UB football lands near top of MAC preseason poll
As an annual signifier that college football is just around the corner, MAC media day came and went Thursday. However, with it arrived the conference coaches poll, where UB landed at fourth entering the 2025 season.
As Mid-American Conference football coaches and players descended on Detroit for the MAC Football Kickoff on Thursday, two things were certain for University at Buffalo coach Pete Lembo. Football season is here, and he does not care for your rankings, even when his team projects to finish fourth in the MAC preseason coaches poll.
“I don’t worry much about polls,” Lembo said. However, there was a glimmer of positivity in his reaction to the preseason ranking. “The good news is we’re relevant again.”
Amid the 13-team conference, UB’s projection to finish fourth in the MAC is a notable step in the right direction, coming after two losing seasons in the three years before Lembo arrived in 2024. That’s not even to mention it hasn’t graced the AP Poll since 2020. But after three years as South Carolina’s special teams coordinator, the seasoned coach ventured to Amherst and quickly flipped the script, guiding UB to a 9-4 record with a 26-7 victory over Liberty in the Bahamas Bowl last season.
Buffalo Bulls head coach Pete Lembo calls out during practice at the Murchie Family Fieldhouse on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News
In Lembo’s eyes, those wins mean something. Preseason rankings do not. This is a new year, and his fixer-upper is far from ready to be listed.
“We want to contend for conference championships,” Lembo said in June. “We think we can be in the hunt every year. … That starts with maintaining our roster, which I think we’ve done well.”
During an era when the college football transfer portal operates more like a free agency period, except that every player’s contract is up, Lembo could teach a course in roster retention. Among the FBS’ 136 teams, UB was one of 10 schools with the fewest departing transfers. Last year’s rushing, receiving, sack and forced fumble leaders? All still here.
University at Buffalo linebacker Red Murdock said the team’s ultimate goal is to win a MAC championship.
Derek Gee, Buffalo News
Among those are running back Al-Jay Henderson (1,078 yards) and linebacker Red Murdock (7 forced fumbles, 156 tackles), who figure to be the leaders of UB’s 2025 effort. Both joined Lembo in Detroit, and they share a similar view to their leader.
“The last year means nothing,” Murdock said during media day. “If you really want to look at it, we didn’t reach our ultimate goal of winning the MAC Championship.”
If the conference’s coaches poll is any indication, UB will have some work to do if it wants to win its first conference championship since 2008. Toledo projects to win the conference, collecting six first-place votes. It is coming off an 8-5 season that concluded with a victory over Pittsburgh in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. Last year’s conference champion, Ohio, is projected to finish in third. The team that it defeated in the 2024 MAC championship, Miami (Ohio), fills the slot above it, with four first-place votes.
But the concept of these rankings should be cherished because, to Lembo’s delight, they could evaporate soon. Conferences such as the Big Ten and Big 12 are shifting away from preseason projections, citing how they may skew the perception of their teams later in the year by the College Football Playoff selection committee. The MAC has not yet taken the same action, as rankings generate fanbase intrigue, something backed up by the conference account’s 60,000 X impressions on its coaches poll post.