Coaching staff shakeup for football follows appointment of new head coach

Following a less-than-favorable 3-9 season for the Bulls, head coach Pete Lembo has revamped football’s coaching staff, the team announced in an Instagram post Friday. 

Here’s a look at each of the new appointments:

Dave Patenaude: offensive coordinator/quarterback coach

Originally hired earlier last month, Patenaude most recently served as the offensive analyst for Virginia in 2023. He previously acted as the offensive coordinator for Georgia Tech, where he saw a 100-yard-per-game increase in total offense in 2020. They also had four straight 400-yard games of total offense to begin the year for the first time since 2011 under Pautenaude’s watch.

Along with that, he was the OC and QB coach for Temple University in 2017-18, where they had two of its top three single-season passing totals in school history during his time there. 

Joe Bowen: defensive coordinator 

Bowen arrives at UB following a two-year stint with the Miami (OH) RedHawks, UB’s Mid-American-Conference (MAC) rivals. He served as linebackers coach and running game coordinator, where he helped them become the MAC’s top-ranked scoring defense and run defense in 2022. They also won the championships in 2023. 

Tyler Hancock: special teams coordinator/nickels coach

Hancock comes to Buffalo after spending the 2023 campaign at Baylor University as their quality control coach. From 2016 to 2018, he was the Maryland special teams quality control coach, where he worked alongside Lembo, who at the time was their special teams coordinator. 

Caleb Haynes: wide receivers coach

Haynes was hired following the five seasons at Stony Brook, where he coached multiple different units, including safeties, quarterbacks and wide receivers. 

Haynes is also no stranger to Lembo. In 2018, the two worked at Rice University, where Haynes spent three seasons as an offensive graduate assistant.

Here are some of the other hires and duty changes within the coaching staff:

Ron Whitcomb returns as the coach for the tight ends. He will also serve as the recruiting coordinator. 

Adam Morris will serve as defensive line coach as well as run game coordinator. Morris also acted as a team captain for Lembo during their respective stints at Ball State.

Matt Stansfield remains the offensive line coach in his fourth season at UB following last season where he helped the Bulls tie for third in the MAC for fewest sacks allowed. 

Brian Dougherty comes to Buffalo as the safeties coach following a lone season as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for the University of Indianapolis. He also spent four seasons as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Valparaiso. 

Ray Pickering was named as the running back coach after spending a single season at Norfolk State as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He also served as an offensive assistant at Texas and helped produce freshman All-American Kelvin Banks.

Holman Copeland is now coaching the cornerbacks. He coached the defensive backs last season. 

Caleb Haynes was hired following five seasons at Stony Brook, where he coached multiple different units, including safeties, quarterbacks and wide receivers. He will now have the duty of coaching the Bulls’ wide receivers.

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