ubbullrun

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/8/16/6020673/drew-willy-added-to-the-ub-hall-of-fame

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/8/6/5974071/buffalo-bulls-in-the-cfl --- As requested we threw a link to this forum down in our game week tables... Hopefully more UB fans will find there way here!

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/8/2/5961671/two-ub-alumni-miracles-in-two-days Thursday Night down 26-20 with 100 seconds left Drew Willy marched his Winnipeg Blue Bombers 93 yards. With one play left, Winnipeg needed a touchdown. Willy magic prevailed, throwing a 2-yard game tying touchdown with no time remaining, and the ensuing extra point gave Winnipeg the win. .. down 24-19 with 92 seconds to go, Kevin Glenn found an open Ernest Jackson who caught the pass, then cut into the middle of the field to break away from would-be tacklers and into the end zone. The 65-yard TD reception was EJ's first TD reception in two seasons. Having Drew and guys like EJ has really moved a lot of Buffalo fans to start following the CFL.. This was our Game Thread for the CFL this week... http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/30/5950925/bulls-in-the-cfl

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/30/5950925/bulls-in-the-cfl The last and only time Drew Willy faced Dan Lefevour was in 2008. The Bulls traveled to Mount Pleasant for a game against the defending MAC Champion CMU Chippewas. Aside from a 5-7 record in 2007 the Bulls had been a conference doormat since they joined the MAC in 1999. The idea that UB could give the defending champs a real run for their money seemed far fetched. But behind Drew Willy the Bulls found themselves within field goal range and down only two points as the clock was down to its final seconds. If A.J. Principie hits a 46 yard field goal Buffalo walks out with a fantastic comeback win. Both Quarterbacks had solid games with Drew throwing for 270 yards on 22/33 passing, he threw for two touchdowns. Lefevour's passing numbers were more modest but in addition to 152 yards passing he was the games leading rusher with 100 yards. Dan Versus Drew - Round 2: This Thursday Drew Willy will once again take a trip to Dan LeFevour's house. This time LeFevour is playing pivot for the Hamilton Tiger Cats while Willy is the starter for Winnipeg. ....

Is there a 'Not Like This' button somewhere ? I hope I am wrong but the Bombers have had a lot of spectacular and rare special teams / defensive scoring help them win over the past two weeks.. Ill still be watching and rooting Blue..

Edmonton at Winnipeg Bull On Parade - Drew Willy owns the hearts and minds of folks in Manitoba. The Former Buffalo Quarterback is 3-0 as a starter with two heart pounding comebacks under his belt. He is healthy and will once again get the start. Last Week: Stop me if you heard this one before; Drew Willy led his team to a come from behind victory which featured a near perfect late fourth quarter drive. This was not Buffalo back in 2008 nor was it last week against Ottawa. The Legend of Drew Willy continues to grow as he took down Chad Johnson and Montreal with a third down strike with under a minute left as the Blue Bombers beat Montreal. This Week:Edmonton and Winnipeg are the only two 3-0 teams in the CFL after neither was seen as being too highly ranked when the season started. Suddenly this is an early game for the poll position in the Western division. Expectation: Winnipeg has been playing with fire the last two weeks and as the saying goes eventually that kind of game will burn you and the Eskimos have been playing well enough to be the team that makes the Blue Bombers pay. Edmonton 27 - Winnipeg 22 http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/16/5903601/week-three-cfl-action-winnipeg-vs-edmonton

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/11/5892561/drew-willy-and-the-blue-bombers-beat-montreal It's not the first time I've seen Willy stay that calm in that situation

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/9/5882779/white-north-wednesday-buffalo-bulls-in-the-cfl You can throw the sink at Drew and he does not lose his composure... Still I hope he is not as beat up against Montreal.. Willy is having arguably the best season of any CFL quarterback, he is certainly playing at a far higher level than one might expect from a journeyman backup in the NFL, UFL, and for last seasons Roughriders. This season Drew is second in the CFL in Passing yard and touchdowns thrown among all quarterbacks. He is also second in rating and third in completion percentage among pivots who have thrown the ball more than 25 times. Name Team Comp Att % Yards Long TD % Ints % Rating Ray, R TOR 56 75 74.7 690 49 5 6.7 0 0.0 124.9 Willy, D WPG 40 60 66.7 615 51 4 6.7 2 3.3 108.7 Reilly, M EDM 51 75 68.0 482 42 4 5.3 2 2.7 92.2 Durant, D SSK 32 51 62.7 431 59 4 7.8 3 5.9 91.2 Glenn, K BC 31 53 58.5 410 55 2 3.8 6 11.3 48.5 Ottawa tried to rattle Willy in their last meeting and although his touchdown output was down from the opening week he still threw for 300+ yards and played clutch under pressure. The RedBlacks aggressiveness bordered on cheap in the last game. The league fined defensive back Jeremy Gavins for a cheap shot delivered on Drew. The Gavins hit, although the cheapest, was not the hit that had Blue Bomber fans worried. That hit came when Willy's throwing hand struck an oncoming Ottawa defensive lineman. For a few series after that hit Willy last the zip in his passes and could be seen wincing in pain. The staff "medicated" him and his play improved enough for him to lead Ottawa to a win and now he has been cleared to play this week versus Montreal. The Winnipeg press are reporting that Drew has looked to be at 100% in practice. With no lingering symptoms from the hand injury Drew Will make the start this week.

I see this with the Buffalo Media and the UB Bulls all the time.. This is not at all Blue Bomber related but this is where I lost it with them last season http://www.ubbullrun.com/2013/8/15/4623252/buffalo-news-runs-down-ub-athletics Some news orgs just aim to create a problem so they can talk a lot about it... It was fair to say before the season that the Bombers could be one ot the worst teams in the league. New coach, new QB, new everything. But to disimss arguments that it might be better than all of that, or to crap on your team by imagining fans of the other team is something else..

Does the CFL print up weekly injury/status reports? Thank you!

Thats been my observation of Willy for some years... His touch on the long ball is amazing his short range stuff lack a little bit of pop..

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/3/5869911/nic-grigsby-leads-winnipeg-past-ottawa ...... The bigger take away from this win could be that despite adversity Mike O'Shea has created a team which stays focused and does not lose control. Down 14-0 the Blue Bombers did not ever seem to panic. They have proven they can win with the run or the pass, that they can win when they are spotted 17 points or spot their opposition 14. It's still hard to gauge the ceiling for Winnipeg but it's looking higher by the day.

In Honor of the RedBlacks REDBLACKS

Most of the CFL players who try to land on an NFL roster have to go through numerous tryout camps trying to qualify and I would think less than 50% of those who try actually catch on. I think it's the players and their agents driving this process as the scenario of an NFL team chasing after a CFL player seems pretty far removed from the reality. Is there any other example of this happening other than Cameron Wake? Even a standout like Muamba had no actual suitors even after a few years of great play, I believe it was his initiative that eventually landed him a spot with the Colts. Should the Colts compensate the Bombers for developing him??? Maybe...but it's hard to comprehend what the rules of such an agreement would look like. Being a Bills fan when Flutie came back down to the NFL this is the way I saw it. Even if you don't make an NFL team being signed and in camp means you will make more than in a year of CFL ball. If the NFL wants you they are going to want to sign you to the initial 90 man preseason roster in April or May, it's hard to see too many situations where an NFL team in August decides to raid a CFL team. I'm not saying it can't happen but it would be exceedingly rare.

Further to that, the style of defense played by Ottawa should be a hell of a lot harder to make big plays and score TD's against than what we saw from Toronto (combined with inexperienced DB's), gonna be a lot of cover 3 and the receivers need to be ready to make catches while getting hit. I honestly wouldn't be shocked with any result, I just want to keep seeing positive steps from our key players. Thanks for the insight into their defensive scheme...

I'd rather see the concept of seeing a players rights, contingent on that players agreement, to be formalized.. If player X is making 80,000 in the CFL and an NFL team wants to pay him 400,000 then if the Owners and the Player agrees the NFL team would pay the CFL team a % of the raise the player is getting which would not count in the NFL against their cap.. whether the CFL or NFL plays a more exciting brand of ball is a personal preference but there is no dispute that 4 down ball pays better and the players should be able to turn CFL success into an NFL chance if that is what they want to do.

Yea the URL thing bit us... The author took two days to write it and put a place holder in the title until he was done. We forgot to update the url name when he put the title in..

I heard Ottawa has special helmets for this first game...

http://www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/2/5854096/drew-willy-something-something-something After the worst outing of his career, (13 for 25, 80 yards, 2 INTs) en route to a 41-0 loss at Boston College, Drew Willy's week got even worse. In practice, Willy broke his thumb in a drill to test Willy's skill at passing under duress. Then it got worse, the following Saturday, Willy's backup Tony Paoli led Buffalo to their second win of the season, a rousing 41-14 win over Kent State. Behind the scenes, it looked like Drew Willy's career as UB starting QB was over. A high school quarterback 30 miles east of Willy's hometown of Randolph, New Jersey caught the eye of Turner Gill. His first recruiting win, Buffalo signed Chris Johnson, 3-star QB from Patterson, New Jersey. Johnson was seen as Gill's savior, the QB he would bring in to put a stamp on his program. Drew Willy would have to fight for his job in the summer of 2007, but It was a foregone conclusion that the job would probably go to Johnson. .....

That would be because Austin probably would have to admit he made a mistake signing collaros, would have loved to see it, imagine if lefevour or masoli went in and actually moved the ball? not saying signing collaros is a mistake but if you were austin and stubborn like he appears to be, would you want to pull your prized free agent in the first game and see the guys you decided to not go with as starter do better than he did? The worst kind of coach is not the one who makes mistakes he is the one who won't own up to them and learn..

All you have is preseason footage so you're right, that will be a challenge..

www.ubbullrun.com/2014/7/2/5856998/buffalo-bulls-cfl-winnipeg-blue-bombers-drew-willy Ottawa at Winnipeg (Drew Willy) Last Week: Drew Willy was the shining star of the CFL last week, getting attention on both sides of the border as he led the Blue Bombers to a big win over preseason eastern division favorite Toronto. This Week: The Blue bombers have a chance to start their season 2-0 for the first time in several years when they host Ottawa. The expansion Red Blacks are led by Henry Burris, a quarterback with 17 years of NFL and CFL experience. Last season Burris had an amazing year but he was released by Hamilton in favor of a younger Zach Collaros. Ottawa, who was reportedly looking at Willy in the expansion draft, snatched up Burris. Expectation: I have been told that It's rare in the CFL to see a team put up 40+ points in two straight games and Ottawa did not look like an expansion team during the preseason. The RedBlacks have an experienced roster that won't play like a new team. Willy and the Bombers will still prevail but in a much narrow fashion: Winnipeg 31 - Ottawa 17

Willy and Burris were not available at the same time... If they are perhaps Burris is not offered 375K

Obviously impossible to answer that, but the main advantage I would previously have given Collaros is his scrambling ability and how he can extend plays because of it. That advantage still holds true, Willy is not that style of QB, but what Willy can do (which I did not expect - at least at this level) is move around the pocket with great fluidity. He also does not panic when flushed from the pocket. Re-watching the first exhibition game from Toronto I was reminded of Aaron Rodgers when I watched Willy; specifically how he keeps his feet moving while scanning downfield, always resetting so he's in the best possible throwing stance. He doesn't have the same small hops that Rodgers does, but the end result is the same. Find target - fire. "mobile" qurterbacks who extend the play are over rated. Give me pocket presence and compsure over a "dual threat" any day.

It's likely ESPN would not sign a deal until the CFL had it's house in order. This spring the MAC forced UMass to either join the conference for all sports or get out (UMass was a football only member). Not too long after that I heard that the long stalled ESPN/MAC talks were moving along nicely. ESPN likes to know/control the properteis they deal in.