My game notes last week were pretty much spot on so thought I'd try it again. However, I failed to realize how poorly the offensive line would perform, two key defensive injuries and the staff’s complete inability to in-game adjust.
Moving forward, Buffalo’s game notes:
· Buffalo’s coach, Lance Leipold, is considered a huge up and comer. This is his first year as Buffalo’s head coach. As an understudy at Wisconsin White Water, he helped a legendary head coach lead the team to be a perennial national championship contender. As head coach, with a 109-6 record starting in 2008 through 2014, he led the team to perennial national championships. That includes six national tittles as he found a way to beat the former perennial championship team, Mount Union. While inexpereience in MAC play or in power five, the dude can coach.
· Being only his second game at the helm of Buffalo, its kind of hard to get a feel for his team. Leipold’s signature at WWW was an attacking defense that comes from all angles, our of a base 4-3 set. On offense, again, multiple sets and multiple angles. They twice went for it on 4th down, converting both.
· Buffalo was ~ .500 last year and prognosticators picked them for a similar record this year and ending up around in the middle of the MAC pack. Does LL have the players for his system? It would seem so. He has a really efficient QB in Joe Licata. He’s got a good mix of passing and running ability but lacks physicality. He completed 77% of his passes last week. Taylor and Johnson are an interesting 1-2 punch. Taylor is 5-10 and 209, Johnson is 6-0 and 230. Taylor had 104 yards on 17 attempts last week. I suspect that our defense can predict a little of the offense depending upon who is lined up behind Licata. Their TE’s had nine catches but their starter, Schrek (not the Ogre) is only 229 but is 6-5. Again, PSU may be able to see tendencies depending upon which TE is in the game although they will run both, splitting out Schrek. They do start three new O-Linemen this year, which is probably their biggest weakness. Their Center is a RS Frosh at 6-3, 285.
· On defense, the linebackers and secondary are young and active. One starter from last year, Dadeboe, was injured and didn’t play last week as true frosh CJ Stancil filled in. The D is active and comes at you. They forced three turnovers last week with their harassing defense. Nose tackle is a freshman named Chris Ford who is 323 lbs. I had hoped this team might be a little small but that doesn’t seem to be the case. They also returned a punt for a TD.
What to expect:
· Man, really scary. This is exactly the kind of team PSU will struggle against; and active, attacking defense and a scrappy, efficient offense.
· On offense, expect the Bulls to go after a short passing game to the TE’s challenging our depleted LBers. They will try to establish a running game but I am hopeful our leaders on the D-line can defeat their youngish offensive line. That will move the Bulls to their secondary plan to attack our LBers with a short passing game. They use two WR’s that are over 6 feet and their deep threat is a guy named Colin Lisa who has seemed to have “wowed” their staff and team. He caught a 46 yard TD pass. If the PSU Safties start to creep up to stop the run and short passing game, expect the Bulls to try and go deep to Lisa (Dline, its up to you to put pressure on this guy!)
· On offense, sorry, it all comes down to our blocking on the oline. Expect 8 in the box, pressing the WR’s, bringing people from all angles. I would hope our “jet sweep” would be more effective as I expect our team speed to be more effective. One corner is smallish at 5-10 so expect PSU to try and isolate on him (Baker). I really expect PSU to come out trying to establish the run. Bulls seem to consider their d-line as their biggest weakness. With an Albany team behind, they were not able to make many tackles for a loss or sacks. Perhaps we can pop a long one against their attacking D. If not, and they creep up to stop the run, we may go to attacking their corners. I would hope that we can beat them with team speed.
Overall, a very scary game as the Buffalo Bulls team is exactly what we don’t want to see and plays a scheme that exploits are weaknesses. I expect the Lions to come out angry and physical. If we can beat them physically, we can blow it open. If not, we will be challenged to handle the complex defenses that we saw last week. Regardless, I see PSU winning fairly easily but at times we will look silly and bad. My biggest concern is the fragility of our team mentally and if we get beat early, will we let down?
PSU 24-10.
Moving forward, Buffalo’s game notes:
· Buffalo’s coach, Lance Leipold, is considered a huge up and comer. This is his first year as Buffalo’s head coach. As an understudy at Wisconsin White Water, he helped a legendary head coach lead the team to be a perennial national championship contender. As head coach, with a 109-6 record starting in 2008 through 2014, he led the team to perennial national championships. That includes six national tittles as he found a way to beat the former perennial championship team, Mount Union. While inexpereience in MAC play or in power five, the dude can coach.
· Being only his second game at the helm of Buffalo, its kind of hard to get a feel for his team. Leipold’s signature at WWW was an attacking defense that comes from all angles, our of a base 4-3 set. On offense, again, multiple sets and multiple angles. They twice went for it on 4th down, converting both.
· Buffalo was ~ .500 last year and prognosticators picked them for a similar record this year and ending up around in the middle of the MAC pack. Does LL have the players for his system? It would seem so. He has a really efficient QB in Joe Licata. He’s got a good mix of passing and running ability but lacks physicality. He completed 77% of his passes last week. Taylor and Johnson are an interesting 1-2 punch. Taylor is 5-10 and 209, Johnson is 6-0 and 230. Taylor had 104 yards on 17 attempts last week. I suspect that our defense can predict a little of the offense depending upon who is lined up behind Licata. Their TE’s had nine catches but their starter, Schrek (not the Ogre) is only 229 but is 6-5. Again, PSU may be able to see tendencies depending upon which TE is in the game although they will run both, splitting out Schrek. They do start three new O-Linemen this year, which is probably their biggest weakness. Their Center is a RS Frosh at 6-3, 285.
· On defense, the linebackers and secondary are young and active. One starter from last year, Dadeboe, was injured and didn’t play last week as true frosh CJ Stancil filled in. The D is active and comes at you. They forced three turnovers last week with their harassing defense. Nose tackle is a freshman named Chris Ford who is 323 lbs. I had hoped this team might be a little small but that doesn’t seem to be the case. They also returned a punt for a TD.
What to expect:
· Man, really scary. This is exactly the kind of team PSU will struggle against; and active, attacking defense and a scrappy, efficient offense.
· On offense, expect the Bulls to go after a short passing game to the TE’s challenging our depleted LBers. They will try to establish a running game but I am hopeful our leaders on the D-line can defeat their youngish offensive line. That will move the Bulls to their secondary plan to attack our LBers with a short passing game. They use two WR’s that are over 6 feet and their deep threat is a guy named Colin Lisa who has seemed to have “wowed” their staff and team. He caught a 46 yard TD pass. If the PSU Safties start to creep up to stop the run and short passing game, expect the Bulls to try and go deep to Lisa (Dline, its up to you to put pressure on this guy!)
· On offense, sorry, it all comes down to our blocking on the oline. Expect 8 in the box, pressing the WR’s, bringing people from all angles. I would hope our “jet sweep” would be more effective as I expect our team speed to be more effective. One corner is smallish at 5-10 so expect PSU to try and isolate on him (Baker). I really expect PSU to come out trying to establish the run. Bulls seem to consider their d-line as their biggest weakness. With an Albany team behind, they were not able to make many tackles for a loss or sacks. Perhaps we can pop a long one against their attacking D. If not, and they creep up to stop the run, we may go to attacking their corners. I would hope that we can beat them with team speed.
Overall, a very scary game as the Buffalo Bulls team is exactly what we don’t want to see and plays a scheme that exploits are weaknesses. I expect the Lions to come out angry and physical. If we can beat them physically, we can blow it open. If not, we will be challenged to handle the complex defenses that we saw last week. Regardless, I see PSU winning fairly easily but at times we will look silly and bad. My biggest concern is the fragility of our team mentally and if we get beat early, will we let down?
PSU 24-10.
