University at Buffalo Bulls Football

From fourteen medical students to the Mid-American Conference

The team dates from 1894, when fourteen medical students at the University at Buffalo formed the first side. Early results were good, with a 9-1-2 record by 1896, but the history that followed is one of interruptions. No team was fielded between 1904 and 1914, the war years of 1943 to 1945 were lost, and after the 1970 season a student vote to withdraw funding shut the sport down for six years.

The side was originally called the Bisons, from 1915 to 1930, before the university switched to the Bulls in 1931 to distinguish itself from Buffalo's professional clubs. When football returned in 1977 it did so at Division III level, then climbed to Division I-AA in 1993 and finally to the top flight, Division I-A, in 1999, the same year Buffalo joined the Mid-American Conference. That is where it has stayed ever since.

The scale of the climb shows in the numbers. The all-time record stands at 422 wins, 568 defeats and 28 ties, a winning percentage of.428. Dick Offenhamer, who coached from 1955 to 1965, remains the most successful long-serving coach with 58 wins against 37 losses and 5 ties.

The 2008 title and the bowl years

The single conference championship arrived under Turner Gill, who coached from 2006 to 2009. In 2008 the Bulls beat Ball State 42-24 in the MAC Championship Game, the only title in the programme's history and still the centrepiece of the displays in the stadium's Football Centre. Gill left with a 20-30 record, which says something about how steep the road was even in the good years.

A first bowl appearance came at the 2013 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Lance Leipold, head coach from 2015 to 2020, then turned the side into a regular postseason visitor. Buffalo won the 2019 Bahamas Bowl 31-9 and the 2020 Camellia Bowl 17-10, and during that 2020 season running back Jaret Patterson scored eight touchdowns in a single game, an FBS record. Maurice Linguist followed with a 14-23 record across 2021 to 2023 but added a 23-21 win in the 2022 Camellia Bowl.

The programme's most famous graduate is Khalil Mack, taken first overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2014 NFL Draft and named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2016. James Starks won Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers. The Football Centre also honours Willie Evans and the 1958 team, which refused to play in the Tangerine Bowl because of the racial conditions attached to the invitation, and shirt number 41 is set aside for Solomon Jackson, who died in 2016.

Lembo's rebuild: from ninth-pick outsiders to a bowl win

Pete Lembo took over in 2024 for what is now his 35th year in college coaching, a career that began as an assistant at UAlbany in 1992 and 1993. His first season went far better than anyone outside the building predicted. Picked tenth in the MAC preseason coaches' poll, Buffalo finished 9-4 overall and 6-2 in conference play, tied for third. On 21 September 2024 the Bulls beat 23rd-ranked Northern Illinois 23-20 in overtime, only the second win over a ranked FBS opponent in the club's history and the first since 2008. The season closed on 4 January 2025 at Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, where Buffalo beat Liberty 26-7 in the Bahamas Bowl, the fourth bowl win in programme history. Quarterback C.J. Ogbonna, running back Al-Jay Henderson and kicker Upton Bellenfant carried much of the load, and in February 2025 Lembo signed a contract extension running to 2029.

The second season was harder. Buffalo went 5-7 in 2025, 4-4 in the MAC, and finished tied for sixth with Akron and Kent State, one win short of bowl eligibility. The highlights were a 45-6 win over Saint Francis and a 31-30 overtime victory over Eastern Michigan on homecoming, with quarterback Ta'Quan Roberson, receiver Nik McMillan and Henderson the main contributors. Defeats to Miami of Ohio and Ohio decided the conference race. The university's own account is that no UB coach has won more games across his first two seasons, though the overall record to date sits at 14-11.

September 2026: a new name on the gate and a soaked opener

Two things changed over the summer. On 11 March 2026 the university announced that Broadview Federal Credit Union had bought the naming rights to the ground, ending 33 years of the plain title University at Buffalo Stadium. The football side now plays at Broadview Stadium, with the basketball arena and the athletics precinct between the two venues carrying the same name.

The squad was overhauled at the same time. Buffalo went into the 2026 season with 54 new players, 23 transfers and 31 freshmen, and 22 newcomers on the week-one depth chart. Only five starters returned from 2025. The staff changed too: Tony Tokarz arrived from Florida State as offensive coordinator, Brian Dougherty was promoted from safeties and nickels coach to run the defence, and Garrett McLaughlin came from Columbia to handle special teams. The starting quarterback is Elijah Holmes, a transfer from Wingate University.

The opener against UAlbany on Thursday 3 September 2026 was scheduled for 7pm but lightning and heavy rain pushed kickoff back nearly three hours to around 9.45pm. UAlbany led 7-0 after a quarter through a 14-yard pass from Kai Colón to Tavahri Groves. Holmes then found Chance Morrow for touchdowns of nine and four yards before half-time, a 46-yard field goal from RJ Kocan cut the gap, and a Justus Murray Jr score put the visitors 17-14 up in the third quarter. Morrow's third touchdown, a five-yard catch with 4:53 remaining, restored the lead at 21-17, and UAlbany's fourth-down pass to Luke McAuliffe fell short of the end zone in the final two minutes, with Stevie Bracey making the stop at the Buffalo three-yard line. Holmes finished 26 of 47 for 189 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, Morrow had seven catches for 48 yards, Messiah Burch ran for 74 yards on eight carries and Saveon Brown had an interception. Attendance was 8,690.

The rest of the non-conference programme is on the road at Florida International on 12 September and at Penn State on 19 September, before Robert Morris visit on 26 September. MAC play opens at home against reigning champions Western Michigan. The regular season ends at Akron on Friday 27 November, and the MAC Championship Game is at Ford Field in Detroit on 5 December. Buffalo leads its conference series with Akron 13-12.

Match day at Broadview Stadium

The ground opened on 4 September 1993 with a game against Maine, built for 23 million dollars on the university's North Campus in Amherst, on the edge of Buffalo. Bleacher sections added in 1999 pushed capacity above 29,000, and the record crowd of 29,795 came on 31 August 2006 for a 9-3 overtime win over Temple. In October 2017 the northern end-zone bleachers were demolished to make room for an 18 million dollar field house, and the listed capacity has been 25,013 since. The playing surface has been A-Turf Titan since 2014, after natural grass and then an earlier synthetic surface.

Stadium Journey's review describes two large concrete grandstands with metal benches, a track between fans and the field, and end-zone seating that is rarely full. Parking on campus is free and Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority buses serve the site. The student section sits at the 50-yard line on the east grandstand. Concessions run to the usual pizza, burgers and hot dogs plus beef on weck, the local roast beef sandwich, from the Red Osier stand; only the main stands take cards, and there is no alcohol at regular concessions.