2008 International Bowl Preview: Buffalo v Connecticut

Buffalo (8-5, 5-3 MAC) vs. Connecticut (7-5, 3-4 Big East)

January, 3rd 2009 @ 12:00 PM (EST) – ESPN2 – Toronto, Canada - Buy International Bowl tickets

The International Bowl features one of the biggest surprise teams of the season: The Buffalo Bulls. Buffalo qualified for their first bowl game in spectacular fashion by upsetting unbeaten Ball State in the MAC Title Game, making head coach Turner Gill one of the hottest coaching commodities in college football. Luckily for Buffalo, it appears that Gill will be staying in western New York for at least another year. Their opponent will be the Connecticut Huskies, who took a small step back from their Big East co-championship from a year ago but still were solid this fall.

Connecticut started the year 5-0 before stumbling down the stretch and losing five of their final seven. The major culprit for the Huskies was their lack of a passing game. UConn’s quarterbacks have combined for an unfathomable 4 Touchdowns against 17 interceptions! Luckily, they also feature one of the nation’s top backs and America’s leading rusher in Donald Brown, who ran for 1,822 yards and 17 touchdowns this season. It is not an overstatement to say that he IS the offense. On defense, UConn has been pretty solid, allowing an average of only 20.5 points per game. Even during the late swoon the defense stayed fairly tough. However, the Huskies will have to get some tiny hint of a passing game going if they want to beat the Bulls.

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Buffalo will be playing in their first bowl game in the school’s history and the game is right across Lake Ontario from campus. Expect a fair contingent of Buffalo fans to make the trip. The Bulls have lived a charmed life in the second half of the year, winning 6 of their final seven games, including three in overtime! Buffalo features a pretty solid offense led by senior quarterback Drew Willy, who has thrown for over 3,000 yards and has an impressive 5-1 Touchdown to interception ratio. During the Bulls’ late run, the offense scored an average of 35 points per game. However, the defense isn’t quite as stout, allowing 29.5 points per game this season.

This game will come down to one matchup and one matchup alone: Donald Brown versus the Buffalo run defense. The nation’s leading rusher has to have a big game for his team to emerge victorious in Toronto. Connecticut will look to pound Brown and control the clock while keeping Drew Willy and company off the field. Another factor in this game is that this is Buffalo’s first bowl game. Expect their players to get caught looking around early versus focusing on playing and that could put them in an early hole. I think that Brown will find plenty of room to maneuver against the Bulls and his team will avoid the killer interceptions. The Huskies, playing in consecutive bowl games for their first time in history, will defeat Buffalo in the International Bowl in an old school smash mouth game.

International Bowl Pick: Connecticut 24 - Buffalo 20

by Matt Baxendell
CollegeSports-fans.com Staff Writer

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