weareub46

5 hours ago, UB92 said:

This upcoming year was going to be crucial in Oats' development as a coach.  Gone would be the five seniors and Oats would have to figure out how to merge all of this talent on to the roster and get them to click.  I was interested to see how it would happen.  Would it have ended up with a MAC crown?  Who knows.

But now that is moot. 

I don't get your point about "goals are much lower to continue the upward trend".  So...enlighten me.  What lower goals next year, in your opinion, would constitute continuing this upward trend?  I am curious.  Remember...a month ago we were looking to be the "Gonzaga of the East".

We raised the ceiling this past year. Next year we can raise the floor

5 hours ago, UB92 said:

This upcoming year was going to be crucial in Oats' development as a coach.  Gone would be the five seniors and Oats would have to figure out how to merge all of this talent on to the roster and get them to click.  I was interested to see how it would happen.  Would it have ended up with a MAC crown?  Who knows.

But now that is moot. 

I don't get your point about "goals are much lower to continue the upward trend".  So...enlighten me.  What lower goals next year, in your opinion, would constitute continuing this upward trend?  I am curious.  Remember...a month ago we were looking to be the "Gonzaga of the East".

I don’t think a deep run or being ranked need to be our goals next year for us to still keep progressing. Yea we didn’t get w deep run in the tourney but we did lose to a championship game team and we still made it out of the first round. 

I think just making it to the tournament would be a huge step. We are losing 5 seniors, 2 coaches and a handful of recruits. If we can still win a MAC championship given those circumstances it just proves even more that this program is legit. That’s not as gaudy of a goal as this year. I’m just saying if we still have success in a rebuilding year, people will continue to take us seriously and not just a flash in the pan 

Obviously there’s still stuff going on in the basketball world and we will all be following along with assistant hires and player transfers etc. but I’m already starting to get hyped for football. Almost time to start switching over and I can’t wait. Let’s prove everyone wrong this year and keep this athletics program moving up. 

Also LL looks dope in those blue shades 

On 3/20/2019 at 9:34 PM, RecoveringHillbilly said:

UB finally posted the spring football guide.

Best: Charlie Jones is still here. So are our veteran transfers who will help our depth, Ashton White, Devon Russell, and Trey Derouen.

Worst: Rodney Scott isnt mentioned. James Potts all over again if he is gone, FL speed with many offers but nada production. Reed and Hawkins have moved on, so less RB depth.

Surprising: Lefebvre working out at WR! 

Lefebvre (jeez that takes a long time to make sure you type right) working out as a WR is very interesting. Who would our TE be then??

I’m pretty happy with them hire. I too was kinda upset that we got a hiring firm and it took this long just to promote an assistant already here but as others have said I’m just hoping that they did their due diligence and interviews and picked the best candidate which happened to be Jim. Maybe he just checked all the boxes better than all other candidates and that’s all we can ask for. 

Hodgson is essentially dead to me. I’m glad he’s not here. Yea this is all business but I don’t want someone who says they will go be an assistant elsewhere if they don’t get the job here. If you’re really dedicated to being the coach at UB then focus just on that and don’t take a plane ride with oats. I want someone 100% dedicated to being the coach of UB and he clearly had his mind elsewhere so screw em. 

That being said hopefully we can bring in some experience with recruiting as an assistant and it’ll be interesting to see who gets hired for that position. 

I find it interesting some of you are acting like “just” winning a MAC championship next year would be a step back. Yea it’s nothing like this season and it’s honestly a long shot right now but if we can somehow put together a team that wins the MAC next year that is a huge next step for this program. Everyone knows and expects it will be a rebuilding year. If a rebuilding year manages a MAC championship (which would be 5 out of the last 6) it just further cements the fact that we are better than this conference and maybe deserve a move up. It’s been rough lately as a UB fan but I’m starting to become optimistic again even if it’s stupid. Our goals next year are much lower for this whole program to continue the upward trend we all desire 

Kinda surprised UB @ cuse isn’t up there 

Yea I just picked UCF because it’s one of that further AAC teams but a trip to Disney world and a UB game sounds delightful 

It would be tough/impossible to travel to games in places like UCF and Houston for most but I think anyone would be more inclined to take a road trip to a game @UCONN or @Cinci than any of the MAC schools 

Anybody else see the Virginia Purdue game? Holy cow that was entertaining 

7 hours ago, skrabukes said:

Except they aren't looking for a head coach.

And they made it to the elite 8

Not going to lie. Watching TT derail Michigan exactly like they did to us felt good. It wasn’t the same kind of shutdown against Gonzaga but man it def takes a little bit more of the sting away knowing we lost to a final 4 team 

4 hours ago, dutchcountry7 said:

Screwed?  That is insane. Hodgson is showing poor character. He is acting entitled and attempting to extort the school. 

Seriously. Just because we hired oats because he was an assistant doesn’t mean we are at all obligated to keep doing the same thing. ADMA is going to hire whoever he thinks is the best fit whether it’s Hodgkin or not. As others have said I’m not happy about how it feels like Hodgkin is already trying to work for bama. We just had our hearts broken by someone we thought was dedicated to staying here. Hodgkin is already showing he isn’t dedicated and he isn’t even the coach. Bad start 

3 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

I read exactly what you wrote.  You were upset that some one who signed a "five year" extension (it was only really one extra year from the deal he signed a year ago) left less than two weeks later.  But you had no problem if he left after one or two years.  Either way he would have not "lived up" to his contract and statements.

How did the extension work out for me?  I m still breathing and supporting UB.  Seems it worked out well for me.  It also worked out for many people on this board as well.  It took, give or take an hour or two, about six hours before people were speculating on what the buyout for Oats was.  So apparently, people here were expecting Oats to leave.  You can look at the contract extension as a $250,000.00 donation to UB from Alabama on behalf of Oats.

If you are Oats how do you say no to an offer that in the first year alone will most likely give you enough money to put your three children through college and over the contract will get you a level of comfort that two weeks earlier was unimaginable?

I have seen coaches come and go at UB.  Some left for greener pastures some were let go because of performance on or off the field of play.  I have seen Athletic Directors come and go, from being moved out because they were felt to not be the right person or for greener pastures.  This is 2019 and sports has been a business, and will continue to be a business, rather than fun and games for decades.

Sports have always been a business. It’s nothing new 

Maybe I don’t really know what I’m talking about but I feel like there should be a way that SUNY can equally support all of its schools academicaly but focus its support for athletics on the obvious choice. 

Not sure how the money flows between SUNY and the schools but don’t you think if a school like UB became bigger athletically and started making a good chunk more money some of it would flow back to the SUNY system? 

5 hours ago, bull_trojan said:

Amazing that since 2001 in Football and M. Basketball, we've only had 8 coaches

Hofher -> Gill -> Quinn -> Lance

Spoon -> Hurley -> Oats - > New person

In the overall scheme of things that's pretty good...especially as 3 of the last 4 departures were to major jobs and not firings...

In that time Pitt had 5 Football coaches and 4 Basketball Coaches despite being major...

And I think we had a better Football and Basketball season this year than the Panthers.

This is the positivity I needed right now 

We need to get out of the MAC. Not saying we necessarily even deserve it yet but staying in the conference only allows flash in the pan levels of success. Here’s to hoping something opens up. I’m a firm believer in the AAC being our next step. I don’t care about how financially taxing it would be for a while. Travel would be rough but any AAC team would draw more of a crowd to ub stadium or alumni arena than any MAC team 

22 hours ago, bull_trojan said:

UConn not happy with the deal.

If they finally go back to the Big East it really opens the door for UB.

but without UConn the AAC is not as attractive for men’s and women’s basketball...

 

I fully believe they will be back but UConn men’s were pretty awful this year 

On 3/26/2019 at 3:44 PM, ChubbyHubby said:

Check out where the football team held their practice today. 

https://www.ubbullrun.com/2019/3/26/18282261/functional-field-house

Saw this video. Nice to have a bit of good news. Field house looks nice on the inside. I still think it’s pretty boring on the outside. Will never understand how it could cost so much to just like idk..paint some blue and white stripes but still, the functionality will be great for the team 

Also the whole SUNY not allowing us to be a flagship pisses me off so much. I’m so sick of them holding us back so all the other schools who don’t even have division 1A football can get a share. Idiotic 

13 hours ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Has anyone seen anything about Jeenathan Williams and Ronaldo Segu? Anyone know their status?

I follow both of them on Instagram but that’s about it. Williams hasn’t posted anything relevant. Segu made a post thanking coach oats and saying he loved him. Oats commented back saying he loved him too. That’s about all I can report 

I actually haven’t been on here much since we lost to TT. That and then the oats news just really put me in a slump. I’m sorry people want to move on taking about just a new coach but I kinda wanna get my feelings out on the whole situation. Maybe it’ll make me feel better. 

I don’t really blame oats for tripling his salary. I’m just really upset about him saying he wanted to build something here. I know that’s just how this business works but damnit I just wish we could get someone here that was actually sincere about that. I’m so terrified of us dropping back to insignificance and the odds are seriously against us. Yea it’s just business but it really screws us over. We are going to lose recruits and I’m not going to be surprised one bit if we lose graves/segu/Williams. We just need to hope and pray the new coach can do what Oats did and kept the ball rolling here in buffalo. 

Im also pretty upset that there’s still been no statement from oats to us about anything and it all seemed so abrupt. I just can’t inagine that if he had any feelings towards buffalo that he would make this kind of decision in a matter of like 2 days. Seems like bama was really interested in him. You really think they wouldn’t wait a little bit? He’s already off offering people we had offered and he hasn’t even said goodbye. It’s a little bit of a slap in the face. The contract extension is good for us and maybe that was his parting gift to us but it’s still a sucky situation and we are going to be lucky if this doesn’t cause a massive downward spiral. I really just thought we were finally building an athletics culture here and now we’re screwed and likely back to square one. I’m thankful of the amazing last couple of years we had but I don’t want to just be a flash in the pan. Remember when Loyola-Chicago said that? Yea that didn’t age well...

I’m not really someone who knows what possible candidates there are out there I just want someone who will stay.. Hurley was great breaking the barrier and getting us in the tourney but there was no doubt from the start we would be a stepping stone so it almost hurt less. It hurt that he took our players but little did we know, that wouldn’t make a difference. I didn’t like how whiney he was even when he was with buffalo and we saw he still throws stupid hissy fits on the sideline at ASU so I’m not sad at all about him moving on. Oats hurts more though. Liked him much more as a person and a coach and I really want to build something here. I guess shame on me for thinking he was sincere. Although one of the current assistants might be our best bet to retain players and recruits I just feel like they would jump ship immediately after any success. If I was AD I’d be most interested in the person most sincere about staying. Not sure if Leipold has had any offers but we know he stayed at whitewater for forever and I’m under the impression it was tough getting him away. That’s the kind of person I want. 

On 3/28/2019 at 9:22 AM, DooleyBull06 said:

Pretty much. It’s all about the things that don’t matter on the court. All the ancillary things that UB has to improve. We need to become more first class. But what comes first the chicken or the egg. Winning on the court or building off of it? Do they work in conjunction? If so why haven’t we seen capital improvements over the last few years of success from our b-ball programs?

UB has had a taste of success. I know I want more of it. Hopefully administration feels the same and does the necessary things to keep this train on the right tracks. I don’t just want to revert back to just another MAC team.

I think winning on the court needs to come first. People need to see success to start going to games and donating money. We saw a huge uptick in attendance this year. We must’ve profited a good chunk more than previous years. Next comes donors but that takes time. I can promise you all that if I ever become a millionaire I’ll become a huge donor to UB but alas I’m nowhere close right now. I feel like general school support has really taken off. Heck even back when I was in school 5 or so years ago UB athletics was a complete joke. People would actually make fun of you for going to games. With a new culture of kids going to UB to watch sports and those who have seen the success you can only hope they eventually become donors. It just takes a lot of time and we are at a critical point right now. We’ve had some nice success over a couple of years and this year basketball and football overall were pretty great. It’s amazing how quickly we could fall back to insignificance. Football wins 2 games next year and basketball has a losing season and we are back to step one. I’m not saying we need to have the same level of success as this year but we need football to have a winning season and therefore a bowl berth and basketball needs at least a winning season. Thinking about how difficult that’s going to be with all we lose next year terrifies me. We need sustained success. 

Ditto what everyone has said. Of course I was down about the TT game for a while but I was more afraid of us just getting out of the first round again and we did that. Numerous accomplishments all year but honestly the biggest one for me was beating cuse in the dome. You can’t take that one away from us and it still feels great 

Idk TT defense has been suffocating and their size is really hurting us. We need to rebound better but we are playing pretty terribly. We get back to our game and we can win this. Just gotta keep the score close 

All season long I was just worried about us making the tourney. Once we were in I was worried about us just getting out of round one so we proved we weren’t hyped. Everything now is icing on the cake. Make no mistake this would be an upset if we win. Let’s go show the world we belong