What to Expect in Lance Leipold's First Year at Buffalo?

After a legendary coaching career at UW-Whitewater in which he won 109 games and six National Championships, Lance Leipold is beginning a new chapter of his coaching career. This year he begins his first year at the Division 1-FBS Level at the University of Buffalo. First of all, Buffalo isn't Alabama or Ohio State, Leipold isn't going to walk into Buffalo right away and put them in the National Championship conversation as he did six times at Whitewater.  That just doesn't happen right away.  I think going into this year for Leipold's Bulls, there are some good things going this year for his team.  The best thing when Leipold did when you took the job at Buffalo was assembling a staff with coaches he has worked with in the past.  In fact, seven of the nine coaches on his staff at Buffalo are guys he has coached with in the past.  Most of those being guys he had as assistants at Whitewater, and few of those being guys who he coached alongside at his other stops before Whitewater.  Why is that the best thing for Leipold you may ask? The reason why that is best thing for him is he gets to stick to what has been working for him.  When he took that job at Buffalo, he could have easily decided to go with the hottest names FBS wise with assistant coaches.  He decided not to, which makes the transition a whole lot easier for him.  In essence, Lance Leipold is taking the same playbook and philosophies he had at Whitewater and taking them to the FBS level of College Football.  He is taking a Pro style system that produced six National Championships and seeing if what he did at Whitewater can translate to the high levels.  What his system does is throw a lot at teams and make not expect what is coming.  His Bulls are going multiple just like the Warhawks are at the Division 3 level.  

As for his roster in his first year, he walks into a good situation with some good pieces already on his roster.  It is more apparent on the offensive side the ball.  Senior quarterback Joe Licata is going into his fifth year there and his fourth at Buffalo as the starting quarterback.  Licata has already broken some records at UB. Licata threw for 2,647 yards last year and threw 29 touchdown passes opposed to 11 interceptions.  From Licata's stats from last year, you can tell right away that he knows how to take care of the football, which is something good for Leipold as his quarterback at Whitewater the last few years rarely threw any interceptions.  A good thing for Licata in his last year is the Bulls return seven guys who had more than a 100 yards receiving last year (Ron Willoughby, Jacob Martinez, Devin Campbell, Marcus McGill, Anthone Taylor, Matt Weiser, and Mason Schreck).  So Licata will have plenty of weapons to throw to this season. Another good piece on the offensive side the ball for the Bulls is Anthone Taylor, their senior running back.  In 282 attempts last year, Taylor rushed for 1,403 yards and 12 touchdowns.  Taylor is also backed up by a 300 yard rusher from last year in Jordan Jackson. These two things: a solid quarterback in Licata, and a thousand yard rusher in Taylor are going to be really good things for Leipold in his first year.  Look at Leipold's tenure at Whitewater, he had solid quarterbacks in Danny Jones, Jeff Donovan, Matt Blanchard, and Matt Behrendt.  Every year in Leipold's tenure at Whitewater, he had a 1,000 yard rusher (Beaver, Coppage, Anderson, Ward, Ratliffe, and Moore during those eight years).  Expect in Leipold's first year with the Bulls for that to be their calling card.  

As for what will be the biggest challenge for Leipold in year one, the defense is going to be a big question going into this season.  On defense, Leipold doesn't have the luxury of having a lot coming back that he has on offense.  Their defense also gave up a lot of big plays last year, so we'll see what the transition from a 3-4 under former coach Jeff Quinn to a 4-3 under Leipold will help with that. On defense, the Bulls lost their top three defensive tacklers from last year's team.  So defensively, there is some work to do with the Bulls defense.  

As for expectations, and based off of some predictions I read elsewhere.  Other previews have them going 5-7 in Leipold's first year.  I think that he'll get more than five wins in his first year there and guide them to their third ever bowl in their football history.  With their schedule, there are some stuff games.  Having Penn State the second week will be a big challenge for Leipold's Bulls. Conference wise having Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, and Western Michigan on their schedule in conference will be tough too, but I think with what Leipold brings offensively and defensively, I don't it is out of the question that this team can make a bowl game in his first year.