Catching up with Football

Ok.... We had a *REALLY * fun march this year. Not only did we get to see a conference title, we got to watch the men knock down Arizona to make the round of 32 and the Women beat up on the state of Florida to make the Sweet sixteen. We even got to send a Bull Run editor to sit court side as the Bulls took on South Carolina.

But with hoops over we can finally free up some bandwidth to look at Football.

The Bulls are nearly half way through their spring practice schedule. What remains is a couple of weeks at the Bills’ field house and then three practices at UB Stadium before the spring game.

While the Basket-Bulls were out in Boise, UB had their pro day. Scouts from a few NFL teams where there, include UB Alum Andre Forde.

While I was unable to get comprehensive numbers the site Draft Diamonds noticed Demone Harris.

Harris had a great season last year, and moved himself into the top 60 or so Defensive ends in this years class base on an All-MAC season.

Harris lead the Bulls in tackles for loss with 9.5 and sacks with five. To that number he added 55 tackles and a pair of forced fumbles.

His Pro Day numbers might be enough to get a few more teams interested.

• 40 was a 4.77
• 20 yd Shuttle 4.4
• Vertical: 32.5
• Broad Jump: 10’01”

The other news is some realignment of coaching responsibilities.

From ubbulls.com

University at Buffalo football head coach Lance Leipold has announced some shuffling to his coaching staff responsibilities. Quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski will join Andy Kotelnicki as co-offensive coordinator. Roc Bellantoni has been named special teams coordinator and Taiwo Onatolu will join him as co-special teams coordinator.

I love the move with Zebrowski.

After being really rough on Kotelnicki in his first couple of seasons I will admit that his offense performed well enough to feed me crow last season. A big part of that was the play of the UB Quarterbacks... yes Plural!

When Tyree Jackson went down it felt like the season was unraveling but then Drew Anderson starting playing better football than Jackson. If Anderson himself had not been hurt UB would have been in for a mid season quarterback controversy.

But Anderson was hurt, and third string freshman quarterback Kyle Vantrease played well enough, even though the team went 0-2.

After two weeks the of Vantrease Jackson was ready to play again and came back a far better quarterback than he was when he went down.

That to me is all coaching and the coaches relationship to his quarterbacks.

Jackson was a run first quarterback who saw what Anderson, who is a pocket passer, was able to do with the offense and Jackson came out of his injury as a fantastic passer, torching opposing defenses with his arm and using his legs only when the opportunity came up.

Zebrowski’s QB’s were marvelous last season and they got better as obstacles were put in their way. He and Kotelnicki should have all the tools the need for one of the conference top offenses this season.

The other move, putting two guys on special teams, is badly needed. The Bulls special teams have been a thorn in our side for some years. It would be nice to see our special teams unit become the kind of squad that can make the plays to win close games.