The UB Bulls will enter its season opener against the University of Albany Great Danes with plenty of new faces.
Fifty new players, six new coaches and three new or recently-promoted coordinators are going to be put to the test for the Bulls’ homecoming game 7:00 p.m. Thursday night at UB’s Broadview Stadium.
The opener will test the entire program, says head coach Pete Lembo. The opener will be an early indication of whether the team can operate as cohesively like one that has been together for years.
While Lembo started his college coaching career as a graduate assistant under longtime head coach Bob Ford at UAlbany, he is not approaching the game as a sentimental homecoming.
“Can we go out there in week one like we have been there, done that before, with so many moving parts, so many new pieces?” Lembo said at Tuesday afternoon’s press conference. “It’ll be a real test of our discipline as an organization, our cohesiveness as an organization.”
Lembo is focusing on the Bulls’ ability to remain composed and handle the challenges that come with the first game of a season. He stressed avoiding pre-snap penalties, executing on special teams and being prepared for unusual situations.
“It’s less about who you’re playing,” Lembo said. “It’s more about, ‘Can you go out there and be poised, and expect the unexpected, respond the right way to the highs and lows of the game?’”
UAlbany enters the matchup with a familiarity among its coaching staff that UB spent the past month working to establish. Several of UAlbany’s coaches worked together at the Susquehanna River Hawks last season, while UB pulled from all over the country, including a player from Miami Hurricanes along with coaches from the Florida State Seminoles and Columbia Lions.
But the Bulls may have an advantage in the unknown. UAlbany has already played the New Hampshire Wildcats, giving the Bulls game film to study.
The Great Danes have yet to see many of the Bulls’ new players.
Will Meyer is the senior sports editor and can be reached at will.meyer@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
