When Buffalo quarterback Drew Willy first looked at film of the Penn State defense earlier this week, the words "very solid" immediately entered his thoughts.
"They don't have very many holes," Willy said in a telephone interview last night. "Everyone plays with good technique, they're well-coached, and then you have great personnel."
Willy, a 6-foot-3, 209-pound junior that started at Buffalo as a true freshman, also quickly noticed the glue of the Nittany Lion defense was right in its middle. This fact was crystal clear, even through the film.
"Everything starts with No. 40," the quarterback said about Dan Connor. "You can tell he's kind of the leader. He does a great job of getting people in the right spots."
Then Willy caught notice of Penn State's defensive backs, including safety Anthony Scirrotto, who was Willy's teammate at the 2005 Governor's Bowl, an annual all-star event that pits New Jersey high school seniors against their counterparts from New York.
"They're experienced," Willy said of the Lions' defensive backs. "The corners are real athletic. We'll have our hands full, but we'll be prepared."
So given the No. 12 Lions' apparent defensive strength, how do the Buffalo Bulls (1-1), who last Saturday stomped lowly Temple, 42-7, plan to create some offense?
When Penn State cornerback Justin King was asked that question earlier this week, he said from the film he's seen, he planned to see a "creative offense."
"A better offense than a lot of us expected," King said.
Willy, the leader of that offense, explained what King may have meant by creative.
"We like to do everything. We'll use any formation," said Willy, who was also looking at Pitt and Syracuse before their coaches were fired during the recruiting process. "We'll go five-wide one set, and the next set we'll go one-wide with the fullback. We like to spread it around."
The offensive philosophy derives from Buffalo's second-year coach Turner Gill, a Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback at Nebraska in the 1980s and an assistant coach when the Cornhuskers won three national championships in the mid '90s.
Last week, in Buffalo's win against Temple, Willy was 20-of-22 passing for 190 yards and threw two touchdowns while finding nine different receivers for the second consecutive week. The Bulls two leading receivers -- Brett Hamlin and Ernest Jackson -- have eight receptions apiece and average between nine and 10 yards a catch.
But while the Bulls like to spread it out through the air, Willy said success for them begins with tailback Mario Henry, a converted defensive back who rushed for a career-high 125 yards on 17 carries one week ago.
"Their offense sort of reminds me of our offense," Penn State defensive end Josh Gaines said. "Some of the passing schemes we do and their run game, some of the zone plays they do. They're real good with what they do."
Buffalo opened its season by losing at Rutgers, 38-3, and it isn't a stranger to big road contests. The Bulls played at Wisconsin, Auburn and Boston College last year, all losses.
"Penn State's bigger than those places, but we have experience," Willy said. "Our goal is to be aggressive. With a defense like Penn State's that it's hard to have long standing drives against, you have to get the ball to a couple of your playmakers."
