This is part three of five in an attempt to create a working compendium of Bull Run terms and dictionary entries in advance of the 2014 season. Catch parts one and two here:
The Essential UB Bull Run Glossary: Ed. 1 Vol. 1 - Bull Run
The Essential Bull Run Glossary Ed. 1, Vol 2 - Bull Run
#MACKTION - This one is relatively simple. #MACtion is a twitter hashtag-cum-branding tool that everyone in our conference has embraced. The original #MACtion arose out of an appreciation for the niceties that made the MAC what it is: midweek football games in November and general distaste for defensive football. #MACtion is wacky and wild. #MACtion is Northern Illinois 63, Toledo 60 on November 1, 2011.
#MACKtion is something entirely different. It's been a while since 46 suited up, so you're excused if you've forgotten.
#MACKtion is the best player on the field in the Horseshoe.
#MACKtion is throwing a UMass tackle to the ground after being taunted all week by his coaches.
#MACKtion is three sacks and three forced fumbles in the first half against Miami.
IN MY OPINION - Another crossover tidbit from UBFan.com. In the last year, year and a half or so, 'in my opinion' has dominated the chatter over there, thanks to its powerful anti-litigation properties. Excessive use of 'in my opinion' may cause excess verbosity, a troubling lack of punctuation, a reliance on the Bandits and Bisons as important talking points re: UB sports, and an inability to disagree without resorting to personal attacks or respecting someone else's knowledge. More severe side effects are unfortunately not uncommon and truthfully unavoidable.
Please see a doctor if your 'in my opinion' lasts longer than four hours.
QUINNBALL - For as easy as it is to identify the key qualities of ReggieBall, QuinnBall is a little tougher to pin down, in part because it's less a specific strategy than the lack of one, and the resulting fallout.
The Mighty Quinn came into his first season (20XX) with designs of using the same no-huddle offense he had worked with Brian Kelly at Cincinnati. UB's personnel didn't really fit the scheme, but that proved to be no obstacle to the ultimate destination... a season we've scraped out of our memory.
I've used this format for one definition already this post. So I'll try it again.
Quinnball is Chazz Anderson.
Quinnball is, as well as it worked out, Bo Oliver over Ike Nduka.
Quinnball is Nick Sizemore.
Quinnball is Zordich coming in against Baylor.
Quinnball is this excellent piece by Conrad after the Clash at the Ralph loss to Bowling Green last November:
Bowling Green Recap: The Quinn Era Was On Display - Bull Run
The 2013 Bulls came to play last Friday, but they didn't play a full 60 minutes. They let the Bulls of 2012, 2011, & 2010 play a little. As a result, the present Bulls won't play for a championship & questions linger about the Bulls of the future.
LEON WILLIAMS - I imagine that most of the Red Sox fans among our readership jumped aboard in the early 2000s when they got their act together as a franchise and decided not to waste the end of Pedro's prime. But if any are older, or at least New England natives, they know Bucky F@#^ing Dent.
Leon Williams is UB's Bucky Dent. We can call him Leon Flecking Williams if we want.
Bull Run didn't exist at the time, but in 2004 UB Basketball made it to the MAC Championship Game and ultimately had the lead with seconds to go in overtime before Leon Williams happened.
Leon Williams made our Summer Worst Moments Series, and as Conrad said then, it all happened so quickly:
Worst Moments in Buffalo Sports - Buffalo Loses the MAC Championship and is Snubbed - Bull Run
THE TRUTH - This is really just me that uses it, but The Truth is UB Women's Basketball sophomore Alexus Malone. The specific tweet is apparently lost in cyberspace, but some time in early 2014 UB had just erased a bit of a first half deficit when the forward stepped out of the paint and hit a three and I said something along the lines of "Alexus Malone is The Truth and UB is up by ..."
No one else has used the nickname, but I think it sounds good. UB is loaded with returning talent this coming year, and look for Malone to continue to bring power down low while also stepping back and showing off her range from beyond the arc. She's tough and has a winning smile and constantly has to overcome people spelling her name wrong. What's not to like?
HOKIE200PROOF - If UB fans ever need to go into battle against... anyone, we could do no better than to appoint Hokie200Proof our leader. Yes, that's an alcohol reference. You shouldn't be surprised as it comes after a Virginia Tech reference.
I don't really know how to describe Hokie. He pops around BullRun occasionally. Hokie is like... not Batman. Imagine one of those Batman impostors... the people who give vigilante justice a bad name. Now imagine one of them being actually ridiculously good at what they do. But not like Batman. The impostor part is important. Anyway, that's Hokie. Does it sound like Dog the Bounty Hunter? Maybe it's Dog the Bounty Hunter. Let's go with that.
Hokie is a legend. Here's an excerpt of his unique, but refined style of writing, from a thread series entitled "Two Minutes Hate":
(Yes, that's a 1984 reference. He's a high-functioning alcie)
I’m having trouble steadying my hands to even type this post... so much is at stake… so many lives hang in the balance… curse any man (or any she-men from Ohio) who may say this is just a game.
Nay... this is destiny.
There comes a time in every man's life when you feel destiny calling to you. It might start with a tingling in the spine, a feeling of electricity that seems to be fed into your soul from an unknown and unseen force... or it might feel like a pure, peaceful calmness, a readying of the senses for what awaits just ahead... or it might begin with a post on a message board...
Gentlemen. Destiny is upon us. This is where history begins. This is where greatness starts. Our time is now.
This moment is why God sent his angels of annunciation to Admin oh so many years ago... "And on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year after the new dawn, the angel Gilbriel was sent from God unto a tribe of Murica, named Beeffalo, to a virgin espoused to a computer whose name was Admin. And the angel appeared unto him, adorned in jewels of sapphire and opal and dressed in blue and while rodes made from the hair of sacrificed Ohioan youth. The angel said, ‘Hail, thou that art highly favored, blessed art thou among IT and networky dudes.’ And when he saw him, Admin was troubled at his saying, and cast in his mind what manner of salutation this should be, extending the live-long-and-prosper sign of Vulcan. And the angel said unto him, ‘Fear not, Admin, for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy mind, and bring forth a URL, and shalt call it by the name UBFan.com. It shall be great and reign over the MAC and its kingdom shall not end.’ Then said Admin unto the angel, ‘How shall this be, seeing I know not a registry service by which to barter?’ And the angel answered and said unto him, ‘Fvck sakes man, does God need to do fvcking everything? Alright, fine. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of IT shall overshadow thee.’ And the angel departed from him." (Beefaluke 1:26-38)
Yep, Hokie has invented a fictional religious text that he often cites in his posts.
TRUE BLUE - I feel bad for True Blue that they have to follow up such a legend on this list, but they're pretty wonderful in their own right. True Blue is the organized student fan group for UB Athletics. They were started at least 7 years ago by Paul Hutchins and Jeseph Meyers after the famed Mighty Maniacs died out and are now a fundamental part of UB Gameday. You can't really miss him.
IDBIHI FROM THE CORNER - This is kind of a stand in for one additional facet of ReggieBall - completely terrible set plays, especially in in-game situations. IDBIHI FROM THE CORNER refers specifically to the end of regulation in the game that ultimately became LEON WILLIAMS, but we can point to similar situations in home matchups against Pitt and UCONN, in regular season MAC matchups, BracketBusters, and even THE BUZZER GAME.
THE BUZZER GAME - Oh man. This was so good. SO. GOOD.
Imagine with me, if you will. UB is playing Bowling Green (loyal readers will remember that an inability to solve Bowling Green's zone defense was a key component of ReggieBall) and throughout the game cannot erase a deficit that is always between one and five points. Bummer. Of course it ends with an IDBIHI FROM THE CORNER situation, because why wouldn't it. UB loses by two.
Side note - there is a serious snowstorm raging outside. If it wasn't a blizzard, it was blizzard-like conditions.
Anyway, game ends and half the fans head out, and Bowling Green, led by Shaqhead-in-chief Dan Dakich literally sprints off the court without acknowledging UB at all. Reggie takes a look inside his wonderful shiny head and says "gee, it's snowing out. Let's delay the misery."
It turns out that the shot clock was on during UB's final possession, which means that the game is not over, and Bowling Green needs to successfully inbound the ball. Unfortunately, Bowling Green is in the locker room, and the refs are looking at replay to decide what to do.
Reggie does the only sensible thing (other than THROWING THE JACKET): he starts mashing the buzzer on the scorer's table. The remaining thousand or so fans start going nuts. After probably seven or so minutes, and presumably repeated envoys to the visitor's locker room, it's announced that Bowling Green has been assessed a technical foul for not returning to the floor. Suddenly UB gets shots.
A very confused Falcons team returns to the floor to watch Yassin Idbihi, he of the 86% FT shooting, take some shots. I have never heard a room swing between raucous pandemonium and complete silence so quickly and so completely. Idbihi hits both. We go to overtime. Dakich protests, but doesn't get his way because he didn't walk over to the scorer's table and hit the buzzer.
Bowling Green didn't stand a chance in overtime. Erik Moore hit a three from the deep elbow on UB's first possession and the roof damn near blew off. UB won. Dan Dakich in a press conference would blame the loss on his team trying to get out before the storm and on some of his guys not having socks on in overtime.
Warde Manuel stood at the doors to Alumni and wished everyone a safe drive home.
LAMONTA STONE - More Bowling Green, this time from 2014. Basically LaMonta Stone, an assistant coach, was allowed to pick a fight with Javon McCrea and suffer no consequences. blah blah blah Javon should keep his composure blah blah blah thug blah blah blah. It was a winning strategy, but it was bullshaq. Just read this:
Buffalo Bulls and LaMonta Stone - Bull Run
Anyway, the end result of this was double technicals on McCrea and the Bowling Green Bench. Which is garbage. Because UB was in the double bonus already, the tech on the Falcons meant nothing, while Javon had to be reigned in and plopped into an offense-defense rotation with Justin Moss to avoid picking up a third foul before the half.
This whole sequence is nothing short of trash. I'm willing to listen to folks who will say that McCrea should know better, but there is no place here for a coach to speak to, much less shout at, an opposing player. And there's certainly no way that that opposing coach - who is a lot older and more experienced than McCrea - should reap all the benefits of goading a 22 year old into a response.
I have little new to say on this incident. My feelings haven't changed, and neither have the ethics of grown men goading 21 year olds into fights, or the sensibility of an assistant coach being able to induce a double technical that hurts his team in no measurable way.
UPDATE: I have been asked to make clear that Stone physically approached Javon going into a timeout. This wasn't just a coach yelling some really good smack, it was a grown man and professional in his field ignoring the team he's paid to coach and heading off to start something with an opposing player who, realistically, he should never interact with outside of the handshake line.
JON JONES, DESTROYER OF WORLDS - Jon Jones is the latest stud in a line of UB shot putters. Track and field usually makes you think of running and hurdles and jumping over things, but it also includes people shaped like big bowling balls throwing little bowling balls pretty far. Jon Jones is one of those practitioners of bowling ball-on-bowling ball crime, and he is very, very good at it. Like, one of the best in America good.
Jonathan Jones places 4th at the USA Track and Field Championships - Bull Run
MAC STREAM - This is all changing now thanks to this new media rights deal with ESPN. But through the 2013-14 season, almost all Olympic sports and many basketball games could be accessed for free through the MAC website. The streaming and production quality was heavily dependent on the investment of the host school, but it was a pretty good deal. It might still be, but who knows.
PETER FARDON - Every once in a while you see a story of an old guy, delayed by military service or a failed career in minor league baseball, playing college football with a bunch of 20 year olds. Peter Fardon was our old guy, and his excuse was way better: he was just Australian. Serving as punter, and one season of kicker, his sideways style of punting was fun, if maddening. It was like every punt was a designed rollout.
Hey, as I was typing this an ad for the season opener versus Duquesne just came on. Way to go, guys!
DONALD BROWN - Does Donald Brown deserve an entry here? I don't know, but he's once again intersecting with UB fandom even though we thought we were rid of him.
Donald Brown Episode 1: The 2009 International Bowl. Running behind an offensive line that was just bigger and stronger than anything UB had to offer, Brown rushed for approximately 250 and a billion yards as the 2008 season of destiny ended in a significant loss on foreign soil.
Donald Brown Episode 2: He's on the Chargers and stands between the starting position and Bo Oliver's footsteps to NFL glory.
I wish I could quit you, Donald Brown.
CUPBOARD IS BARE / TALENT CLIFF - As 20XX unfolded before our horrified eyes, desperate confusion turned into anger that cried out for a scapegoat. For some, that scapegoat was the state of the roster after a few years of Turner Gill's recruiting and the departure of many of his bigger gets after the introduction of Coach Quinn. At first this was just a buzzword to explain away 20XX, but has since turned into a carte blanche excuse for anything that goes wrong.
ZACH MAYNARD - It looks like a noun, but it's really a verb. Maynard's time as Bulls quarterback was punctuated by turnovers, touchdowns, and too much potential. But instead of bringing UB to greater heights in the post-Willy era, Maynard rode the coattails of his younger half-brother Keenan Allen to a scholarship and starting job at Cal. Keenan Allen now plays for - you guessed it - the Chargers, and Maynard isn't really relevant anymore.
"GOING HALO" - This is a new one. In the fall sports / volleyball preview just a few weeks ago, I pointed out that Outside Hitter Tahleia Bishop "racks up more kills than your roommate's Halo avatar." And just like that we were engulfed in a comment thread about the web series Red v Blue. Since kills are an official stat in both volleyball and Halo. we're going to find a way to work this late-night free association into future coverage of the sport.