For the first time since beating Bowling Green in their Mid-American Conference season opener in 2000, the Bulls are over .500 in MAC play. Buffalo defeated Temple 42-7 in a dominating performance that saw the Bulls score the most points on the road since joining the MAC.
"It feels great, we're 1-0 in the MAC and that's what we wanted," said senior defensive end Trevor Scott. "That's what we talked about all week. We played with great effort and we didn't back down."
Temple's inaugural game in the MAC got off to an inauspicious start when Buffalo sophomore running back James Starks took the opening play from scrimmage 74 yards for a touchdown. The screen play was set up to perfection because according to head coach Turner Gill, the Bulls had a surprise waiting for the Owls.
"We had never run four wide receivers in a game really, besides the two minute drill, so I thought that would throw them off guard," Gill said. "... I knew we had a great chance to get a first down, then it's just a matter of James Starks making a great play, which he did. He broke a couple of tackles and went in for a score. It was a big life for our football team. The first play of the game, I think everybody could feel it and see it how it lifted our team and maybe downed their team."
While Starks started the game strong, it was sophomore running back Mario Henry who stole the show for the Bulls. Henry ran through, around and by the Temple defense, rushing for 126 on only 17 attempts. His biggest play was a thirty-three yard scamper where he spun away from two defensive linemen that ended in pay dirt.
Despite Henry's big day, Gill will keep Starks at the top of the depth chart, but expect to see a lot of Henry.
"James Starks right now is still the guy at this point in time, but we're going to evaluate the tapes," Gill said. "I knew going into the season what our depth was at running back so it's not a total surprise to me that Mario Henry, James Starks and Brandon Thermilus can run the football.... There's no big decision as far as how long they're going to play and how much they're going to play."
The Bulls stout defense held Temple to only one rushing first down and ten total for the entire game. When one added up the Bulls' five sacks, Temple managed a meager -36 net yards rushing. On the other hand the Bulls racked up 224 net rushing yards and 21 first downs, 12 of which were on the ground.
"We talked about how we're going to run the ball, we're going to mix it up, but I'm going to give us every opportunity to show that we can run the football," Gill said. "We called a lot more run plays, but we also mixed it up, I felt like we could do that and our guys stood the test."
While the rushing game and defense were the two stand-outs, junior quarterback Drew Willy's exceptional game went unnoticed. Willy completed 20 of his 22 passes, and his only interception bounced off the hands of his receiver before floating in the air, where Temple's George Coleman intercepted it.
This one boost of Owl momentum was short lived, as two plays later Buffalo sophomore defensive back Mike Newton picked off Temple quarterback Adam Dimichele, and returned the ball fifty yards for his first touchdown since high school.
"It felt great to come out here and win, come back and redeem ourselves after the way we played last week, it was a win that we really needed," Newton said.
This performance comes on the heels of a 38-3 loss at nationally ranked Rutgers.
"I just thought we played bad last week," Scott said. "That's all it came down to. Today we showed up we showed people what we can do, the offense was moving the ball down the field every time, the defense was getting three and outs, that's what we strive for. I think we showed people that we're real this year."
The Bulls hope to take their newfound confidence into Happy Valley, where the Bulls will play in front of over 100,000 fans against Penn State on Saturday.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
