2021 G5 Preview: Buffalo Is Starting Over, Again
The departure of Lance Leipold makes this a very difficult team to preview.
ICYMI: This is a part of The Outside Zone’s full 2021 G5 preview series, which last looked at Memphis. You can find a master list for all of the previews here.
Also, as an aside, I’m heading to California for a brief and much-needed vacation next week. The Outside Zone will return on July 12.
This is one of those previews that won’t go very long, simply because there’s very little that can be said definitively about this Buffalo team. After all, programs rarely have to replace a head coach in the last week of April, especially after that coach made such a profound impact on the program he’s departing.
I don’t really know where Buffalo goes after Lance Leipold. This is such a historically bad program, one that was rescued seemingly exclusively by an entirely unique entity like Leipold. There aren’t many program builders like him, and unfortunately, he took a decent chunk of the program with him to Kansas.
Those that he didn’t take departed on their own, like halfback Jaret Patterson or wide receiver Antonio Nunn, both of whom jumped to the NFL. It feels premature to say that a team as good as Buffalo’s was last year has seen the end of its glory days and will return to the cellar, but when you look at this roster, it almost feels foolish to think otherwise.
That’s what happens when you hit as big on a hire as Buffalo did with Leipold, though. He either stays forever, rides off into the sunset, and appoints his replacement, who can hopefully keep the train rolling; or, more likely, someone takes notice and gives him more money to fix their program, leaving yours in something resembling shambles. I don’t dislike the Maurice Linguist hire, nor do I dislike any of his hires as he looks to create stability and continuity. I just don’t think anyone else can do what Leipold did, at least not immediately after he leaves.
As someone that loves the G5 programs and wants to see them succeed, this kind of situation is the hardest part of the job. These coaches and teams deserve recognition and a much larger platform, but that’s more often than not going to lead to the people spearheading the program being plucked away. There’s no reason to begrudge a coach for doing it, almost anyone would, but it leaves something of a shadow program in its place, especially at a place like Buffalo. This isn’t a school that can cycle through P5 coordinator after P5 coordinator, churning out 10-win seasons and replacing each departure with a new boss that looks just like the old one. Buffalo doesn’t get to do that.
For a newsletter that tries to find the joy and fun in college football at these lower levels, I don’t have much that I can say to perk this up. It sucks that Leipold is gone, it sucks that Buffalo will almost certainly regress, and it sucks that this weird and nonsensical ride is over. That 2020 Buffalo team was so much fun and had so little business being as good as it was. I’d be surprised if this school ever sees that much talent in one place again.
College football doesn’t usually produce finality of grief like this, because it’s so rare that these programs ever get out of the gutter at all. I fear what will come when Brent Brennan leaves San Jose State; or when someone notices how good Chris Creighton is and he jumps away from Eastern Michigan. Will the same thing happen to Coastal Carolina or Louisiana?
It’s, as I said, the hard part about covering these, and I can’t bear to imagine how people with a real, lifelong connection to these schools feel when it happens.
This all does serve as a reminder, though, to enjoy the college football joy that we do have. A lot of teams that this newsletter loves to talk about are going to be awesome this year. A lot of players will excel, including Buffalo halfback Kevin Marks Jr., who may have to do it all himself this year but should have no trouble with that at all.
I don’t think we’ll get to see Buffalo do this again, but we will get to see Cincinnati house a pair of P5 teams. We’ll get to see a duo of unbeaten Sun Belt teams in the title game. Boise State will still play on the blue turf, Hawaii will still kick off your true nightcap (rest in peace to Robert Kekaula) and there will still be so much fun to be had in all of these weird little nooks of college football. Let’s enjoy it as it happens and try not to think about where it’ll go from there.