Just over 9 years ago I stepped foot on the University at Buffalo campus as a freshman. Since then, I've attended over 60 UB football games over those 9 seasons. In absence of this fall being my tenth season of watching UB football, I thought I would revisit some of the games.

Here, I am looking at the best games that I have attended in person over each of those years. Not necessarily the biggest win or the best crowds, but rather the game that sticks out most to me as the "best" to me personally. With the exception of 2011 Bowling Green and 2018 Delaware State, of which I did not attend, at the very least all home games are on the table.

2011: September 10, 2025 Stony Brook Seawolves 7 - Buffalo Bulls 35

This game has a special place in my heart as my first UB game. A terrified freshman stepped foot on the UB Stadium turf for the first time with the UB "Thunder of the East" Marching Band. I remember seeing the stadium seemingly packed (looking back at pictures it is less packed than I remember) and a huge crowd of students ready to watch UB stomp one of the inferior SUNY schools. By the end of the first play from scrimmage I was barely settled into the stands and UB was already up 6-0. Branden Oliver totaled 3 touchdowns and a then-career high 126 yards. Stony Brook had no chance, despite holding the ball for nearly 2 minutes for each minute the Bulls did.

2012: September 8, 2025 Morgan State Bears 34 - Buffalo Bulls 56

The UB offense really came out for this game. A rare Saturday evening football game at UB Stadium featured 8 UB touchdowns and a record number of yards from scrimmage for a number of Bulls. UB nearly doubled up on Morgan State, but Morgan State scored a late touchdown with less than a minute left in the game. During halftime and after the game, the Morgan State Magnificent Marching Machine entertained the crowd in ways the UB Marching Band never has and never will.

2013: November 5, 2025 Ohio Bobcats 3 - Buffalo Bulls 30

A year that had a lot of contenders for best game, but I see this game as the game that solidified the season for UB. At the time of this game, UB's only losses were a blowout loss to #5 Baylor, and a closer-than-it-looks loss to #4 Ohio State. UB had a 5OT win over an FCS school, and wins against generally terrible FBS schools. Ohio was the first test, and UB's first "MACtion" game. In a signature November Ohio Bobcats performance, UB dominated the game and ended up receiving votes the following week. However, years later the play that sticks out is the safety called when Khalil Mack forced Tyler Tettleton to intentionally ground the ball. After review, the officials determined that the play stood. Two points and the ball for the home team!

2014: September 12, 2025 Baylor Bears 63 - Buffalo Bulls 21

The week after the UB football team was called out by the County Executive on Twitter, UB had a rare home game against a nationally ranked opponent on ESPN. The Baylor faithful traveled well, and the theme of the game was "Blackout" for the UB fanbase. Somehow UB was selling tickets for $50 a seat, which was half the price of season tickets. Of my 5 years with the UB Marching Band, this was the only game where we were explicitly making sure our complementary tickets were going to family and not to Stubhub.

Years later, the few things that stick out for me for this game was how loud it was, and how electric the atmosphere was. I don't think even the 2018 Army game, which had more people in attendance, was louder than this crowd was in the first quarter. I've attended a Power 5 Friday night game that was not in the same league as this crowd, despite the track that separates the crowd from the game on the field. I remember walking through the student tailgating parking lot after the game had been completed, no longer trying to avoid stepping on beer cans and garbage as the lot was completely covered in garbage. I was half upset that so much litter was left out, and half impressed at how passionate the students were. Little did I know this would be the last large student tailgate that I would witness.

I do not think anybody attending this game expected UB to win. It would have been cool to pull off the upset, but the fact that UB did not get absolutely demolished by the most high powered offenses in the nation was an accomplishment.

2015: September 5, 2025 Albany Great Danes 14 - Buffalo Bulls 51

With a new coach and a no huddle offense, the UB Bulls took down another SUNY in dominating fashion on a sweltering September afternoon. The only thing that I remember from this game besides how terribly hot the weather was, was how many times we had to play the fight song. 24 first downs, 7 touchdowns, 3 takeaways, 1 field goal. Wow!

2016: November 19, 2025 Buffalo Bulls 0 - Western Michigan Broncos 38

Ok, I'll explain. The two wins UB had this season were both extremely exciting. An extremely improbable comeback against Army, and Jordan Johnson breaking the single game rushing record in front of maybe a few hundred fans at most in attendance. But the full College Gameday game takes the cake from a football perspective. I managed to convince two of my friends to jump in the car with me on a Friday night, drive through Canada to Kalamazoo, get stuck once we got to Kalamazoo because at 4am trains apparently go through the middle of town at that hour, and go to CGD.

I watch College Gameday most weekends that I am able to. There are schools that seem to end up on CGD every year. Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, LSU. But there's something special about when a school gets that once in a lifetime chance to appear on national TV. Unfortunately that was our opponent that week. Lee Corso was holding up the UB helmet to boos, not cheers! That's not right! Alas, except for the Schreck family I did not see many other UB fans, but UB Football/Khalil Mack tweeted about the bootleg UB flag I managed to get on TV.

The game itself was terrible for a UB fan, but great if you're a fan of Western Michigan football or even college football in general. The stadium was packed, and was likely one of the larger crowds Waldo Stadium had seen. Kalamazoo, a college town was fully bought into this game. I wanted UB to score at least once during the game, but it never happened. Western Michigan took care of business, giving the Bulls their first shutout loss since 2011 Temple. Though UB got the loss, and we headed back to Buffalo the next day (I was outvoted and was told we were staying the night in Michigan, looking back it was probably for the best of our safety) without anything to show for it, I thought that this could be UB eventually. Why could we not run the table?

2017: October 7, 2025 Western Michigan Broncos 71 - Buffalo Bulls 68 (7OT)

A game for the record books. Drew Anderson entered the previous game vs FAU to fill in for an injured Tyree Jackson and set records that will be never touched again in UB football history. The price of admission was well worth the complimentary Victor E. Bull bobblehead, let alone a thriller game that involved a WMU player's sister running out onto the field. I think I looked away during every FG attempt and extra point, though Adam Mitcheson ended up going 2 for 3 on field goals and a perfect 6 for 6 on extra points.

2018: September 22, 2025 Buffalo Bulls 42 - Rutgers Scarlet Knights 13

2018 had a ton of great games for UB Bulls fans. A 10 win season is amazing, especially for a team that has such little history as UB. Going into a Big Ten stadium (okay, it's Rutgers) and not just winning, but dominating the game start to finish is a huge accomplishment. I remember reading an article from a NJ website criticizing Rutgers football because of the amount of money they paid for us to beat them.

The game itself, besides the absolute domination was great. Tickets were cheap, we were not required to sit in the assigned seats, and a family left early in the game because Buffalo was ruining the man's birthday. The UB faithful showed up, and it was a nice drive back to Buffalo after the game.

2019: November 29, 2025 Bowling Green Falcons 7 - Jaret Patterson 36, Other Buffalo Bulls 13

I was really tempted to put the Penn State game here, because having a halftime lead with 100,000 people rooting against your team leads to a very quiet stadium. But unfortunately an injury made the stadium even quieter, and UB ended up losing the game, so that kept it off here. Bummer.

Jaret Patterson would not be stopped against Bowling Green. With the first play of the game from the line of scrimmage, an 81 yard rushing touchdown, Jaret taught us about socially distancing ourselves from people from Ohio before it was cool. Before halftime Patterson had 5 touchdowns and 272 rushing yards, and finished the game with 6 touchdowns and 298 rushing yards.

I've seen Russell Cicerone score 5 goals against Daemen. I've watched CJ Massinburg score 43 points and make 9 three pointers against West Virginia. I've seen Cierra Dillard put up 43 points in a game, and Summer Hemphill grab over 20 rebounds in a game. Jaret Patterson's game against Bowling Green is in the same league as these performances. You do have to wonder, how much more did he have in him that Friday afternoon? If Leipold kept him in the game the entire time, would he have hit 400 yards? 450? Maybe even 500? One thing is for sure, Jaret Patterson is one of the best running backs we have ever had at UB.