After the Great Dane’s touchdown, the Bulls (1-0) went on to score on six of their next seven drives, rolling to the tune of 38 unanswered points and a 51-14 victory over the Great Danes at UB Stadium on Saturday.
The crowd noise and stadium music went silent. The once active football players, who had been colliding into each other moments before were now still – some standing around with their hands on their hips, others taking a knee on the turf. More than 21,000 people were now not watching the Buffalo football team’s season opener in UB Stadium, but a 19-year-old kid being loaded onto a stretcher and put into an ambulance.
The football team (1-0) defeated Albany (0-1) 51-14 Saturday at UB Stadium for the first win under head coach Lance Leipold. The Great Danes, a team from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), scored the opening touchdown on an 82-yard drive, but the Bulls rattled of 38 straight points to put the game away.
Those who’ve worked with Leipold at Wisconsin-Whitewater and those who’ve been around him the past few months in Buffalo, from players to assistant coaches to administrators, are filled with confidence. A confidence that Lance Leipold has all the tools to be a successful Division-I coach.
After a spring game, endless two-a-days, the final tune-ups and preseason predictions and expectations, the football team is finally ready to start the 2015 season – none more anxious than Leipold, the Bulls first-year head coach.
While my predicted record of 6-6 for the Bulls suggests that the 2015 season will be a successful one, the true success for the Bulls will come if they can take a step forward and create a program that can be successful for years at a time.
Leipold’s first season in Buffalo probably won’t result in the program’s second-ever MAC Championship or third-ever bowl appearance – and it doesn’t have to. Leipold’s first season in Buffalo only has to a result in a competitive MAC team that will be just entertaining enough to fill up UB Stadium seats this season and make season ticket holders want to renew for next season.
Fans want to see action. Unless someone is an avid football fan who loves defensive matchups, most fans want to witness a shootout. For a school that is trying to rebuild its image for a depleted football program, the best option is to give fans what they want: a fast-paced, high-scoring offense. And that’s exactly what Buffalo will do this upcoming season.
It’s no surprise this year’s version of Buffalo's defense has many question marks, loaded with new faces and the obstacle of the unexpected after the departure of many fixtures. But a new coaching regime poses an opportunity to revamp an inexperienced defense and turn Buffalo into contenders on both sides of the ball.
The Bulls have three seniors who give Buffalo a dynamic trio of seniors that could possibly propel the team through the season.
The men’s basketball team should have dismissed Moss itself. It would have been a tough decision – maybe even an unpopular one with some Bulls fans. But the right one.
Last season, the Bulls finished with a record of 16-3-3, won their first-ever Mid-American Conference Championship while earning the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid in the process. And with the 2015-16 season underway, the Bulls (2-2) are poised to defend their title as MAC champions – even with the loss of many team-changing seniors.
First former Bulls head coach Bobby Hurley left for Arizona State, and former guard Shannon Evans and recruits Maurice O’Field and Torian Graham went with him. Then forward and reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Justin Moss was expelled from UB, ending his stint with the Bulls to cap off a roller coaster offseason.
The Bulls (0-3), aside from losing important fixtures from last year, know they have a long road to climb in order to reach the top of the conference, especially with an opening weekend sweep where they only grabbed one set win in three matches against Villanova (2-1), Stony Brook (1-2) and No. 1 ranked Penn State (3-0) over this past weekend at the Penn State Classic.
The men and women’s basketball teams announced its schedule for the 2015-16 season Friday, highlighted by the men’s two-game stretch against Iowa State and defending NCAA Champion Duke. The women’s schedule is headlined by an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) matchup with Clemson.
The Bulls take on Penn State, the No. 1 ranked team in the country, on Friday as Lipsitz’s debut as a head coach will come against the school she helped to win four national titles.
The new namely Edmond J. Gicewicz Club will be a 400-seat private section on the west side of UB Stadium for donors to the Blue and White Fund.
Junior forward and reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Justin Moss has been expelled from UB and subsequently dismissed from the basketball team after an on-campus theft earlier this summer.
But most MAC coaches aren’t predicting Buffalo to repeat as conference tournament champs and to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Senior forward Justin Moss, along with teammates Raheem Johnson and Mory Diane, could face suspension or expulsion from UB.
Solutions by The State News
