With a win over No. 1 Wisconsin-Whitewater, Buffalo State earned its first national ranking in 12 years Monday afternoon.
The Bengals were ranked No. 19 in the D3Football.com poll and No. 24 in the American Football Coaches Association national poll. The last time Buffalo State was ranked was 2000.
Buffalo State ended UW-Whitewater's 46-game winning streak with a 7-6 win on Saturday. It was the first time a non-ranked team had ever defeated a No. 1 team during a regular season game
After the game, the Bengals boarded the bus for an 11-hour ride from Wisconsin to Buffalo. How did the Bengals pass the time?
"The first three or four hours everyone was singing the whole time," quarterback and former Sweet Home standout Casey Kacz said. "We have what’s called “Bengal Idol” which is like "American Idol" and everyone has to sing a song. Everyone kept singing the whole four hours then we slept a little at the end."
Before he even boarded the bus, Kacz had over 40 text messages. His Facebook page contained posts from friends he hadn't talked to in years. And for the first time in forever, there's a buzz on campus about the football team.
"I know Buff States history in the 90s was really
good but then for a while in the 2000s it wasn’t very good," Kacz said. "Since I’ve been
here this is the most excited people have been about Buff State football and it
feels really good. Everyone loves playing in front of fans. Everyone likes to
be appreciated. Just hearing people on campus talk about what a great win the
football team had is really important to all of us."
You can read more about how Buffalo State moves forward from its historic win in Wedneday's edition of The Buffalo News. And you can chat about it, and other topics of college sports, on our weekly chat at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
--- Amy Moritz
Photo of Casey Kacz from Buffalo State Athletics
