Saturday's visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium will be a day full of milestones for the football team. When the Bulls take the field against the second ranked Auburn Tigers, it will be the highest nationally ranked team the university has faced since it joined Division I-A competition in 1999.
Not only will it be the first ever match-up between the Bulls and the Tigers, but the game will also mark the first time Buffalo has played against an opponent from the Southeastern Conference.
Although Buffalo is infamous for its struggling football program, head coach Turner Gill's philosophy will remain the same going into the game against the Auburn powerhouse.
"You just know you're playing against some speed," Gill said. "We are not going to do anything different than in the past. We have to get off to a good start, kind of what we are talking about no matter who we would be playing this week."
The Bulls will be playing their third consecutive game against a team that is led by a strong rushing attack. Auburn senior running back Kenny Irons currently ranks 18th in the country and first in the SEC in rushing, averaging 107.3 yards per game. Irons has also accumulated a number of accolades, including being named as a Doak Walker Award candidate, which is given to the nation's top running back at the end of the season.
"He's a good football player," Gill said. "They have a good offensive line. We're going to do things to get more people around the football."
This could prove to be quite a task for the Bulls though, as it ranks last in the Mid-American Conference in rushing defense. Buffalo has allowed an average of 350 rushing yards in its last two games.
"We need five, six, seven guys around the line of scrimmage and penetrating the gaps," Gill said. "We unfortunately have some guys not controlling their gaps, and when you're not controlling your gaps and you have a great running back, they'll truly expose those holes."
Much of the responsibility to keep Irons under wraps will be on Buffalo's linebackers. Senior linebacker Ramon Guzman leads the team and the MAC in tackles with 12.3 per game and also ranks fourth nationally.
Buffalo will be starting its third different running back this year when freshman James Starks lines up in the backfield on Saturday. Starks leads the team with 161 rushing yards. Senior Steven King will move back to fullback for this game, the position he originally began the season at after starting at running back versus Northern Illinois. King currently leads the team with two rushing touchdowns.
Freshman wide receiver Naaman Roosevelt has also been inserted into the starting lineup. He has been tabbed to play in place of injured sophomore Brett Hamlin, who will be out four to six weeks with a broken foot.
"They showed that they can make some plays for us," Gill said. "So it's time to reward the guys and better players. It was time for them to move to the starting position. They might not be there forever. Each week we reevaluate our starting positions."
The Bulls will look for Roosevelt's stellar special teams' play to continue over on the offensive side of the ball, as the team will be going up against a Tiger defense that ranks fourth in the country in scoring defense, yielding just 5.7 points per contest.
The Bulls may also be playing in front of the largest crowd in school history. The game is expected to be a sell out at Jordan-Hare Stadium, which holds a capacity of 87,451 seats. This would break the previous record of when Buffalo played at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium in 2003 in front of 54,471 people.
Gill thinks only good things can come out of playing in such an environment.
"It helps playing an away game, playing against a great crowd, a great football team," Gill said. "When you go anywhere else it'll be less a distraction for you because you've already been involved in it."
Increased recognition is another thing Gill thinks the Bulls will gain.
"I expect us to gain exposure," Gill said. "It gives us an opportunity for people across the country to know that the University at Buffalo is a Division I football program. This also gives us exposure for recruiting. It gives us an opportunity for people to know us and we are going to play against people in the top programs."
Saturday's contest marks the last contest in part of a three-game road trip for the Bulls. The game starts at 2:30 p.m. and will air over the radio airwaves on WGR 550-AM.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
