The University at Buffalo football team will make a bowl game appearance for a third consecutive season on Friday when the Bulls take on Marshall in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Christmas Day matchup gives the Bulls an opportunity to end the 2020 campaign on a high note, as Buffalo fell to Ball State in the Mid-American Conference championship game last week, 38-28 in Detroit, Michigan.
Friday’s contest with Marshall will mark the first time since 2004 that the Bulls and Thundering Herd have locked horns on the gridiron. UB and Marshall played each other six times from 1999-2004, when Marshall was part of the MAC (1997-2005), with the Thundering Herd winning all six matchups. In the all-time series between the two schools, Marshall has won eight of the nine meetings.
Similar to the Bulls, Marshall came up short in its conference championship last week, falling to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Conference USA title game, 22-13. With a 20-0 shutout loss to Rice the previous game, the Thundering Herd have lost their last two contests after a 7-0 start to the season.
The matchup to watch will be Buffalo’s rushing attack against Marshall’s rush defense. The Bulls’ 309.2 rushing yards per-game average ranks first among all FBS teams. However, Marshall boasts the second-best run defense in the FBS, giving up and average of just 88.9 yards per-game. The Thundering Herd’s defense also ranks third in the nation in total defense, allowing only 277.7 total yards per-game.
The biggest question mark for the Bulls heading into Friday, ironically, is their run game, which has been the team’s bread and butter all season.
Jaret Patterson was held in check by Ball State in the MAC championship game, finishing with a season-low 47 yards on 18 carries despite running a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. A knee injury early in the third quarter kept Patterson out for the majority of the rest of the game.
“We expect [Patterson] to be ready and able to go,” Bulls head coach Lance Leipold said on Wednesday, prior to the team’s departure for Alabama. “I guess go is go. Would I see a little more rotation? Possibly. But, we’re not going to put him out there if it’s not in at position [where it’s safe]. That’s a trainer, doctor, not Lance Leipold decision.”
Assuming Patterson plays on Friday and bounces back from the uncharacteristic performance against Ball State, he could break a few more records or pass a couple more milestones to put a nice end to an incredible 2020 season for the junior running back, who was named a First Team All-American on Wednesday by USA TODAY.
Patterson needs just one touchdown to reach 20 on the season and break the single-season record of 19 rushing scores he set last year. He also needs 116 yards to reach 4,000 for his career. Patterson could become just the second UB player to rush for 4,000 yards in his career, joining Branden Oliver, who finished his tenure at Buffalo with 4,049. Patterson could break Oliver’s school record with 166 rushing yards on Friday against Marshall.
Buffalo quarterback Kyle Vantrease had one of his best performances with the Bulls in the MAC title game, finishing 29-of-42 passing for 365 yards and a touchdown.
UB will need a solid, collective effort from the whole offense in the Camellia Bowl if they want to score on Marshall’s tough defense that only allows an average of 12.6 points per-game. With the Thundering Herd’s run defense allowing nearly 100 yards per-game less than the pass defense, Buffalo may look to Vantrease to throw the ball more again.
On the defensive side of things for the Bulls, they’ll have to worry about a Marshall offense that averaged over 30 points and 400 total yards a game this season.
Junior running back Brenden Knox leads Marshall with 887 rushing yards and nine touchdowns this season. As a team, the Thundering Herd average 183.2 rush yards per-game.
In the passing attack, quarterback Grant Wells likes to spread the ball around. 16 different Thundering Herd players have caught a pass this season, with 10 of them scoring at least one touchdown.
Tight end Xavier Gaines and wide receiver Corey Gammage will be the top-two names to look out for. Gammage leads Marshall with 29 catches for 321 yards this season, while Gaines’ has put up a team-high 398 reception yards on 26 catches. Both players have scored four touchdowns respectively as well.
As for Wells, the freshman play-caller has had a nice first season with the Thundering Herd. He has thrown for nearly 2,000 yards this season (1,977), while also passing for 18 touchdowns. Wells has had a rough last few games in Marshall’s recent losses, though. He threw five interceptions in the 20-0 loss to Rice on Dec. 5, and was held to just 8-of-23 passing for 138 yards against UAB in the conference title game last week.
Friday’s contest will be the Bulls’ fifth bowl game appearance as a program. UB got its first bowl game victory last season over Charlotte, another Conference USA school, in the 2019 Bahamas Bowl.
Kickoff between the Bulls and Thundering Herd from the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 25. The game will be televised on ESPN.
You can also listen to the action with pregame and postgame coverage on the radio home of the UB Bulls – ESPN 1520.