By Budd Bailey
Marquis Cooper sure knows how to put an exclamation point on a victory.
The University at Buffalo defensive back was at work in the middle of the end zone on a play late in the third period. Massachusetts was trailing 20-3, but a touchdown by the Minutemen had a chance to make the final minutes at least interesting.
UMass quarterback Taisun Phommahanh rolled to his left and threw an ill-advised pass into the end zone … and right into the hands of Cooper. The junior would have been excused had he just fallen down for the touchdown, but he saw a little daylight in front of him.
“I didn’t really expect him to throw it,” Cooper said. “I only saw one person in front of me, and I was going to the house. I was really trying to make a play. I was going to try to take it back.”
“It happens in slow motion,” Bulls coach Pete Lembo said. “You’re saying, ‘Go down, go down.’ Then over the headsets, (he was hearing) ‘He’s taking it out.” Oh no, oh no, and someone said, ‘I think he’s taking it to the house.’”
So Cooper ran. And ran, and ran, and ran some more. The journey lasted 106 yards when Cooper reached the end zone, although the official record will only show it as a 100-yard interception return. That erased the UB record for longest interception return, but more importantly gave the Bulls a 27-3 lead. Nighty night, Minutemen.
“It changed the momentum,” Cooper said.
“Anytime you score, the guys are going to be excited,” linebacker Shaun Dolac said. “Personally, if it had been me, I might have taken a knee. But I’m not as fast as he is.”
Sometimes good things happen to the bold, which was the case here.
“We’re not going to change how we coach based on how that play came out,” Lembo said. “You want your guys to play aggressive. There’s a reason why he’s in the position he’s in, going from walk-on to scholarship player to starter. He plays with a chip on his shoulder. We need that.”
That was the game, as the play turned the fourth quarter into an extended controlled scrimmage.
It was only appropriate that the defense came up with the final big play of the game. That unit probably was smarting after last week’s one-sided loss to powerful Missouri, but rebounded nicely against an admittedly weaker opponent. The Minutemen moved the ball a bit, but rarely could summon up enough to pull off a big play. The UB defense looks like it should be a strong point going forward.
Dolac certainly was a big part of that. The Bulls’ tackling machine had 16 takedowns for the second straight week.
On offense, UB mostly worked like a work in progress. The game started off well enough, as CJ Ogbonna hit J.J. Jenkins with a very nice 40-yard pass for the game’s opening score only five minutes into play. After a blanking last week, the offense was happy to get on the scoreboard quickly.”
“There definitely was an emphasis on that this week,” Ogonna said. “Last week didn’t start well. We were focusing on starting out fast and putting plays together.”
But the Bulls couldn’t move the ball too much for the rest of the half. The teams traded field goals along the way, giving Buffalo a 10-3 lead at halftime.
The Bulls picked up the tempo in their first drive of the second half, as Upton Bellenfant kicked his second field. Later in the third quarter. Ogbonna ran it home from eight yards, giving UB a 17-point edge. That felt comfortable, but Cooper’s play wrapped up the verdict. For the record, Lamar Sperling (86 yards rushing) added a TD on a one-yard plunge in the final minutes.
The unsung heroes for UB on the day were the special teams. They contributed three punts that were downed inside the 5-yard line, and added a couple of field goals. It wasn’t a perfect day, but there were more pluses than minuses.
“We flipped the field nicely,” Lembo said. “That’s really encouraging. One of our goals this week was that we challenged our special teams. … We gave Upton Bellenfant a shot at kicker today after we went 1 for 3 in the last couple of games. I loved the way he responded. The ball was popping off his foot.”
It was hard to know what to expect out of the Bulls at the start of the season. Most of the roster and the coaching staff has changed from 2023. After three games, UB has won the games it figured to win and lost the game it figured to lose. And the process continues.
“Everyday has been a learning experience,” Lembo said. “I’m still learning - just playing out games, communicating with the rest of staff, communicating with our coordinators. … Every game is different, every game has a new set of highs and lows.”
Saturday’s game was something of a preview of 2025. Massachusetts was in the Mid-American Conference starting in 2012, but dropped out after 2015. The Minutemen will try again by rejoining the conference next year. They have played several MAC teams since leaving the conference, with only one win to show for it. We’ll see if they can improve in the years to come.
In the meantime, the Bulls will face a good-sized test to open the conference schedule. Next week they play at Northern Illinois, a name that caught everyone’s attention a week ago. That’s when they knocked off Notre Dame in one of the biggest football upsets – if not the biggest - in the history of the Mid-American Conference. The Huskies moved into the national rankings with that victory, and there was no chance that they would have a letdown a week later. That’s because Northern Illinois had this weekend off. It ought to be loud next Saturday.
We’ll wait a week to see if there’s a carryover for the Bulls from a solid win over Massachusetts. But in the meantime, Dolac seems some progress taking place.
”You take a look at the last three weeks, and you see a progression,” he said. ‘You see this team continuing to build, build, build, and stack days and continue to grow. We’re going to get better at this.”
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)
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