FOOTBALL FRIDAY
Bulls could win MAC East tonight
Bowling Green stands in the way of bowl bid
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Showdown Friday is finally here, much to the relief of a roster full of University at Buffalo players and coaches.
It was only Tuesday when senior defensive end Andrae Smith said, “I wish we were playing today. That’s how excited I am.”
Kickoff was still three days away when senior quarterback Drew Willy declared, “This is why we came here. This is why we came to Buffalo. We wanted to be the first team to go to a bowl game, win a MAC championship, and this is our chance.”
Ever since last week’s dramatic victory over Akron, senior left tackle Ray Norell has tried occupying his mind with other thoughts — with little success.
“I’m trying not to think about it that much,” he said earlier this week, “because I’m trying to sleep at night. . . . I try not to think about it but sometimes you have to. ‘Wow, one more game and we’re MAC East champions,’ kind of thing. ‘No tie. It’s yours.’ It’s pretty exciting. It’s pretty cool.”
The Bulls (6-4, 4-2) sail into Doyt Perry Stadium riding a four-game winning streak, a school Division I record. Bowling Green, the preseason pick to win the Mid-American Conference East, has posted two straight emphatic wins over Ohio and Kent State to improve to 5-5, 3-3. UB would win the division outright and secure its first-ever postseason bowl trip with a victory. A loss would put Bowling Green in dominating position on all the tiebreakers and position the Falcons to take the division with a season- ending victory at Toledo (2-8, 1-5).
“They’re one of the elite teams in the MAC,” said Bulls coach Turner Gill. “They’ve always been right at the top, so it’s going to be a challenging game for us again.”
The Falcons ooze tradition. Urban Meyer [Florida] coached here. So did Don Nehlen, who went on to lead West Virginia and retired ranked 17th in career victories. Perry, for whom the stadium is named, coached Bowling Green to a 77-11-5 record over 10 seasons and is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Conversely, Gill has UB finally past Square One.
Buffalo never has won at Bowling Green, but about three weeks ago it had never won at Ohio or Akron, either. Victories at those schools, and a near miss at formidable Central Michigan, have instilled the Bulls with resiliency and a sense of belief.
“We talk about perseverance. We talk about chemistry,” Gill said. “We talk about playing hard, effort every play. That’s what we’ve talked about and that’s what they’ve done. We say just play every play hard and then we’ll see what happens. Don’t worry about the scoreboard, whether everything is going good or not so good. You keep playing. You keep playing and we have enough talent where things will happen favorable for us.”
The Bulls, 3z-point underdogs, may have to summon those qualities against the Falcons. Bowling Green seems to have found its stride after midseason loses to two mediocre MAC teams, Eastern Michigan and Miami (Ohio). Junior quarterback Tyler Sheehan runs a spread offense that utilizes a wide array of players in an effort to create favorable open-field matchups. While senior wideout Corey Partridge leads Bowling Green with 50 catches for 476 yards, a dozen Falcons have a reception of 22 yards or longer. It doesn’t help that two members of the UB secondary, corners Josh Thomas and Kendric Hawkins, are questionable with injuries.
“They’re a gadget team so we just have to be disciplined,” Smith said. “That’s the key thing to the game. Don’t fall for any tricks. It’s going to be a little difficult but it’s not a real crazy scheme that would catch us off-guard. It’s something pretty simple but we got to stay disciplined.”
UB’s offense is no less worrisome to the Falcons. Tailback James Starks (Niagara Falls) had a monster performance against Akron and ranks fifth nationally with 128.5 rushing yards per game. Willy is completing 63.4 percent of his passes with 18 touchdowns and just four interceptions. Wideout Naaman Roosevelt (St. Joe’s) ranks second in the MAC and 14th in the country with 95.4 receiving yards per game. But stopping the Bulls starts with containing Starks.
“It certainly would appear that way,” said Falcons coach Gregg Brandon. “Against Akron he had close to 50 touches of the 100 or so plays Buffalo ran. He’s getting the ball half the time. You look at him statistically, when he has 25, 30 carries they’re winning games. We’ve got to do a good job not letting him get out on long runs. We’ve really got to be gap sound and run to the football and tackle him. And that’s a tall order right now.”
The Falcons are right where the preseason poll had them pegged, in contention for the division crown.
“We expected to be playing for a championship, which we are,” Brandon said. “This is a big game for Bowling Green. If we can get this done then the next one will be a bigger game. Right now it’s good to be playing meaningful games in November because a lot of teams aren’t right now.”
The Bulls know the feeling. This day has been a long time coming.
“I know we’re trying to stay focused and keep all the enthusiasm in right now, but once we get in that game there’s going to be a ton of emotion and we’re just going to have to control it a little bit,” Willy said. “But we’re going to be ready to go.”
