The Pregame Meal: The Quasi Post-Regime Meal

Pregame Song: "Goin Up" IAMSU!

Hopefully UB is going up as a result of the coaching change...

Pregame Meal: Doritos Jalapeno Fire

Fire Chips > Fire Up Chips

Pregame Drink: Water (and White Bread)

The pregame drink is the classic palate cleanser, white bread and water. The Alex Wood era begins and although he will probably not be the future head coach of the UB Bulls, he could serve as a nice palate cleanser between the Quinn era and the next era.

Eight Factors for Game Eight

The UB Offense vs the CMU Defense

Buffalo is #3 in the MAC in yards per play and points per game, CMU is #2 in yards per play allowed and points allowed per game. This is the unstoppable object vs. the immovable force.

UB is #2 in the MAC in yards per attempt passing, and 5th in the MAC In yards per rushing attempt, while CMU is 1st in yards per passing attempt allowed and 5th in rushing yards per carry allowed. You can't write it any clearer, that this will be strength vs strength.

HOWEVER,

In CMU's wins their opponents have run 30 times for 3.6 yards per carry.

In Buffalo wins, they have run 47 times for 4.34 yards per carry.

In CMU losses their opponents have run 40 times for 4.5 yards per carry.

In Buffalo losses they have run 38 times for 4.5 yards per carry.

A) In Buffalo's wins they've run the ball better, but ran 9 fewer times #Quinnball.

B) Buffalo should look to run 10-15 times a quarter to wear down the CMU defense.

The UB Defense vs the CMU Offense

Weakness vs Weakness here, CMU is 9th in scoring, 10th in yard per play and 8th in yards per rush. Meanwhile UB is 10th in scoring defense, 13th in yard per play and 8th yard per rush. If you will the movable object versus the unstartable force.

HOWEVER,

Lucky us, CMU is 3rd in yards per attempt, and UB of course is 13th in yard per attempt. CMU is averaging 8 yards per attempt, and UB is sacrificing 9.2 yards per attempt. Which is ridiculous, if you got the ball on your own 8, you'd score in 10 plays on average as long as you never ran the ball.

Will the secondary be better with Tepper and Wood than it was with Tepper and Quinn? If not, CMU will have a field day.

Senior Day, brought to you by MACtion is everything wrong with college football

I get MACtion, but lets not pretend it's not a terrible money grab. People say the MAC needs exposure, but would the MAC be playing on weeknights if they weren't getting paid for it? If no, then it's about money. Ironic as the UNC academic scandal drops, and people start to pretend they care about academics, while avoiding the real issue, student athletes have it hard enough without midweek action tearing through their schedule. I know every other sport deals with midweek games, but I think football is unique, the number of athletes, the race (no racist?) of the participants, and the higher performance pressure on football athletes make midweek games more damaging.

On top of that who really likes these games? Take away the leisurely tailgate, and replace it with a race from work to the stadium on a Tuesday night. Replace a 50 degree Saturday afternoon with a 20 degree Wednesday night. You live in the Central, Mountain, West or god forbid the Aleutian-Hawaiian zone, your bad, no football for you, you're still at work.

Turns out the players don't particularly like playing their senior game in front of a couple thousand people on a random Thursday night, and voted to move senior day to late October. So enjoy the final Saturday of UB football, and remember no one enjoys this arrangement except the people making money to inconvenience everyone minus gambling degenerates in Vegas.

UB has 21 Seniors, including 5 DBs, 4 DLs and 4 OLs and they are 3 wins away from being the winningest class in UB's FBS history.

Special Teams

CMU is kicking 62% field goals, Buffalo 50%. With Rain and 20 mph winds in the forecast, whatever team decides to just go for it instead of attempting the field goal will probably win.

X-Factors

Thomas "You're going to miss his running" Rawls, paid his debt to society and now he wants revenge! He is the MAC's leading rusher despite only playing six games. In his last 4, he has 129 carries for 731 yards and 7 TDs.

Anthone "Anth1" Taylor is also doing well, third in the MAC in rushing yards. His last four games: 124 carries for 685 yards and 6 TDs.

Whoever has the better running day will probably win the game, although both backs' teams have been 2-2 in their last 4 despite Herculean efforts by their RBs.

Going Streaking

CMU has a 3 game winning streak against Buffalo and a 2 game winning streak at UB stadium. UB last defeated CMU in 2004, a 36-6 UB win over first year coach Brian Kelly and first year OC Jeff Quinn.

Buffalo is 10-1 in their last 11 games at UB Stadium and during that time they have defeated both Eastern and Western Michigan at UB Stadium. A win today will give UB the home Directional Slam.

Situation of the game

Cooper Rush has surrendered 5 Sack Fumbles this year and Thomas Rawls has fumbled 3 times. UB will need to get Brandon Crawford rushing Cooper Rush around the end, and Adam Redden hacking at the ball whenever Thomas Rawls carries the ball.

Game Score brought to you by Science

CMU beat BSU (32-29 loss), Ohio (28-10 win) and NIU (34-17 win) by an average score of 30.3 - 19.67.

BSU vs Army (Army 33-24), Ohio vs BGSU (BGSU 31-13) and NIU vs Miami (NIU 51-41) puts UB on average 5.33 points better than the average of BSU, Ohio and NIU.

Add UB's 7 point superior defense to the BSU Ohio NIU (BON) average you get 26.66 points.

Subtract 1.6 ponts for defense inferior to the BON average you get 32 points.

Thus the score will be CMU 32, Buffalo 27.

A new era, a new Bruwpeg Champion, yours truly.