"Down, but not out, in the Valley"

One hundred and seven years is a long time to wait for revenge.

The last time the Buffalo Bulls lined up against the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Bulls walked away with a 10-0 victory at home. This time, however, history was not on its side as Buffalo lined up against the 12th best team in the nation for the first time since 1900 on Saturday.

Despite the Bulls holding their own for most of the game and putting up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, Penn State (3-0) walked away with a 45-24 victory in front of 107,506 at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA. The Bulls (1-2, 1-0 Mid-American Conference) could have easily given up when down 31-3 heading into the fourth quarter, but stayed focused under the guidance of head coach Turner Gill.

"I'm more proud of the effort that they put forth...You can always control the effort no matter what's happening on the scoreboard," Gill said. "Our guys are focused on what they need to get done, not even worried about what they scoreboard says. They're just going out and executing and playing well from that standpoint."

Junior quarterback Drew Willy passed for a personal best 330 yards against a Lions defense that had given up just 261 passing yards combined in its first two games.

"That kid is a heck of a player, that quarterback," said Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. "He's a real gutsy kid and those receivers - I don't know how many deep ones they hit on us."

Willy completed 28 of his 39 passes in the game but didn't do all of the work with his arm. Willy kept the offense on the move in the early going, rushing for 21 yards in the game's opening drive.

"He kept us calm in the huddle," said sophomore receiver Naaman Roosevelt, who had a career-high 114 receiving yards. "He didn't get real loud in the huddle on third down plays. He kept it calm...I think he became a leader."

The Bulls were able to take advantage of early turnovers to the lead after the first quarter. Sophomore cornerback Kendrick Hawkins recovered running back Austin Scott's fumble midway through the first quarter on the Penn State eight yard line. The Bulls capitalized on the great field position with a 19 yard field goal by freshman kicker A.J. Principe.

The Bulls took this 3-0 lead into the second quarter, however, Buffalo could not maintain the pressure as Penn State took control, scoring the game's next 31 points over the second and third quarters. Quarterback Anthony Morelli threw four touchdowns, the most by a Penn State quarterback since 2005. The first of those scores came off of a circus catch by Jordan Norwood in the end zone late with 2:34 left in the first half. That touchdown put Penn State up 10-3 and they never relinquished the lead.

The Nittany Lions had not given up an offensive touchdown all season, but that changed when sophomore running back James Starks took a handoff five yards with 11:55 in the fourth quarter, raising the score to 38-10. Starks gained 71 all purpose yards in the loss.

Rodney Kinlaw replaced Scott after his second fumble of the game in the second quarter, and took advantage of the opportunity. Kinlaw rushed for 132 yards on 23 carries, capping off the day with a six yard score to answer Starks' run.

Junior Ernest Jackson of the Bulls earned 74 yards receiving, all of them coming against Penn State's zone defense in the second half. The most memorable play of the day was probably sophomore running back Mario Henry's 9-yard touchdown pass to Jackson, but, according to Gill, he'd never even practiced that play before.

"Unfortunately we switched some people and got all mixed up," Gill said of the play. "It was great for him (Henry) to understand what the play was...As he threw the football, obviously it probably wasn't a very good decision, as you saw he (Jackson) was pretty well covered. But he trusted his receiver...Sometimes you just have to make a play, and Ernest Jackson made a play for us."

It's the ability to make those types of plays that has Gill looking optimistic about the future.

"We're making progress," Gill said. "Obviously I'm not going to pat myself on the back. We're going to learn from it. We're going to move forward and I'm going to take the positive things that happened in this football game to help us to continue to improve. And that's what we're going to do."

The Bulls will host their first home game of the season next Saturday against Baylor of the Big XII Conference. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at UB Stadium.