The holidays were, indeed, cheerful for the University at Buffalo football team on Christmas Day.
The Bulls defeated Marshall in the Camellia Bowl, 17-10, on Friday to put a bow on the 2020 season; finishing the campaign with a 6-1 record.
It was announced just before kickoff that Buffalo running back Jaret Patterson, the FBS’ leading rusher in yards per-game (178.7), would be out for the game; making fellow junior Kevin Marks the Bulls’ No. 1 back against Marshall.
Marks filled Patterson’s void quite well, rushing for 138 yards on 35 carries and scoring the game-winning touchdown with 1:09 left on the clock in the fourth quarter.
The go-ahead score late in the final quarter was the Bulls’ first points since the 5:33 mark of the second quarter, when Alex McNulty kicked a 25-yard field goal, his first made field goal of the season, to put UB up 10-0.
Marshall’s offense got off to a very slow start, punting on each of its first three drives of the game (going three-and-out on two of them).
However, the fourth time was the charm for the Thundering Herd. Marshall put together a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive in just under five minutes. A two-yard touchdown run from Knowledge McDaniel completed the series for Marshall, and pulled them within three points of the Bulls with under a minute to go until halftime. The Bulls would take that 10-7 lead into the locker room.
On the first possession of the third quarter, Marshall went on another double-digit play scoring drive, this one lasting over six minutes. However, the Thundering Herd had to settle for just a field goal, which was a tough pill to swallow after they had a chance to score on first-and-goal at the Buffalo one-yard line. Nevertheless, the 21-yard kick from Shane Ciucci knotted the score at 10-10.
Much like the second half against Ball State in the Mid-American Conference championship game a week prior, the Bulls’ offense couldn’t get much going in the second half. Kyle Vantrease was intercepted on the first play of the fourth quarter, thwarting Buffalo’s first solid drive in quite some time.
Luckily for UB, the Thundering Herd’s offense wasn’t finding much rhythm either. Following a Marshall punt, the team’s fifth of the game, with 7:27 left in the fourth quarter, Vantrease and co. finally came alive.
The Bulls went on a 13-play, 88-yard drive that lasted 6:18, and ended with Marks’ go-ahead touchdown. Jovany Ruiz and Antonio Nunn caught three and two passes respectively on the scoring drive. Nunn had arguably the biggest grab of the night, a 12-yard catch in the middle of the field on third-and-five at the Marshall 13-yard line that moved the Bulls to the goal line, leading to Marks’ touchdown.
Nunn, a senior, finished his final game with the Bulls with four receptions for 49 yards. Ruiz, who received a scholarship earlier this week after a breakout season, led all receivers with seven catches for 61 yards.
As for Vantrease, the Bulls quarterback completed 16 passes on 27 attempts for 140 yards to go with his interception. Vantrease did run for a touchdown as well. His one-yard scamper into the end zone gave the Bulls a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter.
On the defensive side, UB was without its top pass rusher this season in defensive end Malcolm Koonce. Despite his absence, the Bulls shut down a Marshall offense that averaged over 30 points per-game going into Friday’s matchup. The Thundering Herd also averaged over 400 total yards of offense per-game this season prior to the Camellia Bowl, and was held to just 248 against the Bulls.
Grant Wells, Marshall’s red-shirt freshman quarterback and All-Conference USA First-Team selection this season, finished 13-of-20 for just 114 yards. Wells was also sacked four times. The two biggest sacks came in the final few plays, with Kadofi Wright getting to Wells with 15 seconds remaining, followed by Eric Black’s game-sealing sack on fourth down with just three seconds left on the clock.
Following another successful season, despite coming up short in the MAC Championship, the biggest question surrounding the Bulls heading into 2021, other than the future of head coach Lance Leipold, who may draw interest from other programs, is where will Patterson go from here?
The junior running back could go to the NFL after setting the college football world ablaze for a few months this fall; however, with two MAC title game losses in three years under his belt, Patterson may want to return to take care of some unfinished business.
Should Patterson come back, he’d likely break the remainder of the Buffalo rushing records he hasn’t already. Patterson finished this season with 1,072 yards on 141 carries and 19 touchdowns, tying his own single-season rushing touchdown record from 2019. For his three-year career now at UB, Patterson has ran for 3,884 yards and 52 touchdowns. Patterson already holds the school record for career touchdowns. But, he’s 116 yards away from 4,000 for his career and 166 yards shy of breaking Branden Oliver’s school record (4,049).
With the win over Marshall, the Bulls now have two bowl game victories in the last two years, a good trend after losing the first three in the program’s history. Buffalo is also 1-0 on Christmas Day, as Friday’s contest marked the first time UB football played on Dec. 25.