BY: TY B
The NFL Draft weekend was full of high expectations for UB Bulls fans.
Bulls faithful felt that they could have at least two players drafted throughout the weekend with a couple of others to sign on as UDFA’s. The weekend ended up leaving a sour taste in fans’ mouths.
Mel Kiper was right when he mentioned that Malcolm Koonce was surging up draft boards. Ultimately, Koonce was selected in the third round by the Las Vegas Raiders as the rest of the Bulls players went undrafted.
That came as a shock to Bulls fans who fully expected running back Jaret Patterson to be selected before the draft’s conclusion. The junior decided to forego his last year of eligibility similarly to former Bulls quarterback Tyree Jackson and enter the NFL Draft, however Patterson would go undrafted just as Jackson had.
All of that comes on top of the news that head coach Lance Leipold was resigning to takeover the helm at the University of Kansas.
“I can’t thank Lance enough for everything he has done for our football program,” Athletic Director Mark Alnutt said. “His vision and leadership helped elevate the UB football brand. We are grateful for what Lance has done here and we wish him and his family all the best as they embark on this new journey.”
That new journey will be in Lawrence, KS, as Leipold will take over as head coach of the Jayhawks. Leipold is the second coach to jump from Buffalo to Lawrence, as Turner Gill did the same in 2009. Gill lasted just two seasons with a 5-19 record, including a 10-game losing streak that led to his firing.
Gill was heralded for his year-over-year improvement of the Buffalo program, while Leipold has been an elite-level talent developer. Throughout Leipold’s tenure, Buffalo has built up overlooked recruits into legitimate NFL prospects.
Leipold will need to continue doing that to succeed at Kansas as they have not had a recruiting class ranked higher than eighth in the Big 12 over the past four years. It is something Leipold faced at Buffalo, but the talent discrepancy between the top and bottom classes in the Big 12 is much tougher than anything he faced in the MAC.
The Jayhawks have just four four-star recruits since 2017, while Oklahoma and Texas both routinely pull over a dozen plus a few five-star guys annually. Leipold has made a name for himself by doing more with less, but the BIG-12 ain’t the MAC.
Guys like Koonce and Patterson were completely overlooked coming out of high school, but Leipold and his staff turned them into NFL talent. Koonce should get a great opportunity in Vegas under Jon Gruden while Patterson will have to fight his way through an interesting, veteran-filled Washington Football Team running back room.
Antonio Gibson is the likely #1 guy in Washington, while veterans J.D. McKissic, Peyton Barber, and Lamar Miller will be battling for carries. There’s a good opportunity for Patterson to latch on with the WFT, plus he’ll have some immediate familiarity in the locker room with former high school teammate Chase Young on the roster.
Two other Bulls were given UDFA contracts since the draft’s conclusion. Wide receiver Antonio Nunn signed with the Atlanta Falcons while offensive lineman Kayode Awosika inked a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. Nunn will have a tough time navigating a deep receiver room in Atlanta, while I believe Awosika will have a better opportunity to make Philadelphia’s roster. Awosika proved he can play at either tackle position and is adept in both the run and passing game.
Many people have criticized Patterson’s decision to declare early for the draft, but at this point, we don’t have the faintest idea of what the offense will look like during the 2021 season. It could continue to be a pound the rock zone run offense, or someone could come in and try to establish a more wide open air raid scheme. There are too many unknowns, and it’s too late to second guess.
Fans and administration alike must put aside their feelings and figure out what the next step is for the University at Buffalo football program. The team is put at a tremendous disadvantage this late in the year as spring practices are already wrapping up.
Alnutt did a great job by immediately reaching out to all the players, commitments, and their families to keep them abreast of the current situation. Now he needs to quickly decide what is in the best interest of the program. Do they stay the course and promote from within as they did with the basketball program and Jim Whitsell, or does Alnutt take a swing for the fences with an up-and-coming name? We should get that answer quickly as a search firm has been hired, and Alnutt has made the urgency to fill the position known. Alnutt better move swiftly as the assistants begin to follow the Yellow Brick Road to Lawrence.
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