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Danny White was UB AD from 2012-2015. That's only 3 years, but boy are we benefiting from his decisions. His NYBI is no more, but it's that initiative that has set this whole thing in motion. Let's look at 4 key hires that changed the course of UB Athletics. First and foremost, he had the guts to replace Reggie Witherspoon. Now I love Coach Witherspoon. He did so much for UB Basketball, but for one reason or another, he just couldn't get over the hump. White came in and he decided that it was not enough. He released Coach W. It was a risky move. He took another risk by hiring a coach in Bobby Hurley with zero head coaching experience. Bobby Hurley took us to the promised land in year 2. His sudden decision to move to ASU put the whole operation in jeopardy. So what does White do? He quickly moves to hire the assistant who was coaching HS bball only 2 years ago. I think all of us were satisfied with Nate Oats, but let's face it, we didn't know he wold be this good. Not only has he been a great coach, but he's been a great recruiter. He no longer had a big name behind him in his recruiting pitch, but still managed to pull in some talent. I would say that first year, it was mostly finding undiscovered talent, not necessarily big names. Well Nate Oats is a star in college basketball. He's not a rising star, he's a star. UB women had never gone to an NCAA tournament in its history. Well, we all know Felisha Legette-Jack took us there twice. Once in 2016 and then to the sweet sixteen in 2018. So who made this hire? Well it was back in 2012 and that was under you guessed it Danny White (June 2012). The hire was a coach who had experience at a major university, but didn't meet expectations. UB basketball went to D1 in 1991. The men broke through in 2015. Women in 2016. So that's 24 years of futility for the men. 25 for the women. That's 49 seasons of 0 NCAA appearances. Then we had 2015 Men under Bobby Hurley 2016 Women under FLJ 2017 Men under Nate Oats 2018 Men reach round of 32, Women reach Sweet Sixteen That's 5 NCAA appearances in 4 years. Moving onto football. Coach Quinn had mild success. He did take us to a bowl game, but he too was replaced with Lance Leipold. This time he went to a seasoned coach who had immense success at the DIII level. We were all excited about the hire but questioned whether he could do it at the next level. Well it looks like LL can. He's really put a nice program together with talent at every position. Most importantly he's found a QB and developed that QB. Now the amazing thing about all these four hires is that there is absolutely no pattern. One was someone with 0 head coaching experience. One was a HS coach. One was a coach who was given a chance and failed. The last was a coach who had success at a lower level. Danny White was a visionary. He is long gone from UB, but I can't believe how good he was for UB. So Danny White, if you are relaxing in some beach in Florida right now in the sun. I want to say, thank you. You did some amazing things in your short time at Buffalo. I hope Buffalonians can forget the hurt feelings from the NYBI initiative in like 5 years and induct you into the UB hall of fame because you were truly a visionary. Without that vision and salesmanship, none of these four coaches are here at UB.

I just realized that we have a big ten team on our schedule every year going forward. The trend started last year with us playing Minnesota. So we didn’t join the Big Ten but it looks like we have set the expectation to compete at that level by Danny White and Lance Leipold. I suspect Alnutt will keep the same philosophy or take us to the next level. 2017 - Minnesota (White) 2018 - Rutgers (White) $900k 2019 - Penn State (Greene) 2020 - Ohio State (Alnutt) 2021 - Nebraska (Greene) 2022 - Maryland (Alnutt) 2023 - Wisconsin (Alnutt) 2024 - only 1 game scheduled. SEC team Mizzou (Alnutt)

Hey I have no ties to Danny White. I am just happy that our program is doing well. I was thinking about how we got here. Not sure where I said this though -> "everything great is because of him and how anything that didn't go well is because people didn't fall in line.". Just trying to give credit where credit is due because some jobs you don't see fruits until years down the line. Anyway, the Big Ten post and the 4 hires post was just coincidence (timing wise). It started with me trying to give credit to Leipold. Then I had to give credit to the guy who hired him and realized how the guy hired Oats and Jack. Won't mention DW much going forward. From time to time it will come up. Just like I mention guys like James Starks, Khalil Mack, BO Oliver (one of my favorite UB players), Modie Cox (my personal friend in college) and some random players and coaches. Anyway, no need to have hard feelings towards any former Bull. I think all former guys are part of the UB family. Not sure why DW should be any different.

Lance Leipold was hired by Danny White. See my other post. We were all somewhat disappointed in season 1 when he went 5-7. Somehow, we all though this guy wouldn't lose. Well when he lost 7 games, we realized that he's human after all. So we cut him some slack. In year 2, the bottom fell out and we finished the season 2-10. We even lost to lowly Albany and it seemed like Buffalo had made a huge mistake in hiring this DIII coach. It looked like he was in over his head. Well in year 3, we saw things turn around. It was a mediocre 6-6 season, but we saw things we hadn't seen in years. A competitive team. A fun team with a high scoring offense. A bright future with a young stud QB. A team that fought all season and finished strong winning 3 games in a row. Here we are in year 4 and the team dare I say it looks great. This offense matches the team that went to the International Bowl that featured Drew Willy, Naaman Roosevelt and James Starks. Perhaps that team with Starks had a more balanced attack. Starks was a HR threat when he touched the ball. Naaman was also a threat to take it any time he touched the ball. I think LL has made some nice adjustments along the way. The hiring of coach Zebrowski was a key ingredient in turning this around. He's done a great job in developing Tyree and serving as the co-offensive coordinator to Kotelnicki who does not have as much experience and perhaps was not ready to be the sole OC for a D1 program. It's still early, but I hope we can lock up LL for many years. I suspect that he will stay for a bit from looking at his history at Wisc-WW. Alnutt will probably need to raise some funds and redo LL's and the Assistant salaries at this rate.