Last week, I profiled some of the best UB football games I've seen since I started following the team. Here's some of the more forgettable ones.

2011: October 22, 2025 Northern Illinois Huskies 31 - Buffalo Bulls 30

In a game that started all wrong for the Bulls, Northern Illinois entered the fourth quarter with a 31-10 lead. Then the tide turned. UB's defense shut down NIU's offense and quarterback Chazz Anderson put together an improbable comeback that gave the Bulls the ball at their own 12 yard line, down a touchdown, with just less than 3 minutes left in the game. UB marches down the field, and despite facing a 4th and 10 at the UB 44, Anderson finds Ed Young in the end zone with 13 seconds left on the game clock. The comeback was a PAT away from being complete.

From where I was in the stadium in section 128, I did not have a good view of the uprights. I remember clearly seeing the ball go through the air, seeing it pass the uprights, and being excited at the thought of going to overtime against a team that was actually good. I grabbed my horn ready to play the fight song, and looked out on the field to see the officials call the point after no good. I could not believe it. I looked at the video board for answers, but there was no replay. Just an onside kick, and victory formation for the Huskies, and back to my dorm I went. No comeback, no overtime, no win.

2012: October 27, 2025 Toledo Rockets 25 - Buffalo Bulls 20

I'll be honest on this game, I do not remember a single play. I just remember that it was rainy and miserable. The box score says the temperature was 46 degrees, rainy, with 12 mph wind. You would have thought by the weather that this game was played on a Thursday night in November, but it was a Saturday afternoon in October. I distinctly remember seeing the line of fans stretched for 30+ yards standing under the overhang on the west side of the stadium. The only thing that would have made the game worse would have been overtime.

2013: November 29, 2025 Bowling Green Falcons 24 - Buffalo Bulls 7

2013 was a great year for the reason that I only had two losses to choose from.

For similar reasons as the above game, this game sucked from a weather perspective, but instead of rain it was snow. On Thanksgiving, the day prior, a fresh lake effect snow band dumped a few inches of snow in Orchard Park. UB and Bowling Green were playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium for a spot in the MAC Championship game.

As for the football game, UB could not get the offense going. Branden Oliver scored the only touchdown for the Bulls in the second quarter, and the Bulls defense could not stop the Falcons offense. The valves on my standard issue UB Marching Band horn lasted slightly longer than the Bulls offense, freezing during the third quarter despite various anti-freezing methods being deployed. The ground underneath my standard issue UBMB shoes froze even faster than the valves, and the stands resembled an ice rink when we left.

2014: Kent State Golden Flashes FORFEIT to Buffalo Bulls

It's been nearly six years. I'm not over it and I will never be over it. How hard is it to follow GPS directions? Did you think you were smart driving into a snow storm that dropped 6 feet of snow on the region? These are questions that I will never get the answers to.

For the uninitiated, during the fall of 2014 there was a massive snowstorm that crippled the Buffalo region. UB had a football game scheduled against Kent State University on November 19. The situation in Amherst was much more mild than the situation south of Buffalo. Rather than measuring snow in inches, which those on the UB campus were, south of Buffalo multiple yardsticks would be needed. On gameday, the official UB Football Twitter account noted that free hot cocoa would be provided. There was only one problem, the Kent State equipment truck was stuck on Route 5, south of Buffalo. The Golden Flashes football team took a multiple hour detour to Buffalo, driving along I-86 to I-390, losing a bus along the way, and finally making their way to Buffalo. The equipment truck however decided to drive directly into the snowstorm head on. As one would expect, this did not end well. The November 19 game was rescheduled to November 21, then ultimately canceled.

The Kent State equipment truck would turn into a meme, which will never not be funny. This would not be Kent State's last poor decision related to logistics. In 2019, Kent State declared a field hockey game between #24 Maine and Temple a no contest, due to the area needing to accommodate the Kent State football fireworks display for a day game. Yeesh.

Lost in this game was not only a chance for UB to have a .500 season and a chance at a bowl game, but a senior day for numerous football players and spirit squad members (including my significant other).

2015: November 27, 2025 Massachusetts Minutemen 35 - Buffalo Bulls 26

In 2015, UB entered the last 3 games of the season with a 5-3 record, itching to become bowl eligible for only a third time in the school's short D1 history. After a disappointing 0-2 stretch in the first two games, UB needed a win against UMass in the final home game of the season. UMass was on the way out of the conference, declining a full membership as their basketball team had aspirations of losing to A-10 teams instead of MAC teams. UB was ready to give UMass one final conference loss, as the Minutemen entered the contest with an abysmal 6-25 conference record during their four years of associate membership. The weather, once again, was awful and the attendance was not much better. UMass kept the game competitive, and at one point held an 11-point lead.

Down five points with 2:13 left in the game, UB needed one final 80 yard drive to get to a bowl game. On a 3rd and 2 from the UB 33 yard line, senior Joe Licata threw an interception to UMass DE Da'Sean Downey, essentially ending the game. The thin UMass crowd went into full celebration mode, winning their biggest game since joining D1 FBS, and rather than UB playing their last game of the season in Florida it would be played in a cold, rainy, UB Stadium.

2016: September 2, 2025 Albany Great Danes 16 - Buffalo Bulls 22

This game sucked. After destroying Albany the previous year, the Great Danes were out for revenge. A stadium that was overflowing with students was eager to watch another sacrificial FCS team leave Erie County with a loss.

Replacing previous QB Joe Licata was a battle between Iowa State grad transfer Grant Rohach, and a highly touted redshirt freshman from Michigan, Tyree Jackson. Head coach Lance Leipold chose the experienced candidate for the job, and Rohach started the game. This quickly turned into a disaster with the first UB pass attempt being picked off by Albany. The next drive was only slightly more successful, with Rohach going 0-2 on pass attempts. After the first quarter, where UB only had one completed pass to a UB receiver, two sacks, and two interceptions, social media started itching for a change at QB. With 5:35 left in the second quarter, Tyree Jackson took over at QB. The offense was moderately more successful under Jackson, but an unfortunate fumble in the Albany endzone and a personal foul penalty with less than a minute left in the game sealed the Albany victory.

What was easily the worst loss for UB in years turned into gasoline for the fire of internet trolls and local newspaper columnist trolls, saying that UB would never recover from such a loss, and that the program should be disbanded. The season, in which UB ended with a 2-10 record, proved to add to this fire.

2017: October 28, 2025 Buffalo Bulls 20 - Akron Zips 21

Entering this game, UB had lost three straight conference games by a combined 14 points. In order to have a chance at the conference championship, UB would need a win at Akron on a rainy Saturday morning.

This was my first trip to Akron's football stadium, which I do admit is a great facility. Tickets were $10, and the ushers and security ensured that I sat in my assigned $10 seat in an otherwise desolate stadium.

I really try not to coach from the stands. Just as I would not want some idiot yelling at me while I'm doing my job and second guessing my decisions, I imagine it's not productive for me to do the same. But this is one of the situations where I think it's justified.

UB was down by one point with 1:51 left on the game clock, facing 4th and 6 from the Akron 29 yard line. Tyree Jackson threw for a total of 313 yards, going 34 for 50 on pass attempts. Lance Leipold had to figure out what to do.

Using NFL kickers, the New York Times 4th Down Bot says kick a field goal, however this factors in an NFL kicker, not a college kicker and does not factor in poor weather. Before seeing any change of personnel on the field, I knew they should go for it on fourth down. The weather was too bad to try to match a then-career long from K Adam Mitcheson.

Hindsight is 20/20. Leipold sent Mitcheson out to kick the field goal. It went wide right. UB would go on to lose the game, which proved to be the deciding factor on who to send to Detroit for the conference championship. UB would finish the season 6-6 and staying home for bowl season.

2018: December 22, 2025 Northern Illinois Huskies 30 - Buffalo Bulls 29

Sorry, I don't want to relive this game. "29-10" and "NIU" are still muted words on my Twitter timeline.

Here's the Bull Run recap if you want to know what happened.

2019: October 5, 2025 Ohio Bobcats 21 - Buffalo Bulls 20

I absolutely love beating Ohio University. Any sport. My hatred begins in the DJ Cooper years, specifically during the 2012 MAC Semifinals where Bo Boroski called a terrible technical foul for Mitchell Watt hanging on the rim too long after a dunk. It continued in the 2016 women's basketball season where Ohio went undefeated in MAC play, except for three losses to UB. The final loss producing the greatest press conference on this planet: "I really don't think anything about Buffalo." In 2017, I attended my first volleyball match in 5 years because Ohio University was in town, I was free, and I wanted Ohio University to lose. Sure enough they did.

UB has been lucky against Ohio University. Since 2010, no matter how good or bad either team was, the home team in the football matches won. So logically we would expect a good UB team to continue to defeat Ohio.

I'll take out the details of most of the game. UB had the ball on the 29 yard line with 87 seconds left in the tied game and three timeouts. After lining up to go for it on fourth down, as is advised in this situation, UB catches Ohio offsides. First down for the Bulls! But wait - after some conferencing between officials it is determined that UB called a timeout prior to the infraction. After the timeout and a subsequent Ohio timeout, UB lines up to kick a field goal. This time the weather was a little better, but it was still a 46 yard field goal.

UB lost in overtime. It sucks because we lost to Ohio University and it was my first time witnessing a UB football loss to Ohio University. I don't blame the kicker here or in the Akron situation. 46 yards is a long way to kick a ball. I blame the risk-averse nature of how football is played both in college and the NFL. Lance Leipold is not a bad coach by any means. He's gone from 0 to 100 wins faster than any other football coach and has won D3 National Championships. I wish his strategy was more aggressive here than it actually was, but maybe he knew something that the average idiot in the stands (me) did not.