Ask a Bowling Green football player what was the lowest point of last year’s 2-9 season. Almost every player would probably come to the conclusion there was no lower point than the Sept. 25 meeting with Buffalo.
With 1:27 left in the fourth quarter, the Bull’s Marquis Swarte darted 27 yards for a touchdown to carry Buffalo to a 20-17 win over the Falcons. The win snapped the Bull’s 18-game losing streak and it was the teams first Division I win since 1970.
By the end of the weekend, former BG coach Gary Blackney announced his resignation. Could the Buffalo loss helped provoke the coaches decision? Quite possibly. The loss sent the Falcons to an 0-4 record. With the feeling still burning in the hearts of some of the players on last year’s BG squad, the Falcons are more than ready to play the Bulls again.
“I’m really looking forward to playing Buffalo,” BG safety Chad Long said. “We owe them a big favor because I think the game last year kind of cost us our head coach’s job. I’m going to take this game personally.”
The Falcons are a 22-point favorite as of Thursday, but the team is not taking this game lightly. After all, Buffalo did beat the Falcons last season.
“I think our focus has even grown from last week against Missouri,” BG receiver David Bautista said. “Our focus keeps building. Buffalo is going to be ready to try to come in and beat us again. They’re thinking that because they beat us last year, they can beat us again this year. We’re not taking them lightly. For us it’s payback time.”
The Bulls have many returnees from last year’s squad including Dwarte and Bull’s quarterback Joe Freedy. The same Buffalo team that lost to Rutgers 59-0 last season, played the Scarlett Knights to a 31-15 decision last week.
“They played Rutgers very close,” BG coach Urban Meyer said. “There were some mistakes on both sides, but UB coach Jim Hofher put it best when he said that they won the second half 15 to 11. They competed with Rutgers right down to the wire.
The 6 p.m. Saturday meeting marks the seventh time in school history the Falcons will play under the lights. It’s also the first meeting at Doyt Perry Stadium between the two teams. Meyer said when his team runs out on the field come Saturday, he wants the players to have the same if not more intensity that they displayed last week against Missouri.
“Buffalo is a very good football team as far as I’m concerned,” Meyer said. “And to sit here and think that the people wearing orange are going to show up … that’s not going to happen. You’d better be prepared with the same fever and passion that we prepared with last week. And I think we will. In fact, I know we will.”
