Buffalo Bulls

2005 Season Summary

The Buffalo Bulls seemed to be stuck in the mud as they prepared for their seventh season of 1-A football in 2005.  Buffalo was coming off of a dismal 2004 campaign in which they were 2-9 straight up and 4-7 against the spread. 

A significant loser

The program was a significant loser anyway you looked at it as in the previous three seasons they were 4-31 straight up and had failed to cover 19 of their previous 29 games against the spread entering 2005.  The Bulls had posted four consecutive losing seasons against the college football betting boards. 

Reactive “too little, too late” public

At one time, Buffalo was highly regarded as a large double-digit underdog and paid off gamblers in that role for a brief period of time before the “word” got out and the oddsmakers adjusted their lines accordingly as the reactive “too little, too late” public was left holding an empty bag.

A total of sixteen starters along with sixteen fifth year seniors did return for the 2005 campaign, which was critical for head coach Jim Hofher’s career, despite his signing an extension over the offseason.

Gamblers were in mass flight away from Bulls

Buffalo opened the 2005 season with back-to-back road games against Big East teams. 

First was a game at Connecticut against a Husky team that was coming off a bowl season and feeling the after affects of graduation. There was a lot of “conventional wisdom” that the more experienced Bulls would be a great value as 18-point dogs against the rebuilding Huskies and a lot of touts and gamblers overreacted to this one factor alone, ignoring all others and they paid the price as UConn posted a 38-0 shutout win.

In Buffalo’s next game at Syracuse, they were 24-point dogs against an Orange team that was coming off a disappointing highly hyped home opener loss to rebuilding West Virginia.  Buffalo was blown out 0-31.  The back-to-back blowout/shutout losses caused a lot of attention as gamblers were in mass flight away from Bulls.

Unwanted, which made them a major value

Now that the mainstream gambling public was completely off of the Bulls, the oddsmakers literally begged gamblers to take them by offering attractive bargain rate lines.  Buffalo was unwanted, which made them a major value. 

This was evident in their very next game as 22.5-point home dogs against Rutgers as the Bulls covered in a 3-17 loss.  Buffalo next traveled to lightly regarded, (at that time), Western Michigan and pushed a 21-31 loss.

The Bulls returned home to face Akron, who was a 9-point chalk.  Buffalo hung in there to get the cash in 7-13 loss.  This was followed by a 7-27 cover/loss to Bowling Green as 25.5-home dogs. 

“Undertakers” arrived

Buffalo’s anemic offense had caught the attention of over/under players.  The Bulls lack of punch was a major factor in 6 of their first 7 games going under the total.  The “undertakers” arrived, too late of course, as their arrival caused the oddsmakers to jack up the Bulls’ totals the rest of the way as Buffalo went over the number in 4 of their final 5 games.

Buffalo had reached its peak as a value

Buffalo next traveled to MAC power Toledo and, as a whopping 30-point dog, got the cash in a 15-38 loss.  Standing at 0-7 straight up and 4-2-1 against the spread Buffalo had reached its peak as a value as now more gamblers wanted them.

Public was faded in the stretch

Now that the public was on to the Bulls in their usual reactive manner, Buffalo was no longer a good bet as a dog and they lost 4 of their final 5 games against the spread as the public was faded in the stretch.