College Football Preview: B cont'd

Buffalo - Buffalo will have a new look on the sidelines this year, as Jeff Quinn takes over for Turner Gill, who is the new coach at Kansas. Quinn comes to Buffalo from Cincinnati where he was an assistant under Brian Kelly who is the new coach at Notre Dame. Quinn oversaw a no-huddle spread offense that was responsible for 7.28 yards per play -- second in the nation to Nevada. The Bulls will be looking to go to their second bowl in three years after finishing 5-7 last season.

Offense - The offense will be under new direction, because the 2009 starter doesn't return this year, leaving only Jerry Davis as the only quarterback who has seen collegiate action. Davis, a sophomore, saw action in five games last season, completing eight of 15 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown. Alex Dennison redshirted last year and will look to come in and challenge Davis for the starting role.

Fortunately for the Bulls, they return an experienced trio of running backs from last year. Ike Nduka broke out onto the scene in a big way. Nduka, then a junior, had not had any carries in his entire career before taking over for an injured James Starks and rushing for 598 yards and six touchdowns on 96 carries. Another senior, Brandon Thermilus, is coming off of a successful junior campaign as well, after rushing for 560 yards and four touchdowns.

The hardest replacements will come in the wide receiver corps, where they have to replace both starters, both of whom were All-MAC receivers. Terrell Jackson returns after a sophomore campaign where he caught 25 balls for 250 yards, but no touchdowns. Thermilus is the second leading receiver returning after he caught a mere nine balls for 99 yards. Marcus Rivers, Ed Young and Saron Hood, among other redshirt freshman, will be fighting for playing time as well.

Defense - The defense brings back eight starters from a team that gave up 342 yards per game and 23.8 points per game. They also forced 18 turnovers.

Just looking at the stats, it would be easy to say that the defensive backfield is the position of strength in this year's defense and, in this case, that would be true. Five of last year's seven top tacklers were defensive backs, and four return, including three starters. Davont Shannon, a three-time All-MAC First Team member, returns for his senior season after leading the team in tackles in 2009. He not only led the team in tackles with 97, but also had a team-high 8.5 tackles for loss as well as being a co-leader with two interceptions. The Bulls return both their cornerbacks in Dominic Cook and Josh Thomas. Last season, Cook had 55 tackles and a team-high 10 pass breakups, while Thomas had 45 tackles, nine pass breakups and a forced fumble and fumble recovery each.

Another strong part of the defense will be their linebacker corps, where they return their entire corps. Looking to lead the squad will be Justin Winters who finished third on the squad with 79 tackles. Seven of those tackles were for loss. He also had four and a half sacks, which ranked second on the squad. Scott Pettigrew also returns after finishing fourth on the team in tackles. He enters his junior season after being in on 55 stops, one and a half sacks, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles last year. Raphael Akobundu started the last two games of his junior season and looks to steal the third starting spot for good this year. He finished with 37 tackles last year.

The defensive line brings back two starters, but brings back tons of experience. Anel Montanez returns at the tackle position after starting all 26 games the past two seasons. The senior had 35 tackles, including four for loss last season. End Steven Means returns after turning in a successful freshman campaign where he led the team with five sacks and six and a half of his 25 tackles were for loss.

Recruiting - Th 2010 recruiting class is made of 22 student-athletes, 12 of whom are slated to play on the offensive side of the ball. Aaron Walters comes up to Buffalo from South Carolina after posting some staggering numbers as a high school senior. The wide receiver caught 71 balls for 1,200 yards and 19 touchdowns in his last year. Kendall Roberson comes up from the Peach State as a linebacker. His senior season saw him put up a stat line of 66 tackles, seven sacks, three fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles and an interception.

Schedule - The Bulls start the season against Rhode Island before facing three consecutive tough non-conference opponents in Baylor, UCF and UCONN. The UCONN games marks a stretch in the middle of the season that sees Buffalo play three road games in a row, with a bye week sandwiched in between. After an October 16th games against NIU, however, the Bulls then have four of their next six at home, including a home date with Temple, who figures to be one of the favorites in the MAC. Three of the final four games will also be broadcast on ESPNU.

BYU - The Cougars are coming off of an 11-2 season that saw the team defeat three ranked team, including a 44-20 shellacking of Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. The team will need to have many younger players stand out if they want to return to last year's form, as many of the important players from last year's squad have departed.

Offense - The Cougars are going to have to replace Max Hall, who finished last season with some ridiculous stats. Hall, who is now in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, completed 67 percent of his passes for over 3,500 yards and 33 touchdowns. Riley Nelson returns as the only quarterback who has seen any college football action, so the team will look to its younger freshmen to put up a fight for the wide-open starting position.

As if losing your stud quarterback wasn't enough, BYU also loses it's starting running back from last year. Last year's starter, Harvey Unga, rushed for 1,087 of the Cougars' 1,894 rushing yards and 11 of 26 touchdowns last season. However, the team does bring back the next four top rushers. JJ Di Luigi returns after rushing for 248 yards and three touchdowns, while Manase Tonga leads the returnees with four touchdowns.

No matter who the quarterback is, he will have the luxury of having six of the top eight receivers from last year return. McKay Jacobson leads the team in returning yards with 556 and is tied with three others with four touchdowns last season. Jacobson averaged over 24 yards per catch, while all other receivers except one averaged double digit yards per catch.

Defense - As impressive as the offense was, the defense was equally so. The defense gave up 21.5 points per game and only allowed 329 yards per game, nearly 100 yards less than what their offense averaged.

Like their offense, the defense loses many of the starters from last year. Only four of the top 10 tacklers return. Luckily for the defensive secondary, two of the four return after finishing first and fourth on the team respectfully. Andrew Rich returns for his senior season after leading the team with 85 tackles and tying for the team lead in interceptions with four. Brandon Bradley, the fourth highest tackler, also returns in the secondary. He added 64 tackles, four passes broken up and two forced fumbles. Brian Logan is coming off of an impressive season in which he started 12 games. He finished the season with 44 tackles and three interceptions as well as an astounding 14 passes broken up.

Two returning linebackers played in double digit games last season. Jordan Pendelton played in 13 games and started 10 during the 2009 season. He finished the year with 52 tackles, six tackles for loss and three sacks. He also had three passes broken up. His tackles for loss and sack totals lead all returnees. Brandon Ogletree also returns after playing in 10 games in 2009. He will fight for a starting spot after being in on 19 tackles.

Recruiting - The Cougars bring in 26 players in the 2010 recruiting class that has been ranked in the top 25 of at least one ranking list. Jake Heaps comes in as the No. 1 quarterback in the nation and will look to fight for the starting nod. As a senior, Heaps threw for 3,191 yards and 45 touchdowns on his way to a state title win. But Heaps isn't the only highly-rated recruit in this year's class. Eight signees are ranked in the top 25 at their positions. Alani Fua comes in as the No. 25 weakside defensive end after coming up with 71 tackles, nine sacks, two fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles. Zac Stout comes in as the No. 8 middle linebacker and put up incredible stats in his senior season. He totaled 112 tackles, including 81 solo stops.

Schedule - The schedule doesn't look as daunting as it did last year, as Washington replaces Oklahoma, but that can be deceiving. The Huskies will be getting stud quarterback Jake Locker back after he suffered an injury last year. Luckily for BYU that game is at home. Unfortunately for the team, however, three of their next four games are on the road, including a game at Florida State. The Cougars' two toughest MWC games against TCU and Utah are both on the road, including a season-ending game in Salt Lake City.