The 24th-ranked University at Buffalo football team will wrap up its 2020 regular season this Saturday afternoon as the Bulls are set to host division rival Akron at UB Stadium. The Bulls will look to improve to 5-0, finish the shortened Mid-American Conference season undefeated and move on to the MAC Championship game.
Buffalo could’ve clinched the MAC East division title and a spot in the conference championship last weekend with a victory over Ohio, but the game was canceled due to “roster issues with the Ohio football team related to COVID-19 tests and subsequent contact tracing.”
Luckily for the Bulls, the MAC announced Wednesday morning that UB had officially won the East division and will play in the conference championship on Friday, Dec. 18 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
While the Bulls are likely still unhappy about not getting to play Ohio, the team has only gotten positive news since the game’s cancellation. Last Sunday, Buffalo found itself it the AP Top-25 poll for the first time in program history, coming in at No. 24 in the rankings. UB, the only undefeated team remaining in the MAC and the FBS’ leader in points per-game (50.8), is the first team from the conference to be ranked in the Top-25 since Western Michigan in 2016.
Running back Jaret Patterson also received some more national recognition following the canceled game that was to be played in Athens, Ohio. It was announced on Monday that Patterson was named a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award, given annually to college football’s best running back. The junior joins nine other backs from around the FBS on the list of semifinalists, including Clemson’s Travis Etienne, Alabama’s Najee Harris and Kyren Williams from Notre Dame.
Despite all the craziness and outside noise between the AP rankings, the national attention on the program and Patterson, the Ohio game being canceled, the status of the MAC East Division title, etc., Buffalo head coach Lance Leipold has done his best to keep things on an even keel. Currently in his sixth year at the helm for the Bulls, Leipold is preparing for Akron just like he has for any opponent over the last half-decade here.
“One way that we can be successful as a whole is to keep making sure that we do the things that got us to this point,” Leipold said Tuesday in his weekly press conference via Zoom. “When you start worrying about things you don’t control…style points and all of those things, we need to do what it takes to win the next game, and then get ourselves ready in a position to play the one after that.”
The Zips (1-4) earned their first win of the season last week, a 31-3 triumph over Bowling Green. Aside from that victory, Akron has really struggled in 2020, losing their four games by an average margin of 31 points.
Saturday’s game could potentially be a huge mismatch in the Bulls’ favor. Buffalo and Akron are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to stats and rankings within the MAC. The Zips rank 11th in the conference in both offense and defense scoring, ahead of only Bowling Green in both categories. Buffalo’s point per-game average (50.8) is more than 30 points higher than Akron’s (19.2). The Bulls also average 511.5 total yards per-game, while Akron averages just 296.6.
Akron will not only be faced with the challenge of trying to keep up with Buffalo’s top-ranked scoring offense, but also trying to break through a defensive group that has played well all season. Despite missing a number of starters each game, the Bulls rank second in the MAC in scoring defense, averaging just 24.5 points against per-game. The Zips’ offense doesn’t seem to lean on the run or the pass as opposed to the other, maybe because neither strategy has worked well this year, but based on numbers, they’ll have a tough time finding holes in this Buffalo defense.
Patterson, who has already accumulated 920 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground this season and leads the nation with an average of 230 rushing yards per-game, is certainly primed to have another huge performance on Saturday. Akron’s defense gives up an average of 212.2 rushing yards per-game as it is, and they haven’t even faced the best back in the conference yet in 2020. With 1,000 yards for the season and a conference championship game in sight, one should not expect Patterson to take it easy on Saturday by any means.
Over just the last two games, Patterson has rushed for 710 yards and 12 touchdowns; both are FBS records for a two-game stretch. If Patterson can also make it to 1,000 rushing yards for the season on Saturday, he’ll tie the NCAA record for least amount of games (five) to get to 1,000 yards in a season.
UB has been mostly on the winning side of things recently in this division rivalry. The Bulls have won eight of their last 11 games against Akron, including six consecutive victories at UB Stadium.
Kickoff between the Bulls and Zips from UB Stadium is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 12. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
You can also listen to the action, with pregame and postgame coverage on the radio home of the UB Bulls – ESPN 1520.