Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Bulls win much more than 1-0 start
12:25 PM | 
Posted by
Nick Mendola
There is little chance this will read like an objective report, so call it the hopeful opinion of a Buffalo-area football fan looking for anything to grasp onto: UB's 23-17 season-opening road win over UTEP is anything but an ordinary victory for the program.
Coming off a championship campaign filled with drama that saw the Bulls catapult into local relevance under Turner Gill, the Bulls were already faced with the dilemma of their first new quarterback in four years when star tailback James Starks was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. The pundits had them down for a tough campaign, some worse than others: ESPN had the Bulls 1-3 out of conference, and you can be sure that one win was against moribund Gardner-Webb at home next month, not against UTEP, who the magazine had rated as a Top-50 team, with the Bulls back at No. 86.
As an alum, fan and reporter, I was willing to sit through some struggles this year as Turner Gill went to his sophomore quarterback Zack Maynard. Truth be told, I'm still willing to do that, but what going down the Texas and beating the Miners says for Gill's program is remarkable. The head coach finally has a team of recruits almost exclusively his to go with a mean experienced defense and a young offense that went to the road to open a season and did enough to come out unscathed.
The Mid American Conference went 3-10 this weekend, and the Bulls win was certainly the most impressive -- Kent State beat Coastal Carolina while Bowling Green handled Troy, both at home. The two conference favorites, Western Michigan and Central Michigan, looked miserable in lopsided losses at borderline power schools, Michigan and Arizona.
When the Pitt Panthers head into UB Stadium this Saturday for the Bulls home opener, Buffalo has a chance to ratchet the local excitement level up several notches by spinning Dave Wannstedt's moustache around like a cartoon pinwheel. Maynard's going to struggle at times -- like any young quarterback -- and the Bulls are going to have games where they have trouble keeping the defense honest, but the athletes on UB's defense are as talented as any in the history of the program. It's a crew that went down to UTEP for the Miners' opener, and held the home team to under 33 points for the first time since Oct. 11 of last year.
Go Bulls Go (Nick Mendola, BA, '05 English) Email: nick@wgr550.com
Coming off a championship campaign filled with drama that saw the Bulls catapult into local relevance under Turner Gill, the Bulls were already faced with the dilemma of their first new quarterback in four years when star tailback James Starks was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. The pundits had them down for a tough campaign, some worse than others: ESPN had the Bulls 1-3 out of conference, and you can be sure that one win was against moribund Gardner-Webb at home next month, not against UTEP, who the magazine had rated as a Top-50 team, with the Bulls back at No. 86.
As an alum, fan and reporter, I was willing to sit through some struggles this year as Turner Gill went to his sophomore quarterback Zack Maynard. Truth be told, I'm still willing to do that, but what going down the Texas and beating the Miners says for Gill's program is remarkable. The head coach finally has a team of recruits almost exclusively his to go with a mean experienced defense and a young offense that went to the road to open a season and did enough to come out unscathed.
The Mid American Conference went 3-10 this weekend, and the Bulls win was certainly the most impressive -- Kent State beat Coastal Carolina while Bowling Green handled Troy, both at home. The two conference favorites, Western Michigan and Central Michigan, looked miserable in lopsided losses at borderline power schools, Michigan and Arizona.
When the Pitt Panthers head into UB Stadium this Saturday for the Bulls home opener, Buffalo has a chance to ratchet the local excitement level up several notches by spinning Dave Wannstedt's moustache around like a cartoon pinwheel. Maynard's going to struggle at times -- like any young quarterback -- and the Bulls are going to have games where they have trouble keeping the defense honest, but the athletes on UB's defense are as talented as any in the history of the program. It's a crew that went down to UTEP for the Miners' opener, and held the home team to under 33 points for the first time since Oct. 11 of last year.
Go Bulls Go (Nick Mendola, BA, '05 English) Email: nick@wgr550.com
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