Buffalo Bulls
Mid-AmericanAmherst, NYUB Stadium
2026: 4–3 (2–1 Mid-American). Last: beat Massachusetts 25–18 at home. Next: Bowling Green, Saturday, Oct 24, 3:30 p.m. ET.
- W 21–17UAlbany
- L 20–33at Florida International
- L 13–55at No. 14 Penn State
- W 31–28Robert Morris
- L 17–20Western Michigan
- W 23–8at Toledo
- W 25–18Massachusetts
- Oct 24Bowling Green
- Nov 3at Miami (OH)
- Nov 11at Ball State
- Nov 18Central Michigan
- Nov 27at Akron
- Outfitted by Nike
Buffalo has played football since 1894 and is officially 422–568–28; 448 of its 1,018 games are in our file. Their best finish in the final AP poll is No. 25, in 2020. They have won one Mid-American Conference title (2008), counting shared titles. Since 1958, the NFL Draft has taken 14 players from here in its first seven rounds, 1 of them in the first round. The AFL draft also took one player from here. Lance Leipold (2015–2020) won more games here than any other coach: 37. The most-played rival is Kent State: 29 meetings, Buffalo leads 16–13. This season, under Pete Lembo, they’re 4–3.
Résumé
- All-time record
- 422–568–28 official; 176–268–4 on file; how we count
- Postseason
- 4–3 matches the official bowl record
- AP No. 1 finishes
- 0
- Weeks at No. 1
- 0 of 2 ranked
- Elo now
- 1474 86th of 138 FBS
- Computer rankings
- Massey No. 118 · Composite No. 109 in FBS, Oct 17; up 2 since Oct 11. From Massey Ratings
- Conference titles
- 1 last in 2008
- Seasons
- 54 since 1898, 448 games
Identity
- Fight song
- Victory March
- Mascot
- Victor E. Bull
- Student section
- True Blue
- Apparel
- Nike deal through 2030
- Band
- Thunder of the East since 1920, 160 members
2026 season 4–3
RosterFull 2026 season| Date | Opponent | Result | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3 | vs UAlbany | W 21–17 | 82% |
| Sep 12 | at Florida International | L 20–33 | 43% |
| Sep 19 | at 14Penn State | L 13–55 | 16% |
| Sep 26 | vs Robert Morris | W 31–28 | 80% |
| Oct 3 | vs Western Michigan | L 17–20 | 40% |
| Oct 10 | at Toledo | W 23–8 | 22% |
| Oct 17 | vs Massachusetts | W 25–18 | 73% |
| Oct 24 | vs Bowling Green | Preview | 69% |
| Nov 3 | at Miami (OH) | Preview | 40% |
| Nov 11 | at Ball State | Preview | 61% |
| Nov 18 | vs Central Michigan | Preview | 63% |
| Nov 27 | at Akron | Preview | 63% |
Elo: a pregame chance from scores alone.
This season, game by game
Future schedule
2027–38- 20274 games: 2 home, 2 away, non-conference only
- 20284 games: 2 home, 2 away, non-conference only
- 20312 games: 1 home, 1 away, non-conference only
- 20371 game: 1 away, non-conference only
- at Army
- 20381 game: 1 home, non-conference only
Buffalo’s announced games beyond the seasons on our schedule, as its Wikipedia article lists them (announced schedules as of April 10, 2026). Schedules change; a season shows only the games named so far, and many articles list non-conference games only. Future schedules: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
On the 2026 team
- Messiah Burch661 rushing yards, 2 TD (leads Buffalo in rushing yards)
- Jason Wright860 passing yards, 6 TD (leads Buffalo in passing yards)
- Saveon Brown59 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT (leads Buffalo in tackles)
- Chance Morrow37 catches, 444 yards, 6 TD (leads Buffalo in receiving yards)
- Miles Greer42 tackles, 1 sack
- John Keough35 tackles
Program greats See all
Heisman finalists, College Football Hall of Famers, consensus All-Americans, national award winners and first-round picks, for what they did at Buffalo.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
Around the program
- Apparel
- Nike · Official source
- University at Buffalo Athletics; read 2026-10-10
- Mascot
- Victor E. Bull · Official source
- University at Buffalo; read 2026-10-10
- University at Buffalo; read 2026-10-10
- web.archive.org; read 2026-10-10
- Student section
- True Blue · Official source
- University at Buffalo; read 2026-10-10
- University at Buffalo; read 2026-10-10
- Athletic director
- Mark Alnutt · Official source
- University at Buffalo Athletics; read 2026-10-10
- Offensive coordinator
- Tony Tokarz · Official source
- University at Buffalo Athletics; read 2026-10-10
- Defensive coordinator
- Brian Dougherty · Official source
- University at Buffalo Athletics; read 2026-10-10
Found by several AI researchers searching the web, then kept only where the page loads and says so in words naming the program; every quote is checked again each time the data is rebuilt. Official source: the school’s own page. All of them.
The apparel deal
Nike, July 2025 through June 2030. Five years. Renewed in July 2025.
- UB Athletics, Jul 21, 2025: Five years, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2030, all varsity sports
Apparel deals: Field Drip. Terms as the outlets reported them; checked Oct 3, 2026.
Program strength since 1898
Best seasons everMore coverage
- Josh Allen ties Jim Kelly's Bills TD pass record as Buffalo holds off Raiders 33-30, sitkasentinel.com,
- Buffalo gets tying field goal late in regulation, goes on to defeat UMass 25-18 in OT, westernmassnews.com,
- Umass Vs Buffalo: Massachusetts' elite defense and plus-7 turnover margin shape key road test at Buffalo, el-balad.com,
- Buffalo have secured a 37-34 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams to complete week five in the NFL - 13-Oct-2026, nzcity.co.nz,
- Burch runs for 87-yard TD in the 4th to help Buffalo pull away for a 23-8 win over Toledo, leadertelegram.com,
Found through the GDELT Project, which indexes news sites worldwide. Each link opens the story on the outlet’s own site; each picture is that outlet’s own preview of its story, shown from its site and credited to it.
Podcasts
- 10-18 Joe Brady Postgame, Buffalo Football, , 7 min
- Best Interviews on WGR: Oct. 12-16, Buffalo Football, , 1 hr 27 min
Found through Podcast Index, the open podcast directory. Each link opens the episode’s page.
Head coaches
| Coach | Years | Record |
|---|---|---|
 Pete Lembo | 2024–2026 | 18–14 |
| Maurice Linguist | 2021–2023 | 14–23 |
| Lance Leipold | 2015–2020 | 37–33 |
| Alex Wood | 2014 | 2–2 |
| Jeff Quinn | 2010–2014 | 20–36 |
 Turner Gill | 2006–2009 | 20–30 |
 Jim Hofher | 2001–2005 | 8–49 |
| Craig Cirbus | 1999–2000 | 2–20 |
| Bob Deming | 1969–1970 | 8–12 |
| Doc Urich | 1966–1968 | 18–12 |
| Dick Offenhamer | 1958–1965 | 23–20–4 |
Most-played series
All rivalries- Kent State
16–13 in 29
- 2016 L 20–44
- 2017 W 27–13
- 2018 W 48–14
- 2019 L 27–30
- 2020 W 70–41
- 2021 L 38–48
- 2022 L 27–30
- 2023 W 24–6
- 2024 W 43–7
- 2025 W 31–28
Won the last three.
- Ohio
10–19 in 29
- 2015 W 41–17
- 2016 L 10–34
- 2017 W 31–24
- 2018 L 17–52
- 2019 L 20–21
- 2021 W 27–26
- 2022 L 24–45
- 2023 L 10–20
- 2024 L 16–47
- 2025 L 26–31
Lost the last four.
- Miami (OH)
9–17 in 26
- 2015 W 29–24
- 2016 L 24–35
- 2017 L 14–24
- 2018 W 51–42
- 2019 L 20–34
- 2020 W 42–10
- 2021 L 18–45
- 2022 W 24–20
- 2023 L 10–23
- 2025 L 20–37
Lost the last two.
Next: Nov 3
| Opponent | Games | BUF record |
|---|---|---|
| Kent State | 29 | 16–13 |
| Ohio | 29 | 10–19 |
| Miami (OH) | 26 | 9–17 |
| Akron | 25 | 13–12 |
| Bowling Green | 22 | 9–13 |
| Northern Illinois | 16 | 3–13 |
| UConn | 14 | 2–12 |
| Ball State | 14 | 3–11 |
Every opponent (83)
Every program Buffalo has played, A to Z, with Buffalo’s record against it. Each links to the series, game by game.
- Akron 13–12
- Army 3–4
- Auburn 0–1
- Ball State 3–11
- Baylor 0–4
- Boston College 2–7
- Boston University 6–3
- Bowling Green 9–13
- Bucknell 3–2
- Carnegie Mellon 0–2
- Central Michigan 4–9
- Charlotte 1–0
- Coastal Carolina 0–2
- Colgate 5–7
- Columbia 2–2
- Cornell 0–3–1
- Dartmouth 0–1
- Dayton 1–2–1
- Delaware 6–1
- Delaware State 1–0
- Duquesne 1–0
- Eastern Michigan 6–7
- Florida Atlantic 2–0
- Florida International 0–1
- Fordham 0–2
- Gardner-Webb 1–0
- Georgia 0–1
- Georgia Southern 1–0
- Gettysburg 2–0
- Harvard 1–1
- Hofstra 0–1
- Holy Cross 3–6–1
- Iowa 0–1
- Iowa State 0–1
- Kent State 16–13
- Lafayette 1–0
- Lehigh 1–1
- Liberty 1–2
- Louisiana 0–1
- Marshall 1–8
- Maryland 0–1
- Massachusetts 11–2
- Miami (OH) 9–17
- Michigan 0–1
- Minnesota 0–3
- Missouri 0–2
- Morgan State 1–0
- NC State 0–1
- Nebraska 0–1
- Nevada 0–3
- Norfolk State 1–0
- Northern Illinois 3–13
- Ohio 10–19
- Ohio State 0–1
- Old Dominion 1–0
- Penn State 1–4
- Pittsburgh 0–4
- Rhode Island 1–0
- Richmond 2–0
- Robert Morris 2–0
- Rutgers 2–5
- Saint Francis 1–0
- San Diego State 0–1
- Stony Brook 2–0
- Syracuse 1–2 †
- Tampa 0–1–1
- Temple 9–4
- Tennessee 0–1
- Toledo 6–6
- Troy 0–2
- UAlbany 2–1
- UCF 1–4
- UConn 2–12
- UTEP 2–0
- Villanova 4–5
- Virginia 0–2
- Virginia Tech 0–2
- VMI 1–2
- Wagner 1–0
- Western Michigan 2–10
- Wisconsin 0–2
- Xavier 1–0
- Youngstown State 1–0
Official records. † Without wins the NCAA vacated, or with forfeits counted. ‡ The rivalry’s own count, where it differs from the games on file.
Conference titles
1, counting shared titles- Mid-American Conference 1
- 2008
As the program counts them in its Wikipedia article, shared titles included, and listed under each conference’s current name (a Western Conference title of the 1900s counts as a Big Ten title); season pages use the name the conference had that year. A title the article files under a conference the team wasn’t in that season is listed under the one it was. Division titles include years the team tied for its division.
Conferences
- Independent 1894–1903 and 1915–1925
- New York State Conference 1926–1934
- Independent 1935–1942, 1946–1970 and 1977–1998
- Mid-American Conference since 1999
- 1993Went independent from independence in football. Source
- 1998Joined the Mid-American Conference from independence. Source
Buffalo’s football conferences by season, from CollegeFootballData.com’s memberships (renamed conferences keep the name of the time). The moves and their announcement dates from Wikipedia’s lists of NCAA Division I conference changes; the year is the first season in the new conference. Conference realignment: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Consensus All-Americans 1
| 2024 | Shaun Dolac LB |
Led the nation 2
| 2020 | Jaret Patterson points per game (19.0) |
| 1966 | Lee Jones rushing touchdowns (16 TD) |
The NCAA’s official national leaders since 1937, from Wikipedia’s yearly leader lists.
In the draft
By college- NFL picks, rounds 1–7
- 14 since 1958
- First-round picks
- 1
- AFL picks
- 1 1964
| 2014 | Khalil Mack OLB | No. 5, Oakland Raiders |
Who came and went in the 2026 transfer portal, and every portal year.
The school
University at Buffalo- Enrollment
- 31,903 20,359 undergraduates, fall 2024
- Where
- Buffalo, New York
- Public or private
- Public Research 1
- Founded
- 1846
- Graduates’ median earnings
- $70,814 10 years after starting
Enrollment, place and Carnegie research tier from the National Center for Education Statistics (IPEDS, public domain). Earnings from the US Department of Education’s College Scorecard (CC BY 4.0): the median for students who received federal aid and were working, not in school. Founding year from Wikidata. Every school’s in the data.
Official accounts
- Football
- X @UBuffaloFBInstagram @UBuffaloFBFacebook ubftball
- Athletics department
- X @ubathleticsInstagram @ubathleticsFacebook ubbulls
Official accounts: the schools’ athletics websites: the ones ubbulls.com lists for its football program and athletics department, as of Oct 12, 2026.
Books
Books: Open Library (CC0), filed under the program’s Library of Congress subject heading; most-reissued first, each linked to its page there.
Season by season
National champions| Season | Record | Conf. | AP pre | AP final | Coach | Elo | SP+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 4–3 | 2–1 | Pete Lembo | 1474 | -13.9 | ||
| 2025 | 5–7 | 4–4 | Pete Lembo | 1423 | -7.5 | ||
| 2024 | 9–4 | 6–2 | Pete Lembo | 1531 | -4.0 | ||
| 2023 | 3–9 | 3–5 | Maurice Linguist | 1375 | -15.2 | ||
| 2022 | 7–6 | 5–3 | Maurice Linguist | 1472 | -9.2 | ||
| 2021 | 4–8 | 2–6 | Maurice Linguist | 1405 | -9.5 | ||
| 2020 | 6–1 | 5–0 | 25 | Lance Leipold | 1622 | 1.4 | |
| 2019 | 8–5 | 5–3 | Lance Leipold | 1580 | -2.0 | ||
| 2018 | 10–4 | 7–1 | Lance Leipold | 1547 | -1.1 | ||
| 2017 | 6–6 | 4–4 | Lance Leipold | 1448 | -11.2 | ||
| 2016 | 2–10 | 1–7 | Lance Leipold | 1292 | -18.8 | ||
| 2015 | 5–7 | 3–5 | Lance Leipold | 1392 | -10.3 | ||
| 2014 | 5–6 | 3–4 | Jeff Quinn, Alex Wood | 1436 | -7.7 | ||
| 2013 | 8–5 | 6–2 | Jeff Quinn | 1477 | -9.0 | ||
| 2012 | 4–8 | 3–5 | Jeff Quinn | 1342 | -16.3 | ||
| 2011 | 3–9 | 2–6 | Jeff Quinn | 1282 | -19.5 | ||
| 2010 | 2–10 | 1–7 | Jeff Quinn | 1252 | -27.0 | ||
| 2009 | 5–7 | 3–5 | Turner Gill | 1452 | -11.6 | ||
| 2008 | 8–6 | 5–3 | Turner Gill | 1497 | -14.4 | ||
| 2007 | 5–7 | 5–3 | Turner Gill | 1381 | -20.1 | ||
| 2006 | 2–10 | 1–7 | Turner Gill | 1265 | -30.3 | ||
| 2005 | 1–10 | 1–7 | Jim Hofher | 1223 | -28.6 | ||
| 2004 | 2–9 | 2–6 | Jim Hofher | 1255 | -27.6 | ||
| 2003 | 1–11 | 1–7 | Jim Hofher | 1198 | -20.1 | ||
| 2002 | 1–11 | 0–8 | Jim Hofher | 1200 | -26.0 |
Every season back to 1898 (29 more)
| Season | Record | Conf. | AP pre | AP final | Coach | Elo | SP+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 3–8 | 1–7 | Jim Hofher | 1273 | -23.1 | ||
| 2000 | 2–9 | 2–6 | Craig Cirbus | 1194 | -30.4 | ||
| 1999 | 0–11 | 0–8 | Craig Cirbus | 1141 | -34.8 | ||
| 1997 | 0–1 | 1344 | |||||
| 1970 | 2–9 | Bob Deming | 1294 | -22.0 | |||
| 1969 | 6–3 | Bob Deming | 1512 | ||||
| 1968 | 7–3 | Doc Urich | 1453 | ||||
| 1967 | 6–4 | Doc Urich | 1467 | ||||
| 1966 | 5–5 | Doc Urich | 1425 | ||||
| 1965 | 5–3–2 | Dick Offenhamer | 1493 | ||||
| 1964 | 4–4–1 | Dick Offenhamer | 1463 | ||||
| 1963 | 5–3–1 | Dick Offenhamer | 1447 | ||||
| 1962 | 6–3 | Dick Offenhamer | 1402 | ||||
| 1961 | 1–3 | Dick Offenhamer | 1297 | ||||
| 1960 | 0–4 | Dick Offenhamer | 1216 | ||||
| 1958 | 2–0 | Dick Offenhamer | 1160 | ||||
| 1952 | 0–1 | 1081 | |||||
| 1951 | 0–1 | 1080 | |||||
| 1949 | 0–1 | 1085 | |||||
| 1948 | 0–1 | 1086 | |||||
| 1946 | 0–1 | 1088 | |||||
| 1932 | 0–2 | 1105 | |||||
| 1931 | 0–2 | 1119 | |||||
| 1930 | 0–2 | 1141 | |||||
| 1902few games on file | 0–2 | 1177 | |||||
| 1901few games on file | 2–1 | 1241 | |||||
| 1900few games on file | 1–1 | 1225 | |||||
| 1899few games on file | 2–0 | 1249 | |||||
| 1898few games on file | 1–1 | 1161 |
Officially 422–568–28 since 1894 (per Wikipedia, rechecked weekly); game by game here, 176–268–4 (448 of its 1,018 games are on file). Our file starts in 1898; the program began in 1894. Some games are missing from our source.
No season on file for 1903–29, 1933–45, 1947, 1950, 1953–57, 1959, 1971–96, 1998: the program may not have played, or our source may be missing them.
Records are computed from every game on file at CollegeFootballData.com, whose coverage of the earliest seasons can be incomplete. Elo is this site’s own rating; see how it works on the records page.