Buffalo Football: 3 Takeaways from win over Marshall in Camellia Bowl

Buffalo football capped a near dream season with a bowl win and here are three takeaways from the Bulls win in the Camellia Bowl vs Marshall.

If you spent part of your Christmas Day watching the Camellia Bowl between Buffalo football and Marshall, then you were treated to be a pretty good football game.

These aren’t the kinds of bowl games that tend to draw huge ratings or huge waves of fans and this game obviously had limited attendance anyway. However, Buffalo came in with a 5-1 record after winning the MAC East and Marshall, which entered at 7-2, was also fresh off a loss in a the C-USA championship game last week.

And in a year when teams with losing records made bowl games, a matchup featuring two division champions, even from the Group of Five had plenty of intrigue and here are three takeaways from the Bulls 17-10 win.

No Jaret Patterson, no problem

One of the best storylines to follow with Buffalo football this year has been the tremendous play of running back Jaret Patterson, who led college football in rushing despite playing in just six games. He went over 1,000  yards but hurt himself in the MAC title game.

While his presence was missed, his replacement, Kevin Marks was more than up to the task carrying the ball 35 times for 138 yards. He also scored the game-winning touchdown from 11 yards out in the fourth quarter.

In three seasons, Patterson has racked up 3,884 yards in his 32 game-career up to this point, which is an average of 121 yards per game. He also has 56 rushing touchdowns and his rise has been a huge part in Buffalo putting together three straight winning seasons.

We’ll see if he’s tempted to enter the NFL draft, but even if he doesn’t, Marks has proven more than capable of stepping in and being productive.