In the past week, Buffalo State players have accomplished things many Division III players never will. After beating the No. 1 team in the country on their home field, the Bengals saw their highlights played on ESPN, pushed their program into a top 25 for the first time since they were in diapers and created a palpable buzz on campus.
After a whirlwind week that’s taken the program to heights they had only imagined, the Bengals could be pretty satisfied with themselves. But it’s hard to pat yourself on the back when there are seven Empire 8 opponents waiting to knock you on it.
“There’s a great deal of self-satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment,” said coach Jerry Boyes in a phone interview on Wednesday. “But because it’s so early in the season, you can’t hang your hat on it.”
Buffalo State has the nation’s fifth-toughest schedule, as determined by the NCAA among the 212 D-III teams who play at least nine games against other D-III teams. The Bengals’ seven remaining opponents are off to a 16-4 start, with three undefeated and this week’s opponent, Alfred, at 1-1 having the worst record among them. The three teams Buffalo State has played haven’t lost to anyone besides the Bengals, making their overall opponents’ record 20-6, or 19-4 when you take the Bengals’ games out.
The schedule can be viewed as a mountain too tough to climb. But those willing to accept the challenge of trying to climb might find there’s a pretty nice views the higher you go.
“I think for a lot of guys,” quarterback Casey Kacz told Around the East columnist Andrew Lovell, “they might have just been saying it because other guys were saying it, but I think now everyone on the team believes we really can make a run at the national championship, just as long as we take care of our league play first.”
That’ll be no easy task. Though the Bengals start their first foray into the E8 – ranked in our Kickoff ’12 preseason publication (login required) as the nation’s third-strongest conference of 27 – after six seasons in the NJAC with three home games, they have games ahead with No. 8 Salisbury and No. 10 St. John Fisher, after having beaten No. 4 UW-Whitewater and lost at No. 17 Brockport State.
The win in Wisconsin against the three-time defending national champions might have been a less-difficult accomplishment than winning the E8. That only required the Bengals to play one outstanding game. Winning the conference’s automatic playoff bid, and the program’s first since 1999, will require at least six, and probably seven.
“It’s what you want,” Boyes said. “Now the pressure is on us to follow it up. Anybody on our schedule can beat us. But now we know that if we play the way we’re capable of playing, we can beat anybody on our schedule.”
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