Cohen, a life-long New York Giants fan, attended his first-ever game at “The Ralph” this past Sunday when the Giants faced the Buffalo Bills. He attended games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but this experience was very different.
They were some of the most prolific players to ever wear the blue and white. They broke records, won championship and brought some prominence to Mid-Major program over the course of their careers. But what happens to these players after they walk for graduation? The Spectrum caught up with a few recent Bulls graduates from the past few years.
The everyday rigors of a Division-I college football player – even for a backup like Daniel – had come to an end in December of 2014. There were no more worries, no more stresses. Life was finally carefree again. Or so Daniel thought. On Nov. 30, 2014, Daniel received a frantic phone call from his sister Carley telling him their father Jack had suffered a heart attack earlier in the day and was rushed to the hospital.
Coming off two straight losses and a 0-1 start in Mid-American Conference play, the Buffalo football team’s bye week couldn’t have came at a better time. With a week off, the Bulls (2-3, 0-1 MAC) have a chance to rest and look at the film from the past two weeks to correct several areas, including penalties, turnovers and its defense.
The Bulls (2-3, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) opened MAC play with a loss to the Falcons, (3-2, 1-0 MAC) at UB Stadium in a homecoming game attended by 20,843 people Saturday.
The Falcons seem to always have the edge over the Bulls, whether it was last season’s heartbreaking 36-35 Buffalo loss or two years ago when they defeated the Bulls in what was an essentially a MAC East Championship game. Here’s who The Spectrum thinks has the edge at every position.
Saturday’s matchup against Bowling Green (2-2) will be the team’s biggest test to date and it may be its biggest all season. The Falcons have appeared in the MAC Championship game the past two years, including a victory in 2013. They defeated perhaps the most talented team in Buffalo program history in what was essentially a MAC East Championship game to get it by the way.
After being lost in the shuffle for the first few weeks, Lisa shined against Nevada as he finished a career-high four catches and a 5-yard touchdown reception – the first of his college career. His score came late in the fourth quarter and cut Nevada’s lead to just three with just 8:06 left to play.
Buffalo fell to Nevada 24-21 Saturday in the team's final game before Mid-American Conference play. Here's what the sports staff thought of the Bulls' performance.
The football team (2-2) fell to Nevada (2-2) 24-21 Saturday at UB Stadium in the Bulls' final game before Mid-American Conference play. Head coach Lance Leipold had one word to describe the loss. “Turnovers,” Leipold said. “Ultimately, turnovers and bad penalties put us into that position. We put ourselves into tough positions for us to overcome. Long drives on third and fourth down ... we had momentum swing back our way, but we couldn’t put it together.”
On Saturday, the Bulls (2-1) return home to UB Stadium Saturday with a chance to move to 3-1 under new head coach Lance Leipold and to take on Nevada (1-2). It will be the last non-conference game of the season for the Bulls, as they move to MAC play.
The football team (2-1) recovered after a loss to Penn State (2-1) to defeat Florida Atlantic (0-3) 33-15, with 23 points coming off of defensive scores. Now, the Bulls head back home to face Nevada (1-2) from the Mountain West Conference after two weeks of away games. Can the Bulls pull out the victory at home and move to 3-1 before heading into Mid-American Conference play?
There are three Nevada coaches that will make a return to UB this weekend, but none of them probably expect a grand welcome at UB Stadium. Nevada head coach Brian Polian, assistant coach Jim Hofher and graduate assistant Steven King all either coached or played for the Buffalo football team during the early to mid-2000’s, but they’ve never coached this current group of Bulls players.
Videos of Grassman’s trick snaps made their way across the Internet this summer after the junior spent the past two years snapping to his cousin, senior punter Tyler Grassman, without much glory or recognition. Grassman has always loved doing trick snaps but it wasn’t until this summer that he unveiled his skills.
For the Buffalo football team, I was interested in one area of regression: the turnover margin. The Bulls had just two interceptions all of last season – which seemed unfathomable to me. There are teams in both pro and college that pass the ball more than 50 percent of the time. There were six quarterbacks in college football who threw more than 500 passes last season and 41 threw more than 400 times.
Senior punter Tyler Grassman won the Mid-American Conference Special Teams Player of the Week Award for the East division on Monday. Against Florida Atlantic, Grassman finished with nine punts for a total of 349 yards, an average of 38.8 yards per punt, a touchback and one punt that fell inside of the 20-yard line.
Check out The Spectrum's grades of the Bulls in their 33-15 victory over Florida Atlantic University on Saturday.
It’s always been about the Buffalo football team’s offense. That’s the unit that possesses the Bulls’ superstars and playmakers that have potential to score more than 40 points a game week in and week out.
Of course, there were issues, but overall, it was a successful game. The question now is will the personnel repeat its successful ways against a comparable opponent in Florida Atlantic (0-2) this Saturday on the road? The Spectrum decided which team has the edge at each position.
The Spectrum sports team grades the football team's performance against Penn State.
Solutions by The State News
