Bulls finally run out of miracles
TORONTO –One moment the ball was on their own 8, two minutes later it was on the Connecticut 5, and anyone with so much as a cursory knowledge of this University at Buffalo football season was thinking, “Oh my goodness, here they go again.”
Surely the Bulls would score, strike for a two-point conversion, cut the deficit to three. Then they’d recover an onside kick, or perhaps force a turnover after kicking deep. But they’d find a way, would they not, because that’s what this season’s been about most every step of the way, from the Hail Mary win over Temple to the four-overtime conquest of Akron to the double-OT escape at Bowling Green to the turnover-generated pounding of unbeaten Ball State in the Mid- American Conference Championship Game.
This hadn’t been a football season so much as a thrill ride, the unexpected lurking around every turn until finally the unexpected became the expected. Bulls down 11 with just over two minutes left? No problem. How do you think they pull it off?
Only this time the ball turned defiant, neglecting to bounce their way. Only this time they were up against a team a little more talented than they are, a team just as resilient as they’ve been, and Drew Willy’s 5-yard scoring pass intended for Naaman Roosevelt turned into a 100-yard romp in the opposite direction. Destiny, their season-long steady, upped and dropped the Bulls for another date. Go figure.
Some might suggest the journey is somehow tainted by UB’s 38-20 loss to Connecticut on Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre. That’s hardly the case. The beauty of this season is that the darn slipper actually fit, and to utter perfection. A program mired somewhere far below mediocrity for almost a decade proved that it can play winning football, expects to play winning football, and it has the conference title to prove it. No way the Bulls trade the Mid-American Conference East, let alone the MAC crown, for beating UConn. They ate the cake, just left the frosting. No crime in that.
Best of all, from the long-term overall perspective, the local buy-in was profound as UB’s year unfurled like a magic carpet. At least 25,000 fans with university or Western New York ties are estimated to have formed the basis of a record International Bowl crowd of 40,184. Two years ago, you couldn’t give away a UB football ticket. Saturday the masses crossed the border and drove 90 miles to celebrate Turner Gill and his band of believers.
No doubt about it, a win would have been sweet, a fitting conclusion considering the exhilaration of the march to the first bowl appearance in school history. And the pro-Buffalo crowd was giddy with anticipation when the Bulls parlayed two UConn special teams disasters into a 20-10 lead midway through the second quarter. It was trademark UB football, a clear affirmation of the value of the takeaway, although one of the four resulting chances in the quarter went uncashed.
There were warning signs aplenty signaling that this wouldn’t be a deal easily closed, not with the active and aggressive Huskies confounding UB’s offense, not with UConn junior running back Donald Brown, the nation’s rushing leader, gashing his way through yet another defense in what he announced, postgame, was his farewell to college football. Brown finished with 261 yards, 208 of them in a breathtaking first-half performance.
The Bulls were reluctant to admit as much afterward, but UConn represented a step up in class, a challenge that exceeds those found in the MAC. The Huskies have the athletes to thwart the dump passes to running back James Starks that have become a staple of the UB offense. They have the talent in the defensive backfield to bookend Naaman Roosevelt, thereby limiting his opportunities.
Remove those reliables from the equation — the Huskies had a spy on Starks from start to finish — and struggles predictably ensue. Buffalo’s only hope was to mount some semblance of a running game, but 24 yards on 19 carries hammers home its lack of success. The Bulls experienced similar problems earlier in the season against Pitt, another Big East team.
Still, Gill beamed as he sat at the postgame interview table alongside four players wallowing in disappointment. He was looking past the scoreboard, beholding the overall accomplishment.
“[The loss] doesn’t take away what I feel about this football program and what our staff feels about these players,” Gill said. “This is not going to be a one-year wonder. We’re going to be challenging for championships every year. I know I look forward to that and I know our players look forward to that.”
And then he paid homage to his seniors, the players he inherited three years ago, filling their heads with the wild idea that this day was within their grasp. And now they move on, having left behind a legacy, one a loss in the school’s first bowl game can’t possibly taint.
Reader Comments
Click To View and Add Comments