Lost in the Atlantic

I'm not one of those people that thinks it's hip to rip on how bad our football team is. I don't want to poke fun and act like these guys aren't trying to win, or pretend that Jim Hofher knows nothing about college football.

I came into this, my last year at UB, with a positive attitude, hoping that we will see improvements in all our sports teams. Mindful that we wouldn't be the best this season, but optimistic that someday I would be an alumnus season ticket holder who comes to games with audiences 40,000 strong, proud that the university I attended had created a top-ranked football team and knowing that I was around for the turning point.

However, Hofher and the boys aren't doing too much to help me realize that dream.

We are two games into the season and the Bulls have yet to score a point. Not one touchdown, not one field goal, nothing. I wasn't so na??ve as to think that they would come out and beat up on UConn or Syracuse, but they certainly could have made a run at being competitive.

Against Syracuse, the Bulls were soundly humiliated in every statistical category imaginable. In net yards, the Orange tallied 348 yards to the Bulls' 50. In rushing yards Syracuse accumulated 371 yards while UB earned a meager 93. All the while, Damien Rhodes steamrolled the UB defense for 236 yards. Rhodes twice broke out for 50 yards or better to score two of the four touchdowns that he tallied on the day. Even with all that rushing, SU also out-passed UB 139 yards to 73 yards - 50 of which came from backup quarterback Drew Willy in the fourth quarter, after Syracuse was up by 31 points and had pulled most of their starters.

This performance, coupled with a 38-0 defeat to UConn in the season opener, has many of us asking, "Is it ever going to get better?"

We've been patient and we've been positive, and yet there are no signs of improvement. For God's sake, look at our quarterback situation. Stewart Sampsel completed six passes on Saturday, two of which were to Syracuse's free safety Anthony Smith. Sampsel's "completions" to Smith resulted in 10 SU points. That's 10 more points than Sampsel has generated for his own team this season.

And it's not like Sampsel is a freshman that has gotten off to a rocky start. He is a junior who has been on the bench the last three seasons because he wasn't good enough to beat out the likes of Randall Secky for the starting job.

On top of that, going to the bench doesn't seem to be much of an option. Based on how late in the preseason Hofher announced that Sampsel was going to be the team's starting QB, I can't imagine that Willy or Tony Paoli are that much better.

But you know what? It's not Sampsel's fault the team can't win.

This is Hofher's fifth season with the team. Over that time he has compiled a record of 7-41, showing no improvement. Shouldn't five years have been a sufficient amount of time to see his recruits come into their own? It's about time for Hofher to be held accountable for what this team has done and where this team is going.

Before the UConn game Hofher said, "If you're going to drive to Arizona, you're probably going to have to drive through Missouri." If he wants to go to Arizona he should realize that he's currently nosing into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Athletic Department has a new athletics director, and if the football team doesn't pick up soon, it might be time to look at other personnel changes. I know that we're only two games in, and that the team has yet to face a Mid American Conference opponent, but let's be realistic, there haven't been any signs that those games will go any better.

We deserve to have something to cheer about. We deserve a team that can, at the very least, be competitive.

If this team can't turn their season around maybe we should start looking for a coaching staff that has a slightly better sense of direction.