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Buffalo has waffled through quarterback pipeline extremes over the past ten or so years. UB had a four year starter, Drew Willy, followed by one year of Zach Maynard, one year of Jerry Davis, then a year of Chazz Anderson, then an injury shortened year of Alex Zordich, and then three plus years of Joe Licata.
I do not believe this a healthy pipeline for success. What I see at a lot of other schools is a sophomore or junior taking the reigns for couple of seasons and then him being followed up by another sophomore or junior that has been developing. It means fewer career QB marks being set but it does typically lead to more winning seasons.
With Joe Licata leaving and a contest between redshirt freshman Tyree Jackson, sophomore Canadian quarterback Chris Merchant, and senior Iowa State transfer Grant Rohach. If Rohach wins the job then next off season the contest will be between Junior Chris Merchant, Sophomore Tyree Jackson, and the redshirt freshman Max Bortenschlager.
The Bulls sent Alan Hensell to recruit the QB who was sitting on an offer from Ball State. UB plucked Bortenschlager, one of Indiana's top 25 prospects, away from the Cards.
A big part of Hansell's pitch was the offense which is being installed in Buffalo. "The coaches and the overall offense excites me," said Max; "It's very similar to what we run on our high school team so I liked that a lot!"
After the season Max was given honorable mention on the 2015 Indiana All-State high school football team. He threw for more than 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns against only five interceptions.
Bortenschlager will be behind at least three quarterbacks this season but the up side is he has the time to develop into a guy who will take over the team for a winning season or two.