UB football: 3 keys to a successful 2024 season
Can the UB Bulls improve upon last season's 3-9 record? Here are three keys for a successful 2024 season.
1. Pick QB1 and stick with QB1. Unlike a large part of last season, the Bulls need one quarterback, who needs to play the entirety of a game. UB’s previous coaching staff caused too much of an identity crisis within the offense by rotating C.J. Ogbonna with starter Cole Snyder in the second half of last season. Ogbonna handled many of the running plays, while Snyder primarily threw the ball – but the constant swapping disrupted the flow and the chemistry of UB’s offense, and surely bruised confidence.
It also created the opportunity for a new quarterback, as Snyder transferred to Eastern Michigan in January.
University at Buffalo linebacker Shaun Dolac, center, flexes prior to a team photo during media day on Aug. 6 at UB Stadium. Dolac is back in Western New York after a semester at Utah State.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
2. Wide receivers need to get their reps – and take their lumps. UB has 19 wide receivers listed on its roster – expect the Bulls to use a lot of them this season, as a means to cultivate depth and to get necessary in-game experience. Production will be a challenge for a position group that is a necessity in college football. Six of UB’s top seven receivers from last season either graduated or transferred. As a result, UB lost 1,845 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns (of 31 total) from 2023.
Nik McMillan is UB’s top returning receiver (13 catches, 180 yards. one TD in seven games in 2023), and the Bulls added graduate transfers J.J. Jenkins, who led Columbia with 535 yards and four touchdown catches in 2023, and Taji Johnson, who had one 19-yard reception last season with Boston College.
Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Joe Bowen is in his first season at UB after enjoying success at conference rival Miami (Ohio). Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
3. Health and depth at linebacker. Linebacker Shaun Dolac returned to the Bulls as a transfer after spending a semester at Utah State, but he comes back after a high left ankle sprain required surgery and limited him to four games in 2023. Red Murdock and Joe Andreessen, who is now in training camp with the Bills, held down the proverbial fort, but what didn’t help UB last season was that it had little depth behind Murdock and Andreessen.
What will help UB this season: More depth, more experience. UB has 11 linebackers and added defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Bowen. As linebackers coach at Miami (Ohio) the last two seasons, Bowen helped the RedHawks finish tied for seventh in the nation in scoring defense (15.9 points per game), and he coached linebacker Matt Salopek, the MAC’s defensive player of the year in 2023. Miami also won the 2023 MAC championship.