Kent State-Buffalo: Wednesday Night Football Is Back

No, I'm not sure why a Wednesday night game is being played on September 19. This is what November is for, people. But I suppose people can't get enough of that delicious MAC football on weeknights. Is your football team already that disappointing that you must gorge on something else already? As long as you admit that.

I think we say this about every team. "They're very interesting." Kind of a flat, nondescript sentence. Yes, they're interesting teams in that with 10 games left to play, we don't know how they'll do in them. Every team is interesting. Buffalo was less interesting a month ago when we thought, well, they have Branden Oliver, Khalil Mack and a bunch of other guys wearing blue that will lead them to a 2-10 season and Jeff Quinn's firing. Based on the Georgia game and their offensive showing of Morgan State — a feat dampened when Akron destroyed them better — we can now remove doubt that UB is someone easily kicked around this year. That's not to say they won't finish 2-10, but we know what their offense can do.

At the very least, you need to be able to score in the MAC. Without that, you're at the bottom. A capable offense can blow up any football team in the conference. So what makes Buffalo more interesting is that we didn't think that offense was possible with them. Not with this quarterback (Alex Zordich), and not with that offensive line. But the line has allowed two sacks, some of that being Zordich's mobility, and some of it being great play by all units. And then there's this guy.

Using the "Bo Tie" to promote @bolive32 #ubbulls twitter.com/UBJonFuller/st…

— Jon Fuller (@UBJonFuller) September 18, 2012

Which brings us to Kent State, a team I've been mindlessly saying for now three seasons is an interesting case study. I thought they had a chance to break through as a MAC East winner under Doug Martin. That didn't happen, so he left. Then in 2011 they scored 42 points in 6 games against FBS teams. This team couldn't score, so they looked like a last-place contender. Suddenly they turned it around, finishing the season winning four of five. They looked good against Towson, put a scare into Kentucky, and here they are with a dynamic running back/kickoff returner in Dri Archer and, of course, scary defensive players like Roosevelt Nix and C.J. Malauulu. They create turnovers like nobody's business.

I still want to see more from Kent State's offense, and the same with Buffalo's defense. Which means the fun will happen with the Bulls owning the football. Will it be a shootout? Hard to say. I'm thinking Buffalo 33, Kent State 25. Hope that's fun enough for everyone.