Buffalo Bulls And Baylor Bears, The Series History

editorial note: This is an article from last year which has been altered slightly.

Buffalo and Baylor have collectively been playing football for more than 200 years but it was not until 2007 when the two teams first played as they kicked off a four game series in Amherst, New York. Though the series is only half over it's safe to say UB fans have seen the best and the worst of Baylor football.

The Bears were a very successful team in the Southwest Athletic Conference but In 1996 they joined the University of Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M Universities along with the Big 8 Universities to form the Big 12 Conference. The transition left Baylor a punching bag in the newly formed power conference.

Baylor's history in the Big 12 consisted only of losing conferences when they strolled into Amherst to take on Turner Gill's team. the Bears were averaging less than three wins a season since 1996 and 2007 was shaping up to be just another year.

Blake Szymanski, also known as the guy before RGIII, passed for three touchdowns and ran for another. The Bulls were trailing 10-7 at the half but then the Bears rolled off 17 unanswered points in the third quarter. It was James Starks who finally broke the Baylor momentum early in the 4th quarter on a ten yard pass from Drew Willy.

Of course early 2007 is when UB was just starting to find their groove. They won four of their final seven games to claim a share of the MAC East and built on that the next season with their first MAC title. Then Gill left, Quinn came and UB got bad all over again.

While UB was falling back to earth Baylor was riding RGIII to heights they had not seen since the Clinton administration. The two teams on opposite trajectories met in Waco after Jeff Quinn's first game win over Rhode Island.

Robert Griffin passed for a career-high 297 yards, doing the bulk of that in the first half. He had a part in all four Baylor touchdowns as the Bears beat Buffalo 34-6.

After the departure of Griffin Baylor seemed to get even better as they drubbed Buffalo 70-13 last year in Waco. UB looked good for about 10 minutes as Alex Neutz was a one man receiving corps but the defense was totally ineffective and the Bulls offense could not keep up in the hot Texas sun.

This meeting is the final game of the second series and could be the last time these teams exchange games for another hundred years.