2009 International Bowl
Connecticut (7-5) vs. Buffalo (8-5)
Jan. 3, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN
Payout:
$1.5 million combined Location: Rogers Center, Toronto ON
2009 International Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Connecticut |
Buffalo |
|
Total Offense |
|
69th 351.83 ypg |
45th 380.54 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
10th 281.42 ypg |
84th 408.31 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
78th 23.83 ppg |
31st 31.08 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
24th 19.75 ppg |
73rd 27.46 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
19th 204.58 ypg |
65th 141.08 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
20th 116.92 ypg |
83rd 158.77 |
|
Pass Offense |
|
106th 147.25 ypg |
40th 239.46 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
8th 164.50 ypg |
97th 249.54 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
61st 0.00 |
6th 1.15 |
|
Connecticut
Hofstra W 35-3
at Temple W 12-9 OT
Virginia W 45-10
Baylor W 31-28
at Louisville W 26-21
at N Carolina L 38-12
at Rutgers L 12-10
Cincinnati W 40-16
West Virginia L 35-13
at Syracuse W 39-14
at USF L 17-13
Pitt L 34-10 |
Buffalo
UTEP W 42-17
at Pitt L 27-16
Temple W 30-28
at Missouri L 42-21
at CMU L 27-25
WMU L 34-28 OT
Army W 27-24 OT
at Ohio W 32-19
Miami Univ. W 37-17
at Akr W 43-40 4OT
at BG W 40-34 2OT
Kent St L 24-21
MAC Champ.
Ball St W 42-24 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
C |
5
highest
1 lowest |
B |
|
2 |
Quarterbacks |
4.5 |
|
5 |
RBs |
4 |
|
3 |
Receivers |
3.5 |
|
4.5 |
O
Line |
3 |
|
4 |
D
Line |
2 |
|
4 |
Linebackers |
2.5 |
|
5 |
Secondary |
2 |
|
3.5 |
Spec
Teams |
2.5 |
|
4 |
Coaching |
4 |
|
Buffalo might have won the MAC,
it might have a nice core of
players, and it might think this
is a magical season, but it’s
going to need every break, every
trick, and every bounce in the
book to make this the most
interesting International Bowl
yet.
There have only been three so
far, with the Big East going
2-0, but this is the first time
the MAC Champion is involved.
Even if Buffalo had lost to Ball
State, it likely would’ve been
here because of the location,
but it doesn’t matter where the
game is being played. This is a
bowl game, and Buffalo is
involved.
Traditionally among the worst
programs in college football, UB
is playing in its first bowl
game as head coach Turner Gill,
who’s still in Buffalo and not
in Auburn, Syracuse, or anywhere
else, has put together one of
the great turnarounds in the
history of college football. But
is this team a fluke, or is it
able to beat a good team like
Connecticut?
The Bulls needed a Hail Mary to
beat Temple, needed three
overtime wins, and it needed
Ball State to keep dropping the
ball on the ground to get to
this point, but the Bulls forced
several of those mistakes along
the way. The offense is
efficient and effective, it
doesn’t turn the ball over, and
there’s just enough pop from the
return game to change a game or
two. However, the defense,
outside of its ability to take
the ball away, is among the
worst in the MAC, meaning it’s
among the worst in college
football, but it’s not like
it’ll have to deal with Oklahoma
in Toronto.
Connecticut is an afterthought
in this game, but for a program
that was all but non-existent
not all that long ago, bowl
appearances are still a big
deal. The Huskies had the Big
East title there for the taking,
but it lost three of their final
four games to West Virginia,
South Florida, and Pitt, with
the one win coming against
Buffalo, mainly because the
offense the offense struggled to
score. 13 against WVU, 13
against USF, and 10 against Pitt
didn’t get the job done, and
it’ll have to come up with a
strong offensive performance to
avoid the upset.
Buffalo might have needed a
fluky miracle to beat Temple,
but Connecticut needed overtime
to beat the Owls 12-9. The
weather conditions were lousy,
but the Huskies were still the
better team that should’ve been
able to win a game like that far
easier. Like Buffalo, UConn was
able to find ways to win most of
the close ones. While the losses
to Rutgers and USF were by a
grand total of five points,
UConn won four games by five
points or fewer. There weren’t
too many special wins outside of
the 40-16 shocker over eventual
Big East champion Cincinnati,
and the five losses all came to
bowl bound teams.
Even though UConn is limited, it
should pull off the win if its
head is in the game. As long as
the Huskies decide to show up
and can avoid making a ton of
big mistakes, there shouldn’t be
a problem. However, the Bulls
have found ways to force a ton
of big mistakes and are great at
taking advantage of teams that
don’t take them seriously. If
nothing else, there are only a
few college football games left
this season. Savor what you can
get.
Players to watch:
Connecticut junior Donald
Brown says he’s coming back
for his senior season, but that
could quickly change with one
more big performance. Iowa’s
Shonn Greene might have won the
Doak Walker award, but it’s
Brown who led the nation in
rushing as the ultimate
workhorse. He ran the ball 338
times, and caught 21 passes,
with 1,822 rushing yards and 17
scores. The Buffalo run defense
allows 159 yards per game, and
Brown needs 178 to hit the
2,000-yard mark. He can do it
all running inside and out, with
speed and power. He’ll be fed
the ball 35 times and the game
will be on his shoulders.
Buffalo has a star back of its
own in James Starks, a
tall, big runner who tore off
1,308 yards and 15 touchdowns
despite being hurt for a stretch
this midseason. He ran for 100
yards or more in seven games and
came up with 41 catches for 340
yards and a score. While not
always the workhorse that Brown
can be, Starks can carry the
attack, running 37 times for 151
yards and three touchdowns in
the win over Akron. He doesn’t
have Brown’s NFL potential, but
a big game against a strong
UConn run defense would put
Starks more on the map with the
scouts.
Starks might be the rushing
star, but it’s Naaman
Roosevelt who’s the top
playmaker. The junior receiver
and top return man going over
the 100-yard receiving mark in
each of his last five games, and
he scored at least once in the
final seven games and in eight
of the final nine games. He’s a
speedster who caught the Hail
Mary against Temple and has the
flash to be used in a variety of
ways. Watch to see how the UB
coaching staff invents ways,
with the time off to prepare, to
get the ball into their stars’
hands.
While the UConn offense will
revolve around Brown, the
passing game needs to be better
than it was late in the year. QB
Tyler Lorenzen was
miserable against Pitt,
completing 6-of-27 passes for 80
yards with two interceptions,
but Zach Frazer was far
worse going 0-for-4 with three
interceptions. Lorenzen is the
team’s second leading rusher,
even though he missed a bulk of
the second half of the year, and
he finished completing fewer
than half of his passes for 820
yards and two touchdowns with
eight interceptions. All he has
to do is not make mistakes, not
turn the ball over, and
occasionally run for a first
down. That’s far easier said
than done in a tough year.
Buffalo will win if... it
wins the turnover battle by a
lot. A lot. The Bull defense
might not be great, but it takes
the ball away with 20 forced
fumbles on the year and eight
interceptions. Getting the
takeaways hasn’t always meant
wins for the Bulls, but the run
defense isn’t quite strong
enough to keep Brown under wraps
and the pass defense should be
tested by Lorenzen, who stunk
all season long but should be
able to dink and dunk a bit. If
UConn wins the turnover margin,
this will be a blowout.
Connecticut will win if...
the offensive line takes
control of the game from the
start. Buffalo has an
aggressive, hard-hitting
defense, but it doesn’t get any
pressure into the backfield and
could be put on its heels all
game long. Lorenzen will get all
the time he needs to throw, but
his job will be to hand it off
to Brown. The UConn offensive
front has to pound out a few
long scoring drives early on,
and then the defense will do the
rest. That’s easier said than
done for an attack that
struggled to score over the
second half of the year, but the
UB defense isn’t Pitt’s or West
Virginia’s.
What will happen: Buffalo
will be fired up and will come
up with one or two plays to
suggest that this could be
interesting, and then Brown will
go to work. He’ll run for over
200 yards, will get over the
2,000-yard mark, and Buffalo
will struggle against a Husky
defense that’ll come looking to
make a statement. After the way
the last month of the year went
for UConn, it appears to have
the right mindset … the program
isn’t taking this game lightly.
CFN Prediction:
Connecticut 26 … Buffalo 17 …
Line: Connecticut
-4.5