The Buffalo game in 2008 was maybe the biggest single debacle in the history of BGSU Football.Zig wrote:I was at that game in the band. I'm honestly not sure there were more than 2000 people at kickoff. That was the most empty I'd ever seen the Doyt for a game.Redwingtom wrote:13,284 was the announced...but yeah...it seemed much closer to the 9,000 range.thewebboy wrote:I remember (wish I could forget) the Buffalo game at the Doyt in 2008 when we could clinch. It was a cold Friday evening before Thanksgiving break. The students were on campus. We couldn't have had more than 7000 fans out there.
I applaud the the Athletic Department for looking at attendance trends and trying something different. There is only so much we can do to promote these home games. I do think the 11am kickoff is unfortunate, but we cannot control this.
... BTW, Buffalo won the East that year going 5-3 in the MAC, damn.
We typically do a pregame show before the game, but since less than 5 people showed up for it (I remember a father and his son being there who wanted to see the drumline) the band opted out of it. I felt really bad for the kid, especially after the game actually ended. The game was freezing cold and it snowed heavily for much of the first half. A lot of instruments in the band literally froze and stopped working. We were winning pretty comfortably for most of the game, so it wasn't that bad.
I know Clawson has the Humanitarian Bowl implosion under his belt (which honestly was mostly just Idaho being ballsy), but that was nothing in comparison to watching the entire BG team implode in the 4th quarter against Buffalo in 2008.
Just a reminder: BG was winning 27-7 against Buffalo with less than 13 minutes left in the 4th quarter during that game. That's a 20 point lead in the 4th quarter that we didn't hold on to. No, I do not miss Brandon one bit.
1.The game was scheduled for 6pm on a Friday. Most fans couldn't even get to the stadium before the end of the workday. If you were an out of towner then forget it.
2.It was extremely cold, probably in the 20s all game. I know that we don't have control over this, but it didn't help.
3.We had a 27-7 lead with 13 mins left, but if you think that sounds bad, consider this. BGSU led this game 27-13 with 3:29 left and was lining up for a 37-yard FG attempt. The FG was missed, Buffalo went right down and scored a TD, then recovered an onside kick and scored another TD to tie, then won it in 2OT.
4.Following the end of the game, the team dissed the band, not even bothering to stay on the field during the alma mater.
5.Gregg Brandon went out of his way in the postgame news conference to criticize the fans, as though it was their fault they had lost the game. Mind you, this was a season in which we had already lost at home to two of the worst teams in college football in Miami and Eastern Michigan.
Yeah...that was a bad day. Bad enough that I admit I was rooting for Toledo to beat us the next week in the hope that it would get Brandon fired. Ultimately we didn't even need that to get him canned, that's how big a debacle the 2008 Buffalo game was.




