UB notebook: Roosevelt, Starks among departing seniors
Published: November 27, 2009, 9:52 pm
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KENT, Ohio — Friday's game marked the end for 15 University at Buffalo seniors. Two of them — Western New York natives Naaman Roosevelt (St. Joe's) and James Starks (Niagara Falls) — go down as arguably the best ever to play their positions at UB.
Roosevelt and Starks hold six major career records (rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, scoring, receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches) and have left an indelible mark on the Bulls' program that includes two Mid-American Conference East Division titles and the school's first conference championship and bowl game berth in 2008.
"Our program has been noticed all over the country and I see it in recruiting, and I see how players handle it when they come into our locker room and into our offices," UB coach Turner Gill said. "There's a lot more excitement about wanting to get better as a football team and they've established that. ... They have something they can come back to knowing they started this tradition."
Junior safety Davonte Shannon finished the season with 97 tackles, giving him 341 in his career. He is 105 tackles short of the school record, and his forced fumble Friday gave him five for this career, ranking him tied for sixth all time.
UB threw a new wrinkle in its offense this week with a fake field goal.
The Bulls decided to fake on their first field goal attempt and flipped the ball to kicker A.J. Principe. Principe, who had never attempted a pass in high school or college, looked like he wanted to hit Jesse Rack, but Rack couldn't get any separation so Principe took off running.
He was popped just short of the first down and Kent State took over.
"It was the last game so we wanted to throw a few things at them," Principe said. "I ran out there and didn't see anyone open so I decided to tuck it and run. I didn't quite make it."
The zero points allowed in the first half was the first time since Gill's first game as coach, versus Temple in 2006, that UB shut out a team in the first half. UB limited Kent State to two first downs in the half.
UB won for the third consecutive time at Dix Stadium and it was UB's fourth win in the last five meetings between the teams. ... Principe set the UB record for field goals in a career. He booted three Friday and now has 37, two more than the 35 field goals booted by Dallas Pelz (St. Francis) from 2000-03. ... Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Terry Peden recorded the first sack of his career in the third quarter. ... The win was the 20th of Gill's career, as he became just the fourth Bulls coach to reach that number. Gill is 20-30 in his four seasons.
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