Bulls face Broncos in MAC opener

After facing three Big East teams and struggling mightily, UB football gets to size itself up against a conference opponent Saturday night, as the Western Michigan Broncos host the Bulls at Waldo Stadium.

UB (0-3) is the last team in the Mid-American conference yet to play a conference game. In facing the Broncos (2-2 overall, 0-1 MAC), the QB-handicapped Bulls will be playing another team with a back-up quarterback at the helm and looking for its first conference victory.

UB, which is coming off a bye week, showed mild improvement during its 17-3 home loss to Rutgers two weeks ago, but again failed to get into the endzone.

"We made a lot of strides. We maintained the ball longer and made longer drives," saidhead coach Jim Hofher. "But obviously the key in offensive football is to score so we didn't make big enough strides there."

For the first three games, junior quarterback Stewart Sampsel was under center and calling the plays, but after suffering a broken shoulder versus Rutgers, Sampsel is out for weeks, possibly even the season.

Replacing Sampsel is true-freshman quarterback Drew Willy, who will see most of the snaps this weekend.

"Stew (Sampsel) certainly had his most productive game (against Rutgers) and did a fine job and was really growing in the game with his play at quarterback," Hofher said. "So it was tough for him, tough for our team. Lots had been invested in that development and now the investment has to go elsewhere."

"I would think at this point that Drew Willy is the guy that is getting the bulk of the snaps," Hofher added. "He's the guy that has played in two of the last three games and he did a really fine job and his best in the Rutgers game."

In the two games that Willy has seen time, he has completed 15 of 24 for 142 yards. Willy also made five rushing attempts for a total of four yards.

On the Broncos' side of the ball, senior quarterback Ryan Cubit suffered a leg injury during his team's game against Temple and is out for the season. Senior Robbie Haas will step in for Cubit as the starting quarterback, but he has not seen action since the Broncos' opening game against Virginia.

"We don't (have film on Haas)," Hofher said. "Within our conference, we have a three-game exchange. So we have three because we've played three. So we gave those to Western. They had three, gave us two, and then gave us the Temple game once it was completed. The opponent can only get three of ours. They happened to have played four games. I think it's just an issue of fairness."

While UB may not have film to reference Haas' style of play, statistics and other reports still serve as a viable way to prepare for the match-up.

"Robbie Haas went the distance against Virginia and did a very fine job in that ball game against a very good team," Hofher said. "You have to look at the box score. You can get the statistics of it. He completed a lot of passes to Greg Jennings. You kind of have to look at the films we have and make the presumption that the first game was no different in the content of the plays."

While watching Haas, UB's defense needs to keep tabs on Jennings, a senior wide receiver. Jennings, who Hofher describes as "an excellent runner after the catch" and "a tackle-breaker," has received conference accolades and leads the nation in receptions. Jennings has caught 44 passes for a total of 416 yards this season and averages 9.5 yards a reception.

"Greg Jennings is an excellent football player," Hofher said. "They have lots of variations of how they are going to get him the ball. He is going to make some catches. Our job is to make sure that we are covering him as well as we can and that we are very aware of his alignment. We've got to do a great job in our reaction to him and where he is."

As the team prepares for its fourth game, one can't help but wonder how much the Bulls dwell upon their lackluster start to the season.

"I don't know that you forget it, but I also don't know that you beat it over the head," Hofher said. "I think that you continue to try and take the good things that the unit did and learned, where we improved, where we're developing depth."

"We didn't pull any wins out, but we made strides as an offense and a defense and special teams, and I think we got better overall," senior defensive end Phil Jacques said. "Going into our MAC schedule now, I think we're a lot better."

While the Bulls remain winless, Hofher's team relies on hope for the future.

"You've got to stay focused and have faith," Hofher said.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday as the men in blue and white step out into the lights of Waldo Stadium for their MAC opener against the Broncos.