Head Coach Lance Leipold
Opening Statement…
“Thank you very much for an outstanding experience for our players, first and foremost, through the people of the Bahamas, the hospitality, the welcomeness to our players, to our fans, to our staff members. Mayor, thank you for the people of Makers Wanted for their sponsorship and making this truly an experience of a lifetime for our student athletes. Lea, Richard, the people of the Bahamas Bowl, and everyone that influences things, this has definitely been one of those things in your life that you kind of hoped you’d have a chance to experience, and it’s lived up to everything you could dream of and then some, so thank you. It’s been a great week, I think, for our fellas to have a chance to be at the resort, see things, but now we’re getting closer to kickoff and kind of getting back into that game mode. This team has worked extremely hard all season. There’s a lot of things from the beginning of our season to where this group has evolved now that’s made it very fulfilling and rewarding to put us in a position that we won five our last six. Holistically, you can see the way we’ve been able to play. Two of these young men who are here with me have been big components of that. (We’re) playing a fine Charlotte team that’s a hot football team with many outstanding players.
On Matt Otwinowski and Jaret Patterson…
“Matt Otwinowski is a four-year senior for us. He’s been an outstanding young man in our program as far as everything off the field you’d look for in a student athlete. He’ll graduate here in May. If you have had a chance to read up on Matt off the field, he was a stem-cell donor last spring for Be a Match program. He was truly a life saver. That kind of just shows his unselfishness and the type of player that he’s been in our program. He’s a lead on the field, plays middle linebacker position, makes all the calls and checks. He’s been everything and then some of what we want in a student athlete in our program. To his left is Jaret Patterson. In his second season rushed for over 2,000 yards. He’s had 11 touchdowns in the last two games. Jaret and his twin brother James are captains in our program as sophomores. It says a lot about their character, their work ethic, and how they go about it. You’re looking at two young men that everything they go about in being an athlete, being a student, or a representative is what we’re looking for in today’s college athlete. I couldn’t be more pleased to have them sitting here with me.”
On the best part about being in the Bahamas…
“When you watch your families have the experiences that they’ve never seen, to see this country for what it has and presents. I know for our family, we’ve never been here, and my wife is already talking about when the return trip is going to be made and how soon. It’s weather, it’s the scenery, it’s the beach. Just like everything we want to do in our program, it’s really about people, and your hospitality has been second to none.
On bringing home the team’s first bowl win…
“We’ve talked about it a lot because there’s a lot of things in a program, and really, this is such a special matchup. You have two young FBS football programs playing here in this game, and there’s a lot of firsts that could happen. I think that adds a lot of extra, I would say, value to the game and meaningfulness to this game. There’s a lot of things we can do as a program and different things you can either match what someone’s done before. But when you have a chance to do something that no one else will be able to say, you’re the first team to win the bowl game, those are lifelong memories.”
On what concerns him about Charlotte…
“Holistically, when you see what coach (Will) Healy has done you can see a team that plays with a lot of energy. They’re well coached, and the effort level from top to bottom is something that stands out. I’m a firm believer in that, as well. If you play hard, good things will happen. You could see that when they play. Their defensive ends are special players. They’ve had great years. They cause a lot of havoc on that side of the ball, and the others kind of feed off that. They play well together. Their quarterback, (Chris) Reynolds, they do a lot with him to get him out of the pocket. There’s not consistent launch points that you’re looking for. He can deliver the ball from all different arm angles, and he can run the ball. So you got to count for him. One thing about not playing for a couple weeks, making sure you’re fundamentally sound and containing the quarterback and tackling well and doing those things will be very important. The running back is excellent – had a great year. So the balance of what they have has been impressive. The receiving corps have speed and quickness but also have some good length and physicality to them. They’re a complete. In these games you have to play well. You have to win the field position battles, those types of things, not beat yourself. We talked a little bit about last year’s game. We played in Mobile last year. We uncharacteristically turned the ball over and some things. Those are some things we’ve tried to emphasize with the layoff.”
On whether or not Jaret Patterson and Benny LeMay are similar running backs…
“I think so. I haven’t had a chance to put eyes on him on the field. Highly productive. Physical. Can take the hits. Make people miss. Both have outstanding balance, and, of course, both have had excellent years. There’s probably a lot of similarities there. I’m sure they feel the same way about him that we feel about Jaret.”
Senior Linebacker Matt Otwinowski
On the best part of being in the Bahamas…
“I think just being here with the nice weather down here with all of our teammates – everyone together and families coming down now – being able to experience the whole atmosphere together as a big family.”
On trying to bring home the team’s first bowl victory…
“Especially being a senior, it’s been something we’ve talked about a lot – going out and being the first senior class to get the first-ever bowl win in school history. I think it’s just a credit to how everyone has prepared the past couple weeks. People have been watching a lot of film, putting in a lot of extra time. I think that we’re really prepared as a team right now to win a game.”
On the defense’s biggest focus…
“It comes down to us and defense doing our job. Like coach said, they have a running back, a quarterback that can make plays. They play hard. But it’s ultimately about us and everyone playing hard and doing our job and sticking to what we’ve done all year.”
Sophomore Running Back Jaret Patterson
On the best part of being in the Bahamas…
“Mostly the weather. Being from Buffalo, it’s very cold. Just seeing the scenery here and the weather has been an amazing experience for me and my teammates.”
On trying to secure Buffalo’s first bowl win…
“To be the first team in school history to get their first bowl win I think is huge. As soon as we landed, that’s all I really thought about – sending these seniors off like Matt the right way. I’m just so ready to play the game tomorrow.”
On the offense’s focus heading into the game…
“They have two great D-ends that cause havoc. But like Matt said, we just have to focus on ourselves and do the small things right. Last bowl game, we turned the ball over. Just do the small things right to win the game.”
