Against Buffalo, No. 9 Mizzou to face familiar coach and QB — but in new setting (2024)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Now for a team with a little more kick.

With mild Murray State dispatched in Week 1, No. 9 Missouri’s attention has turned to a program that offers more zing than the opener: Buffalo.

As a team that plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Bulls are an inherent degree better than the Football Championship Subdivision Racers. The visitors from the Mid-American Conference will still be heavy underdogs against the Tigers — the midweek spread is sitting around five touchdowns — but will bring some intriguing elements to Saturday’s 6 p.m. game.

Among those storylines, and in one indicative of the current college football landscape, Mizzou will be facing a quarterback it has seen before despite having not faced Buffalo since a 2008 victory. CJ Ogbonna, the Bulls’ starting quarterback, was SEMO’s signal-caller during a 2021 game against MU.

“There is some familiarity there,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said.

Mizzou beat SEMO 59-28 in that game, which raised some defensive questions about the Tigers as the Redhawks scored rather easily on the ground. Ogbonna didn’t make an impact as a passer against MU in that game, completing just seven of 14 passes for 53 yards, no passing touchdowns and an interception.

On the ground, though, he finished the game as SEMO’s leading rusher, covering 96 yards on 12 attempts.

Since transferring to Buffalo, Ogbonna seems to have become more comfortable as a passer. During the Bulls’ season-opening win over FCS school Lafayette, the quarterback was 14 for 24 with 195 passing yards and two touchdowns. He ran the ball only five times for 20 yards.

“That’s going to be the challenge this week,” Drinkwitz said. “Obviously, we’ve got to do a good job in the read game. They try to get on your edges through zone reads, plus-one run schemes and option. We’re going to have to be disciplined and multiple in the way we’re challenging those read schemes.”

To translate: Zone reads involve offenses leaving an edge rusher unblocked and forcing that player to either commit to containing the edge, in which case the quarterback will usually hand off to a running back heading up the gut, or crashing inside, in which case the quarterback can dart around them outside. A plus-one scheme looks to give the offense one more blocker than the defense has players in the area of the field where the ball will go. Option plays give the quarterback the choice of whether to distribute the ball or keep it himself. All generally rely on Ogbonna making reads.

Elsewhere on the offense, running back Jacqez Barksdale led Buffalo in rushing during Week 1, taking 14 carries for 99 yards and a score. Wideout Nik McMillan showed some physicality while securing five catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, linebacker Shaun Dolac is the Bulls’ centerpiece. After starting at Buffalo as a walk-on, he finished second in the nation in tackles during the 2022 season, bringing down 147 ball carriers. He looked likely to build on that in 2023, posting nine tackles, a tackle for a loss and an interception at Wisconsin but missed most of the season with an injury.

Dolac is healthy this season and made 11 tackles with an interception in the Bulls’ season opener.

“You can tell he studies tape,” Drinkwitz said. “You can tell he’s a very smart, physical player at the point of contact. They utilize him in the box, out of the box, they pressure with him. He’s a really good player. It’s going to be a real challenge for us. He’s consistent with what you see in our league. He’s a guy that, as we work off combo blocks, we’re going to have to make sure we can get to him, otherwise he’ll make the tackle.”

More broadly, Buffalo is looking for a turnaround season after going 3-9 last season, including four consecutive defeats to close out the 2023 campaign. The Bulls hired coach Pete Lembo in the offseason, whom Drinkwitz called “one of the great program rebuilders and builders.”

Lembo got a late start after being hired in late January, so he likely faces an uphill battle this season. He’s coached in Missouri’s Memorial Stadium before, having spent the past three seasons as South Carolina’s special teams coordinator. Because Murray State coach Jody Wright was the Gameco*cks’ tight ends coach for the past two years, this week marks the second in a row that the Tigers are facing a team now led by a former South Carolina assistant.

“I’ve been so impressed with how they’ve gotten better over the time that he’s been there, how all three phases play such complementary football,” Lembo said. “He’s really got a great beat of the pulse of their whole program. He does a great job of managing the program, managing the team, coaching the coaches, and he gets a lot out of his guys in every level of the program.”