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Why You Should Attend Saturday's UB-Army Game

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Saturday at 12pm in Amherst, NY, the UB Bulls football team (4-0, 1-0 MAC) will be taking the field in an attempt to start off the 2018 campaign with five straight wins, this one being against the Black Knights of the Army West Point Academy (2-2). At the time of this posting, UB is a -7.5 point favorite against an Army team that just took the fifth ranked team in the country, Oklahoma, and a potential Heisman and/or future American League Rookie of the Year candidate, Kyler Murray, to overtime last week in Norman, Oklahoma.

The game will be airing on CBS Sports Network, but if you're going to be in the area and are looking to breathe in a fun but intense football atmosphere, I HIGHLY suggest you make your way to UB Stadium; the culmination of events and happenings around the game make this the "perfect storm" for a day that goes down as a true defining moment in the program's history if the Bulls pull out the win.

To start off, why not address how all Buffalonians start off their mornings before football games, and that's with tailgates. UB and the Northtown Center have done a great job in allowing for space to tailgate while keeping things (relatively) civil in comparison to the tailgates we've all seen/participated in in Orchard Park. There's still a place in the tailgates for drinking, cookouts, throwing around a football, and games such as cornhole and beer pong, but the lid has been put on fires and table smashing (pardon my pun). Overall, this is a staple of our community, so the fact that this is embraced by the school is pretty cool, in my opinion.

If you're a big fan of today's Country music or decide you'd just like to take a walk away from your tailgate after going 4-0 in beer pong, you can go to Stampede Square to check out superstar singer Joe Nichols performing a free concert! Listen, I'm a guy that enjoys today's country, and I fully understand there are people who are not, but at the end of the day UB was able to bring one of the top Country artists in the world to their campus to perform a concert that fans do not need to pay one penny for, so why not at least check it out? Nichols is scheduled to go on at 10am and it's estimated he'll go until 11:15-11:30am, at which time everyone will be heading into the stadium.

With all this said, between the tailgate and the concert, you'll be having yourself a great time before it's even noon. The timing of this game is wonderful; I understand it's only at noon because of the TV scheduling (which is the medium I'm prompting you not to consume this game through), but it's great to experience all the fun you'll have in one day while still having an entire Saturday night once everything's done and over with at UB Stadium (so, thank you for that, CBSSN).

Once everyone gets into the game, surely five minutes into the first quarter, it should be breathtaking to see how full the stadium looks. UB has been sending out tweets and alerts that they're "in sight" of a sellout crowd and are estimating a larger crowd than the one they had a few years ago when Baylor came to town (a game I was at as a student and would prefer to forget). Between the crisp high 50's-low 60's temperature and 20,000 fans fully invested in the game, the first third down Army faces on offense should cause a deafening shout from the UB faithful and hopefully that intensity carries throughout the game (the crowd noise/attendance possibly being a big reason Vegas still has UB -7.5 with Anthony Johnson and Cam Lewis both being questionable).

In the end, this may be the turning point for UB football: a big win Saturday means 5-0 going into exclusively MAC play with arguably our toughest games behind us and a potential ranking in the AP poll (if nothing else, many more Top 25 votes). From there, the domino effect trickles down to more national media tracking the undefeated Bulls of Buffalo, and from there more high school recruits see UB as a viable option to continue their football careers while furthering their education at a top public university.

There's a lot to gain from a win Saturday against Army, and it all has to do with the perception of UB football around the country, all college football followers that do not already associate themselves with UB. If you're a potentially new follower/fan of the Bulls: get out there and take in what a UB football game day has to offer, I promise you won't be disappointed. And to all of the diehards like myself: get out there, have some fun, and bring along the new fans by showing them what UB football is all about, how we act, and what we expect.

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