in an average of 7.2 catches per game. For the season the wide receiver has totaled 65 catches for 748 yards and five TDs. Fleck is also a dangerous threat when returning kicks and punts.
This weekend's contest will be the third time UB has ever faced a ranked football program. The 1999 Marshall Thundering Herd were ranked 15th in the nation when they came to UB Stadium.
Buffalo head coach Jim Hofher and his Bulls will once again have to step up their game to the next level. Every week a solid football team has tested the young Buffalo Bulls as they make their way through the NCAA's 14th toughest schedule.
Buffalo has shown a noticeable improvement in their game plan and execution the past three weekends. UB will need this improvement from their young team to continue, and both sides of the ball must play their best game of the year to pull of the huge upset.
Offensively, the Bulls had one of their better games last week when falling to Toledo 56-29.
UB wide receiver Matt Knueven had his best game of the year, finishing the game with a career-high eight receptions for 101 yards. He is starting to establish himself as the Bulls' go-to guy when they need a catch. So far this year, Knueven has pulled in 36 passes for 496 yards and two touchdowns.
With the help of Knueven, Randall Secky led the Bulls to their best passing performance of the year. UB blew away their previous season high of 140 yards in the first half alone. Secky was connecting early and often, throwing for a total of 254 yards, 161 yards in the first half.
Although Secky was impressive against Toledo, PJ Piskorik, who won the starting job from Secky earlier this year, is currently slated to be the Bulls starter Saturday. Piskorik missed the Toledo game with a shoulder injury he received against Ohio.
The Bulls' offense moved the ball up and down the field with ease at Toledo, but the end zone was much harder to find. The Bulls set a season-high in total offensive yardage, with 394 yards, but only crossed the goal line twice. UB relied heavily on the foot of place kicker Dallas Pelz to score.
The Bulls inability to put the ball in the end zone allowed Pelz to again earn MAC Special Teams Player of the Week Award on a record-breaking night. The place kicker broke the UB single game record for points as he was responsible for 17 of the Bulls' 29 points. He kicked five field goals, which set a new school record and added two PATs.
Pelz connected from 50, 44, 42, 47, and 39 yards. His blast from fifty yards out tied his personal career best that he set at Army. With 33 career field goals the Bulls kicker took a spot in the Buffalo record books, as he passed Gerald Carlson's 28 career field goals. He also owns UB's record for most career points by a kicker with 138 points.
A good performance against a nationally ranked team will do wonders for the UB players' and fans' confidence. The Bulls' chances for a MAC title are far from gone but there is still a lot for this young Buffalo team to play for. If Hofher and his team can continue the progression week by week, maybe in the upcoming years SUNY at Buffalo can be the next Northern Illinois
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
