The Temple football team will be facing an opponent that is very similar, yet very different, when Buffalo comes to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday afternoon. In their first Mid-American Conference game, the Owls will be playing a team that’s won just eight MAC games in eight years of league membership. But the Bulls are getting better.
Last year, Coach Turner Gill’s squad pulled the league’s biggest upset when they routed Kent State, 41-14, in early November. At the time, the Golden Flashes were tied for first place in the MAC East. Buffalo was on its way to a 2-10 finish.
Temple fans remember Gill’s other win, which came at their expense in the 2006 opener. In the debut game for both head coaches, Al Golden’s Owls lost to the Bulls in overtime, 9-3.
So much has happened since then. Yet both teams are much the same.
The same two quarterbacks that started last year’s game – Temple’s Adam DiMichele and Buffalo’s Drew Willy – will be starting on Saturday. Both of them are juniors. Both are vitally important to their team’s success. And both have tasted little success in the win-loss column.
Program-wise, Temple and Buffalo share a common bond that neither wants to share. The Bulls have posted a 12-80 record since rejoining the major college ranks in 1999. And they weren’t even good at a lower level, boasting one winning season in the past 20 years.
OK, here’s the short history lesson: Prior to 1960, Buffalo played “small college football” – for lack of a better term. Then, spurred by a football-friendly administration and great success in the late-50s, the Bulls moved up to “major” college football. They stayed there for a decade – playing Temple on a semi-regular basis – until dropping the program at the end of the 1970 campaign.
In 1977, the program was reborn at the Division III level. While they never enjoyed great success at D-III, the Bulls were still able to build enough support to climb to I-AA in 1992, and then make the jump to I-A and the MAC in 1999.
Fast forward to 2007, with Gill beginning his second year at the helm. In 13 years as an assistant coach at Nebraska, Gill developed the same kind of reputation that Golden developed at Virginia, Penn State, and Boston College – that of a great recruiter.
In fact, the two battled on the recruiting trail this past year, with Gill taking advantage of his local advantage in coaxing wide receiver Marcus Rivers to join his team. Now a freshman on the Buffalo roster, Rivers verbally committed to Temple before changing his mind and deciding to go to school close to home.
So maybe he’s 2-0 versus the Owls, but he’s 1-11 versus everyone else. And the media picked Buffalo, not Temple, to finish last in the MAC East this season. Don’t underestimate the importance of this weekend’s game.
Scouting the Bulls
Willy is an accurate passer, though he’s not particularly dangerous in terms of throwing the long ball or beating you with his legs. He is consistent.
Last season, the 6-3, 209-pound North Jersey native completed more than half his passes in each of his eight starts. He finished the year as a 60 percent passer, but only threw six touchdown passes. To his credit, he only threw six interceptions in 231 pass attempts.
The similarity between those numbers and his numbers from Buffalo’s season-opening loss to Rutgers last week are scary. Against the Scarlet Knights, Willy completed 19 of 32 passes (59 percent) for 165 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions. His longest completion went for 21 yards.
But here’s the trick: Willy missed the last four games of the 2006 campaign with a thumb injury. In his first game on the sidelines, guess what happened? Backup QB Tony Paoli led the Bulls to that stunning victory over Kent State.
Overall, Buffalo averaged 16.5 points per game with Willy as the starting quarterback. That average jumped to 22.0 per game with Paoli (who was a senior).
So it’s no surprise to hear Gill’s response when asked how important Willy was to the Bulls doubling their overall point total from 2005 (110 points) to 2006 (220 points):
“I think he’s part of it, but I think it’s also the offensive line, our receivers and backs,” Gill said. “I think we have some people on offense where we can get the ball to different people that maybe can make some plays for us. So it’s not just Drew Willy, but yeah, he’s got to do his part.
“The biggest thing I think he has improved on is being a leader and having confidence and showing that more often than he had early last year. So I think that’s the biggest improvement that he’s shown, in getting our players to know and have confidence that he can make the throws, he can make the right audibles, and get us in the right plays to make things happen.”
The Owls are quite familiar with Buffalo’s playmakers, particularly sophomore tailback James Starks, who rumbled for an 18-yard touchdown in overtime to win last year’s opener. Starks is almost lanky at 6-2, 210 pounds. He’s not especially fast or powerful. He just knows how to run.
But Starks is stoppable. Rutgers focused on stopping him last week, and succeeded, limiting Starks to 21 yards on 18 carries. While he struggled, backup tailback Mario Henry (5-9, 202) totaled eight carries for 49 yards.
The top receiving threat for the Bulls is Naaman Roosevelt, another sophomore. Roosevelt caught 31 passes as a true freshman and also handled punt return and kickoff return duties. He had a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Bowling Green and averaged 13.1 yards per punt return. (Who said Travis Shelton was the only superstar return threat in the MAC?)
The funny thing about Starks and Roosevelt is that both of them first practiced with Buffalo at quarterback. But the Bulls seem to be better with both of them on the field at the same time, as long as Willy can get them the ball.
The question this week is how much Roosevelt will play. He took a hard hit against Rutgers and left the game with dizziness. Gill listed him as probable at the beginning of the week.
Willy has several other experienced targets at wide receiver, where the Bulls appear to have gotten much better since the Owls last saw them. The evidence: Senior wideout Terrance Breaux is not even on the depth chart this week. Breaux was Buffalo’s top pass catcher through the first five games last year and had a 50-yard catch against Temple.
On both sides of the line of scrimmage, the Bulls are more experienced than the Owls. Four of their five offensive linemen have started together for eight straight games, though, like Temple, they’ve flip-flopped a couple spots this year. On the defensive line, Buffalo features three returning starters.
Gill’s linebackers are also experienced, but the defensive backfield features two sophomores, a junior college transfer, and a true freshman in the starting lineup.
Rutgers exposed Buffalo’s pass defense deficiencies, as quarterback Mike Teel completed 12 of 16 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns in the first half of a 38-3 blowout.
The Bulls were equally bad against the run and pass last season. Opponents averaged 185 yards rushing per game and completed 67 percent of their passes. While the offense doubled its point total from 2005, the Buffalo defense gave up 431 points, after giving up 327 points in 2005.
Losing so badly to 16th-ranked Rutgers doesn’t mean they’re not better.
One area in which the Bulls fared well last week was on special teams. Senior punter Ben Woods averaged 44 yards per punt and true freshman kicker A.J. Principe converted his first collegiate field goal attempt, a 35-yarder. But, it’s worth noting, the Scarlet Knights opened the game with a 56-yard kickoff return.
The kicking game loomed large in last year’s Temple-Buffalo game. The Bulls missed two field goals as the game remained scoreless through the first three quarters. Ironically, since missing those two field goals, Buffalo kickers (three of them) have converted 10 of 12 field goal attempts.
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