Happy Birthday! State of Bull Run on it's 5th Birthday

Bull Run rose out of the ashes of "MAC Smack". The Smack was my first attempt at blogging and my ignorance of the culture along with my very poor composition skills crippled the site before it really got off the ground. After coming to the realization that I was not up to dealing with Ball State golf, or Kent State track I decided to take some kindly yet pointed advice from a friendly blogger.

The nugget of wisdom passed on was simple; "If you don't love to write make sure you love what you're writing about" So five years ago I decided to bring a UB Blog into the MAC blog-sphere. I jumped over to scout and say UB had a commitment from Rudy Johnson, and Bull Run was born.

About a year and a half later we came on as SBNation's third MAC Blog, along with Hustle Belt and R&B Attack. Two years later Conrad and Dave joined on as full time editors followed shortly by Matt.

Time to get the Thanks out of the way..

I'd like to thank the fan community for accepting us, despite some pretty questionable treatment of the English language. I spend my day in pseudo-code and server configurations, the nuances of our rather odd language are something I occasionally wrestle with.

I'd like to thank Conrad, Dave, and Matt. Dave has been a help behind the scenes since Turner Gill was still our coach. Having him step out into the light and having Conrad and Matt bring their perspective to Bull Run has helped me to enjoy writing here again after it began to get stale during the doldrums of Quinn's early years.

I'd like to thank the Athletics Administration. Under both the regimes of Warde Manuel and Danny White Bull Run has seen support from UB grow. Manuel allowed us interviews with allow of the coaches when Quinn was hired and White has put himself on the other end of the telephone.

The student Athletes who are forever leaving it all on the field. I'm proud to have attended the same institution as all of you. The amount of work you put in both on and off the field is the equal of any student at UB!

I also have to thank my wife, who loves and supports me as I manage this site. Being far from home, Buffalo, is difficult at times but she sees that connecting back vi Bull Run is cathartic.

I'd like to thank all of the Bloggers who helped me get this site going. The guys at Let's Go Rockets were particularly helpful.

What's next for Bull Run?

For Football / Hoops Gameday: We already have the best Buffalo game threads you can find but we're not going to sit on our laurels. Bull Run is looking into ways to further make Bull Run a part of your pre and post game experiences. Right now there are several things being kicked around behind the scenes and as we develop them and I will reveal more.

For Non Revenue: Matt has done an amazing job with the non revenue sports coverage. I would put Bull Run's non revenue coverage up against any site on the SBNation or any other network. I'm hoping to develop more ties with the "Olympic teams" this coming year.

What are our needs:

We've done  lot to grow this site but I believe the 100% growth in year over traffic we have seen in 2014 isis just the beginning of what Bull Run will become. As noted by UB athletics our school, as an institution of learning, is already one of the big boys.

The University at Buffalo is the largest university in the state system of New York. This flagship institution has nearly 30,000 students, more than 220,000 alumni world-wide and is an AAU member. Ranked 51st among all public universities in the United States, UB professional schools such as Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Business and Engineering are ranked in the top 100. With an aggressive plan in UB 2020, the entire university, including the Department of Athletics has immeasurable potential.

Athletics has been lagging behind but is now making significant strides towards eventually matching UB's great academic profile. As UB Athletics grows we will grow but there are some things that could really help us today!

We always need enthusiastic writers who are passionate about UB or Buffalo in general. But we have two specific needs right now.

For Recruiting: Recruiting coverage is hard, but were getting better at it. Many sites, including Hustle Belt, have a devoted recruiting writer. College recruiting is page hit gold but we don't have the resources to devote someone to that aspect of athletics. I will continue to try and stay on top of it but if you know anybody interested please send us a mail.

General Interest about Buffalo: Munch Madness was a huge success this year. Dave created the idea and it has opened my eyes to the fact we need to be about Buffalo and New York beyond just sports. So this is a call out for anyone who saw Munch Madness and thinks they might like to do a similar series or hold down a regular feature highlighting things to do for UB students in and around the city.

If you don't fit these needs but still want to write with us and can make some kind of regular commitment (once a week, once every two weeks, etc..) drop us a line ubbullrun (at) gmail.com