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| Posted on Sunday, September 22 @ 00:00:13 PDT |
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Perhaps the two most accomplished football coaches in the history of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will match wits on Saturday when Temple visits Buffalo.
Temple’s Rod Carey and Buffalo’s Lance Leipold are both products of the WIAC, a Division III conference that presently includes eight schools from the University of Wisconsin System.
Carey’s first full-time position was at UW-Stout, where he spent seven years as the offensive coordinator before climbing the ladder towards the Division I ranks. Leipold was the head coach at UW-Whitewater, his alma mater, where he won six Division III Championships and compiled a remarkable record of 109-6 before making the jump to Buffalo in 2015.
Between Leipold’s half-dozen championship rings and Carey’s distinction of making his head coaching debut at Northern Illinois in the 2013 Orange Bowl, the WIAC probably never had more alums in the national headlines.
Leipold guided Buffalo to a MAC East Division title and a 36-29 win at Temple last season, but he came up short against Northern Illinois in the MAC Championship Game. Carey’s squad came back from a 29-10 deficit with less than a minute to go in the third quarter to capture a 30-29 victory.
This year, the Bulls are caught somewhere between rebuilding and reloading. They lost their prolific quarterback Tyree Jackson, his top three pass catchers, and eight defensive starters from last year’s lineup. But four starters are back on the offensive line and the Bulls have the MAC’s best two-back tandem in sophomore runners Kevin Marks and Jaret Patterson .
Last year, Marks totaled 25 carries for 138 yards and two touchdowns in Buffalo’s win at Temple. He finished the season with 847 yards and 13 touchdowns. As the year progressed, however, Patterson emerged as Leipold’s most dangerous weapon – totaling 1,103 yards and 14 scores and averaging 5.5 yards per carry.
“Jaret is a little bit shorter in stature, he’s a make-you-miss guy with really good quickness,†Leipold told OwlsDaily on the MAC’s weekly teleconference earlier this week. “Kevin is a little bit bigger back with a little longer stride, gets downhill well and does some things. He played extremely well and physical in that game (at Temple last season). And we’re going to need that this week from him again.
“They complement each other really well.
We use them on the field together at times this year, and with our offensive line, we’re going to need those guys to play well to have a chance on Saturday.â€
Besides the offensive line, which features three senior starters, the Buffalo depth chart is loaded with younger players, including redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Myers , who has completed 49 percent of his passes but thrown just one interception (and five touchdowns) in his first three starts.
Despite their youth, the Bulls went to Penn State two weeks ago and were beating the Lions at halftime, 10-7, before getting blitzed in the second half and losing, 45-13. Last week, they dropped a 35-17 decision at Liberty. Penn State and Liberty both had success throwing the ball.
“It’s still a young team,†Leipold said. “There’s maybe seven seniors that played in that game with meaningful snaps. And we’re learning as we go through, and some guys are getting thrown into the fire, so to speak.†Buffalo punter Evan Finegan (40) suffered a broken leg at Penn State two weeks ago. Backup QB Kyle VanTrease is now Buffalos punter. (Photo: Scott Taetsch, Getty)
Nobody is getting a trial by fire more than Buffalo’s backup quarterback-turned-punter Kyle VanTrease , who took over punting duties after sophomore Evan Finegan suffered a broken leg against Penn State.
The only other punter on the Buffalo roster is true freshman Jackson Baltar, who Leipold said he would like to redshirt. So the job belongs to VanTrease, a sophomore who lost a preseason battle with Myers for the QB job, but was also a kicker and punter in high school. He’s punted five times in the past two weeks and averaged 26.6 yards per punt.
“He struggled a little bit on Saturday, and that’s kind of a dilemma we’re in right now,†Leipold said. “Kyle is working hard at it. It’s not too often that you think you’d lose your punter for the year in such a way. So Kyle will continue to work on it. We have confidence in him, and we’ll work Jackson Baltar as well, if need be. So we’ll see where that takes us. But again, Kyle is giving us everything he can being pressed into this situation and duty.â€
As for the match-up with Carey and the Owls, Leipold suggested there won’t be many secrets on either side of the field.
“Going against Rod and his staff, there’s going to be some familiarity on both ends of this,†he said. “Last year when we played [Temple] we felt that it was an extremely talented team and an extremely physical team.
They’ve been know for that, their great size and athleticism. And then you take Rod Carey and what he did at Northern Illinois, obviously we played them in the conference championship game last year. They’ll know us really well.
“Watching them on film, they’ve kept some of the physical demeanor about them, and that’s what Rod has always had in his program as well. And watching what they’ve done, Maryland was the talk of college football last week in many parts of the country in where they were at and how explosive they were. And they completely shut them down and won a very tight football game. So a highly impressive win against a Top 25 team.â€
Having just seen his team against Penn State, and after watching the Temple-Maryland tape, Leipold said a comparison between the Owls and two Big Ten teams was apt.
“I think so, especially in the size in the lines and the front seven and the physicality and total athleticism,†he said. “As we’ve gone through and played different teams through the years and looking again on film, Temple looks like a Big Ten team in a lot of ways.â€
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