Homecoming horror for Bulls

Homecoming weekend brings current and former students together to watch their alma mater play football. On Saturday afternoon, many of those people wished they had stayed home.

Buffalo (2-5, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) head coach Jeff Quinn turned to true freshman Alex Zordich after losing patience with sophomore Jerry Davis, but the young quarterback struggled in his first career start. Temple (6-2, 3-1 MAC) dominated Buffalo in every phase of the game and shut out the Bulls, 42-0.

"It's disappointing that we lost [but even more so] the way we lost," Quinn said. "We couldn't get anything going offensively… I'm very disappointed but [Temple is] just a better football team… I'm beyond frustrated."

Zordich had a Temple defender in his face all game long and never seemed to get comfortable. He was consistently forced out of the pocket and threw three interceptions.

With one game under his belt, Zordich is hoping to learn from his mistakes and move forward.

"You look at the score and the mistakes, and that's not how we want to play the game," Zordich said. "I know I have to keep working and I can't dwell on the past. They called on me to execute [today] and I didn't do that."

After the game, Quinn stood by his decision to bench Davis in favor of Zordich.

"I thought about [the switch to Zordich] long and hard," Quinn said. "I felt like this was going to spark our team and really give them new life, new hope, and new vigor. He did a great job all week but we all know [practice] isn't the same [as a game]…He's going to get better."

On the other side for the Owls, junior Mike Gerardi also made his first start of the season.

Gerardi looked like he had been running the offense for Temple head coach Al Golden for years. He threw three touchdowns in the game and demonstrated impressive accuracy on most of his throws.

A serious concern for Quinn and the Bulls offense is the inability to move the ball. The Bulls were 2-of-17 on third down and 0-of-4 on fourth down in the game. As a unit, the offense only had three possessions reach the Owls end of the field, and the first one didn't come until halfway through the third quarter.

Spreading out the defense and maintaining a quick pace throughout the game are supposed to be staples of the spread offense. Quinn, however, is still waiting for his offense to start executing and is confident his team will learn the system.

"We need to coach [the spread] better and our players need to execute it better," Quinn said. "There are moments when this thing is clicking, and it's moving when guys are making freaking plays. We're going through some tough times and some growing pains, but in the long haul I'm going to continue running it."

Temple's rushing attack was as good as advertised. The sophomore duo of Matt Brown and Bernard Pierce trampled the Bulls defense. The pair of backs combined to rush for 215 yards, and Pierce scored two of the team's three rushing touchdowns.

The Owls ran for 266 total yards in the game compared to Buffalo's 63. Golden thinks that Pierce is finally returning to form after battling several injuries over the past year. The play of Matt Brown has also impressed the coach this season, and he needs both backs healthy and contributing down the stretch.

Quinn couldn't have envisioned a more deflating start to the game for his team. Senior cornerback Domonic Cook fumbled on the opening kickoff, which led to a quick score for Temple.

The Bulls were never able to recover, and the Owls jumped out to a 21-0 advantage after the first quarter and never looked back.

The Owls came out motivated, and according to Cook, who made up for his early fumble with two interceptions in the game, the Bulls let them do what they wanted.

"It was very frustrating to come out like that," Cook said. "Their team was rocking with enthusiasm all game and we were just standing there watching…We have to practice and come together as a team."

Miami of Ohio (4-4, 3-1 MAC) is next up for the Bulls. The RedHawks are coming off of their first conference loss and will look to get back in the win column against Buffalo this Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at UB Stadium.