BUFFALO, N.Y. – Coming off a school-record 10-win season and second consecutive bowl-eligible season, Buffalo may have a different look in 2019, but the goals will be the same. Buffalo is coming off a season in which it went 10-4, appeared in the Marathon MAC Football Championship Game and earned a berth in the Dollar General Bowl for the program’s third bowl appearance in school history.  While the Bulls need to replace a number of offensive weapons, including their starting quarterback and three starting wide receivers, they do have the luxury of returning the majority of their offensive line and a pair of talented running backs.
 
One of the biggest questions heading into the 2019 campaign will be who will replace the 2018 MAC Offensive Player of the Year Tyree Jackson as the Bulls’ starting quarterback? The returning quarterback with the most experience is sophomore Kyle Vantrease, who started one game in 2017 and threw for 355 yards and two touchdowns last season. Dominic Johnson, a big-framed quarterback at 6-5, 225, saw some action as a sophomore last season and will also compete for the starting job. Johnson appeared in four games in 2018 and attempted two passes.
 
While there are question marks surrounding the quarterback position, that isn’t the case at running back. The Bulls will return their top two backs from a season ago, including MAC Freshman of the Year Jaret Patterson, and Kevin Marks. Patterson burst on to the scene as a true freshman in 2018 and rushed for 1,013 yards and 14 touchdowns. He became the first freshman running back in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season and his 14 rushing touchdowns were two shy of the single- season school record.  Marks rushed for 845 yards and 13 touchdowns and scored a rushing touchdown in 10 different games in 2018.
 
The offensive line has been a strength of the Buffalo offense since head coach Lance Leipold’s arrival and will have five returning starters – senior left tackle Evin Ksiezarczyk, junior right tackle Kayode Awosika, senior left guard Paul Nosworthy, senior right guard Tomas Jack-Kurdyla and sophomore Jacob Gall.
 
Defensively, the Bulls will have to replace a number of starters including leading linebacker Khalil Hodge.  Linebacker James Patterson burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2018 and started all 14 games at outside linebacker and ranked second on the team in tackles with 77 and added a team-high nine tackles for loss and four forced fumbles.  Matt Otwinowski is the likely successor to Hodge at middle linebacker with 38 career games at middle linebacker and is coming off a season in which he had 31 tackles and two tackles for loss.
 
Aug.
29         Robert Morris, 7:00 pm ET (ESPN+)
Sep.
7          at Penn State, 7:30 pm ET (FOX)
14         at Liberty, 6:00 pm ET (ESPN+)
21         Temple
28         *at Miami
Oct.
5          *Ohio, 3:30 pm ET
19         *at Akron
26         *Central Michigan
Nov.
2          *at Eastern Michigan
14         *at Kent State, 7:00 pm ET (CBS Sports Network)
20         *Toledo, 7:30 pm ET (ESPN2/ESPNU)
29         *Bowling Green, TBA