UB92

There is a poster on here who gets exacerbated by flat lines in UBs game flow. I hope he is not also a fan of BGSU. The Falcons were up 57-48 in Kalamazoo with about 17 minutes to go. Six minutes later, they were down 69-59. Nothing like a six minute 21-2 to jumpstart a team. Broncos went on to win by 16.

I was checking on him and Google sent me to his Wikipedia page. Sometimes I am trying to learn more about a famous person and their wiki page is way too short. Or someone who should have a wiki page does not. This is the opposite. As we have learned on this board, the connections for this person have an opinion of him (as a player) that would be a statistical outlier. That’s the nicest way I can put that. Also, the “Personal Life” section…is incomplete.

That’s the thing. Our game threads are shorter because we lost some posters. Some were loyal people who have been here a long time, but got heat most times they were negative AND had to read those “where are the Whitesell haters now” posts after a few wins. This is why it was so disappointing to read that post yesterday. After all, if UB loses a game or is non-competitive in a game and there is criticism of coaching decisions, people get lumped into the “Fire Whitesell” crowd. i love the fact UB won at home as underdog in their first conference game. Regardless of whether they almost gave it back, they didn’t. Go Bulls!

We got to the 4th page of the game thread before someone brought this up. I guess it is progress that you didn’t take a victory lap saying something like “where are all the Whitesell haters now”… which posters did last year after a few wins. I loved the great write ups and insights from the posters about the players in this thread, their improvements, the optimism, etc. For me, that’s good to see. The other part? Not so much, but congrats to you for bringing it up.

OOC is done. I don’t think, as a whole, what happened in the OOC has changed predictions about the conference games. I would anticipate almost all scenarios have UB winning between 7 and 11 of their 18 conference games. That probably covers like 95% of all outcomes for this team. Hopefully I am surprised in a good way, though.

I didn’t mind them not punching it in at the end. They only needed a FG. Needed to go up 2 scores. I was worried they would go for it.

What I expected didn’t matter. I was rooting for two first downs. Got them. Put positivity out into the world. There would have been enough time for negativity IF they blew the lead. Why court it? The refs deciding to review the play with 4 seconds on the clock and then resetting to 25 seconds to burn a bunch more time didn’t hurt either.

Watched the game in the car (thanks YouTubeTV). Just read this game thread. It is pretty weak, to be blunt. So many complaints for a team that won and was up for most of the game. How about a little less negativity for the new year? Go Bulls!!

The hope is his coaching skills will develop as he gets more experience. But having good recruits is a good place to start.

I thought what Oats said the other night after Alabama lost to Gonzaga is applicable to UB as well. You play good teams to figure out the areas where you need to work on. If you don't play good teams, you don't learn where you need to work on (until it is too late). Let's hope that some of the things we have seen come up against the tougher teams are addressed by the time conference action starts (and, of course, emphasize the good things). After all, all teams have strengths and weaknesses. You have to spend most of the time doing things you do well..and less of it doing the things where you struggle.

I actually started to respond to the "radio silent" comment by doing what you did (since the statement was factually false)...then thought "this is a waste". People will see what they want to see, regardless of facts. So I didn't respond. What's most troubling is not the fact that one person posted it, but three people "liked" it.

I remember these sort of posts from 10+ years ago where people would project growth from players and, in the future, watch out!

Here is my holiday gift to all. There is a block user button in your account where you can “ignore” user posts. I know it may be easy to just “read past” a post, but we are human. If you never see it, you never have to engage. Life is too short. I enjoy learning from this board and taking perspectives (whether or not supported with a lot of data) that differ from my own and consider them. But broken records? Axes to grind? Singular messages? Not interested. I bleed blue and I won’t allow individual posters (or anyone, really) to detract from that. UB is my only college team. I wear all of my gear with pride, I follow them all the time and, even if I bailed on a certain coach for MBB, I will always want the team to win (even down 30 points in Atlanta yesterday). I will make sure I am front and center watching the game versus Georgia So. Go Bulls. PS: they have some of that “wooly bully” gear at the bookstore on line for anyone that wanted, but missed out. My dad is supposed to send me a picture of himself wearing that shirt watching the Bills today. Close enough.

My brother went to Alabama and he would only ever speak about football, though he followed basketball and coached it. Since Oats’ arrival, he has spoke about it more. Indeed, I did get a text where he mentioned this second #1 win of the season. I do note that I have a recent text from him about how Alabama deserves a place in the BCS Final Four, but that is another story…

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35216756/atlantic-sun-wac-teams-pairing-move-fbs-sources-say

No…just making a joke about commitments, in general, in light of what happened recently. Until they are here, they aren’t here.

Is he 100% committed or 10000000% committed like one of our recent recruits?

This is an interesting question. If the coach does leave, I’d expect our PFR (portal flow rate) to double. That may cause us to seriously think about cancelling. But I can’t see a scenario where UB doesn’t play this bowl game if Mo is still coach. We have a depth chart. The betting line may move, though!

If your meaning of “contrary” is “as everyone is saying”, then you would be correct. Everyone on this board knows the HC is learning on the job. Everyone on this board (well..maybe not one guy, but I can hide posts) would like for him to learn and get better.

Okay. Point taken. I hope this continues for UB next year. We will need it.

Objection. I would suspect (though I assume someone has the data) that the Alabama kids in the portal will either: go back to Alabama or go to some other P5 program. I assume that you can find highly-recruited P5 guys that go to G5, but I believe that would not happen very often. I would also suspect that the impactful G5 guys are going to P5, while most of the guys who go from P5 to G5 didn't get much playing time.

Oklahoma State is playing Wisconsin in a bowl game. Is it a matchup of Mertz (QB for the Badgers) and Sanders (QB for the Cowboys)? Nope. Those guys won’t meet on the field in Phoenix, but will see each other in the Transfer Portal. We are beyond the pale now. The product is suffering. Something has to be done. I said it before and I will say it again: for many guys, it was a GREAT experience to get recruited, go on visits, speak to coaches, etc, etc. The portal allows you to do it again…this time (for many) with better game tape. It is basically annual free agency in college football with NIL as incentives. While I appreciate the fact we will get to a 12 team playoff soon, this college football free agency has to end. Back to sitting out a year in transfer will stop this. Maybe if your coach leaves, you can transfer without waiting the year, but beyond that? Nope.

Boulder is an awesome location. I think they have a lot to offer. Prime will get the recruits to come. I suspect they could be in a bowl game in two years. Heck, with the portal, they could be in a bowl game next year. I assume, eventually, Sanders would end up in Tallahassee. But Boulder seems like as good a spot as any for his next job. The MAC has now retreated to the level where our head coaches don’t get low P5 jobs (like Colorado), but coordinator positions. If one of our HCs want to move on, I guess they can aspire to a Sun Belt job…

I don't disagree with this. But the President of UB has to be willing to act if something like this were to occur. Even if all of those dominos fall in the way you mention, what we have learned about this President is: He made athletic budget cuts to soccer (M), swimming & diving (M), baseball, rowing (W) You can read between the lines on why we hired Whitesell (he was cheap) Here is UB's Boldly Buffalo campaign for UB athletics: https://www.buffalo.edu/campaign/priorities-and-goals/UB-athletics.html ($30M) I did a random Google search on an athletics campaign or a university. The first one is UNC. https://ramsclub.com/campaign-for-carolina/ ($500M) It is very easy to find other schools raising $100s of millions for athletics. $30M is UB's target...and they have 85% of their goal. Cincy? Going to B12? Raising $100 M https://foundation.uc.edu/news/athletics-day-one-ready-campaign-launch I LOVE this quote from their AD: "We didn’t wait for this moment, we worked for it. And now that it’s here, we’re not getting complacent—we’re coming for the head seat at the table." Now I expect the typical response to this information to be "UB doesn't have those donors", "Buffalo is a professional shorts town", etc., etc. Same old, same old excuses. We need better leadership in this area, plain and simple, and it starts with the President and the AD. We are going to have to wait out this President.

For many years, the MAC has rejected turnover in the major sports (basketball and football). Sure, a team here or there has moved in and out over the past 20+ years (Marshall left in 2005...for the second time, then there were the brief stays by Temple, UMass and UCF). In fact, Since UB joined in 1998, the same 12 teams have been there as full members through thick and thin. And...things are getting thin. I remember when the powers that be made the formal split between "P5" and "G5". Where was the MAC? Was it 6? Was it 7? Danny White pushed the AAC towards "P6" status...t The MAC, slow and steady, kept its 12 teams. Nose to the grindstone. Within the past few years we have seen the rise of the Sun Belt (no more "Fun Belt"). The MAC, plodding away...looking around in curiosity as other conferences raid C-USA. What is the MAC strategy? Slow and steady. Oh...and collect that bag during the OOC football season. Now...the MAC is irrelevant, much closer to MVC than the Sun Belt, in my opinion. And things are getting worse. Even though C-USA looks like a sinking ship, it is still going faster than the MAC. Liberty, which joins C-USA next year, just paid the Coastal Carolina coach $4M to bolt from the Sun Belt to C-USA. And while Liberty has a lot of money to give, it is indicative of where the MAC is. After nearly 25 years in the MAC, UB has settled into that comfortable slot of being a team in the MAC, with no vision beyond. It contrasts starkly with the investment the university has made in other area. I always thought the MAC would be a stepping stone for UB in its "run to division 1". After all, many schools have made a similar run and used conferences as stepping stones (looking at you, UCF, who joins the Big 12 at the beginning of the next fiscal year). UB has been dragged down by the MAC. It is this very high research university in a large city and is a (co) state flagship institution...yet competes at the bottom of "major" football. https://www.si.com/college/2022/09/26/ranking-college-football-conferences-sec-big-ten We just spent Friday in a death struggle against Akron to get to six wins to go to the Gasparilla Mowers Bowl against <state> + <direction> university. "MACTION" is a fun word, but they are making fun of the MAC teams and the conference with those words. They are laughing at us. The Run to Division 1 has stalled in a muddy field somewhere in Ohio, with little hope of getting out. I hope, once Tripathi retires (he turns 72 in January), we can get a President with a better vision about the value of college sports to a region and a flagship institution like UB. I ain't getting any younger, either. Go Bulls.