On a cold Friday night in Amherst, N.Y., last November, Ball State soundly defeated Buffalo 20-3 in a game that meant little for either team in the 2010 season. The Cardinals won their fourth and final game of the year and coach Stan Parrish was fired anyway. For the Bulls, it was the fifth loss in a seven-game losing streak that ended coach Jeff Quinn's first season.
For some Ball State players, coaches and many fans, the win represented a little more. It was the first time the two teams had met since the 2008 Mid-American Conference Championship Game, when Buffalo upset then-No. 12 Ball State 42-24. After last November's victory, safety Sean Baker said he would go tear down the Bulls' 2008 MAC Championship banner if he wouldn't get in trouble.
Saturday night at 7 p.m. the two teams will meet again. This time, the stakes will be different. No member of either coaching staff was at Ball State or Buffalo in 2008. Only four Cardinals currently on the roster played in the title game Field. In less than four years, the nightmare of Ford Field has become myth, the principals gone, only the score remaining.
Saturday night's importance is not derived from memories of 2008, rather from the start of a season anew. It will be the first MAC game for each team. Both are trying to prove they can compete after two years of futility following the championship game.
"If you look at our out of conference schedules – for both Buffalo and ourselves – they're both very difficult slates," coach Pete Lembo said. "So this becomes a very important game for both teams."
To win its third MAC opener in the last four years, Ball State will have to contend with a much different Buffalo offense than it saw last year. The Bulls have a new quarterback and an overhauled offensive line.
Senior quarterback Chazz Anderson had to sit out last season after transferring from Cincinnati, but has taken control of the offense this season. He has been helped by the ascendance of sophomore running back Branden Oliver, who has rushed for 240 yards in the first two games this year. Last year against Ball State, Oliver gained just six yards on four carries.
"Chazz Anderson and [Oliver], they're really the two marquee players that make it go," Lembo said.
Both teams enter the game with 1-1 records. Ball State is coming off a 37-7 loss at No. 20 South Florida, while Buffalo beat Stony Brook 35-7 last Saturday. Lembo believes the Bulls will come to Muncie confident and riding the momentum that follows a team's first victory of the season.
"I think Buffalo's a group that's feeling pretty good about themselves right now," Lembo said. "I think we'll see a team that's very highly motivated on Saturday night."
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