Are the University at Buffalo Bulls for real?
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Is UB football for real?
by Steve
Turner Gill and the University at Buffalo football team are starting to turn some heads. Well, mine at least. I am actually thinking about going to a college football game, in Buffalo! (Well Amherst) The Bulls are actually winning games and are kind of exciting to watch.
Since I and most people I know in Buffalo don't follow UB football very close, I'll break it down simply for you. They play in the MAC, there are 2 divisions, the East and the West. UB Plays in the East with Miami, Akron, Bowling Green, Kent St, Temple, and Ohio. There are 6 teams in the West.
UB is sitting pretty good at 3-1 in the MAC and 2-0 in the division. Their non- conference loses have been to Rutgers, Penn State (both ranked in the top 15 when they played UB) and Baylor. and they got crushed @ Ball State, a team from the MAC West that has 4 wins on the season but shouldn't have won by that large a margin.
The rest of the season will be an important litmus test for Drew Willy, Gill and the crew to show exactly where they stand in college football. They play at 'cuse which is a winnable game kind of and then play three more teams from the East with winning records in the conference two at home against Akron(1-1) and Bowling Green(1-1) and a tough test against the current East leader at Miami on November 3rd. So it appears the Bulls are assured to be playing meaningful football into November and have a shot at the division and then the conference.
But why has UB all of a sudden been winning games and gaining at least some local attention? The coaching and recruiting of Turner Gill, a solid young group of players that returned the most starters in all of D1 football and an explosive sophomore running back in James Starks. The 21 year old beast from Niagara Falls has 12 touchdowns (rushing and receiving) and has 624 yards and a solid 4.2 yards per carry.
Considering 2 games ago Starks had less than 200 yards rushing and now has over 600 clearly indicates Starks is white hot. So hot he nearly broke the schools all time single game rushing record yesterday with 244 yards on 35 carries. Dude can straight ball and is probably playing himself into at least the first day of the draft if he decides to declare for the draft after the season.(kidding, kind of)
Realistically UB probably doesn't have the poise and the experience needed to really push for the division or the conference this season. However, with a solid core, the Bulls are building towards at least mediocrity, and we all know that is a huge improvement since the team jumped up to D1. And quite frankly I'm just pumped to have meaningful college football being played in Wester New York, and hey maybe even I am under estimating Drew Willy, T-gil and the gang.
