AMHERST, N.Y. — On a mostly empty expanse of green field, former Buffalo quarterback Tyree Jackson got in some light throwing Saturday afternoon, preparing for April’s NFL Draft.
UB football is about a month into a particularly important spring season, so for the hour and a half before a lone football whistled through the air the competition for playing time in the fall continued.
With the numerous departures the Bulls have suffered both through graduation and transfer, plenty of spots need to be filled.
“I think we’re starting to get a cleaner evaluation at some positions,” Buffalo coach Lance Leipold said.
One of those positions is not quarterback, where Jackson’s replacement is up for grabs between junior Dominic Johnson, redshirt sophomore Kyle Vantrease, and redshirt freshman and former West Seneca West standout Matt Myers.
“I’m not in a hurry on that right now," Leipold said, "until we feel like we’re really short-changing the reps that we’re getting.”
For Myers, who just returned to practice from a hamstring injury, the lost time is something he'll have to make up on the fly.
“Definitely, I’m a little behind with experience," he said. "Those guys got a lot of good game experience in the last couple of years, but I still feel like I can play in the game. Like the practices, I’ve been doing good.”
Additionally, with both Anthony Johnson and K.J. Osborn elsewhere in 2019, time at receiver is wide open.
“Two big receivers last year, major games, clutch receivers," said Antonio Nunn, UB's top returning wideout statistically. "We try to live up to the expectation like Coach "I" (associate head coach Rob Ianello) said, so we just try to work every day. Every day. Every day.”
That work this week began to occur in the brand new Murchie Family Fieldhouse, UB’s pristine 92,000-square-foot facility the program touts as a game-changer.
“It’s like a lab. It’s like a library for an athlete to go work and study and work on things that they want to do," Leipold said, "and of course when you have different types of weather, we have a good environment for athletes and for our team to practice.”
University at Buffalo football will wrap up their spring practice schedule on Friday, April 14 with its Spring Game at UB Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.