Coming off season-opening win, UAlbany football looking to get passing game aloft at Buffalo

ALBANY – University at Albany senior quarterback Kai Colon, who was surprisingly effective with his legs in his Great Dane debut last Friday, will probably need to do more with his right arm if the Great Danes are going to have a chance on Thursday night.

Coming off an impressive opening win over New Hampshire, UAlbany will take a step up in competition at the University of Buffalo of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

In the 28-14 victory over the Wildcats, Colon ran 15 times for 90 yards, including six first downs. When he played for Princeton last year, Colon rushed for 39 yards on 55 carries all season, a total of 10 games. His single-game high was 30 yards.

“I think it was just taking what the defense was giving me (against UNH),” Colon said. “Some of the passing lanes weren’t clear and the scramble lanes were open that I saw, so I took what I got. Just making something happen.”

On the other hand, Colon completed only 7 of 17 passes for 57 yards and threw an interception on UAlbany’s first drive that led to a UNH touchdown. He won the starting job in training camp over Aidan Semo by being more of a passing threat.

The Great Danes didn’t need go to the air against UNH. They rushed for 374 yards and four touchdowns. Semo came off the bench to run for a pair of scores.

“When the run game’s working like that, why do we even need to drop back, you know what I mean?” Colon said. “I wasn’t too worried about it. I mean, we won. That’s all that mattered to me. If we have to throw for 500 yards, I’ll throw for 500 yards. If we have to run for 500 yards, we’ll do that. Whatever it takes to win, that’s all that matters.”

UAlbany first-year coach Tom Perkovich, a Buffalo-area native who is going home, acknowledged his offense will have to be more balanced.

He said the Great Danes will lean on their repetitions in training camp. They split their pass and run plays about 50-50 during the summer, according to Perkovich.

“We’re not going to be able to run for 300 yards every game, right?” Perkovich said. “It’d be great if we did. But the reality is that we’re probably not and we’re going to have to get our passing game going to win games and win against the best opponents on our schedule.”

UAlbany is 1-10 in program history against FBS opponents heading into Thursday’s game. The Great Danes’ only victory was a 22-16 upset at Buffalo in 2016.

The Bulls, who belong to the Mid-American Conference, are making their season debut on Thursday. They went 5-7 last season and were picked sixth of 13 teams in the MAC preseason coaches’ poll.

Head coach Pete Lembo named quarterback Elijah Holmes, a transfer from Division II Wingate, as his starter.

UAlbany beat another former Wingate quarterback, UNH starter Brooks Bentley, last week.

Entering his third season at Buffalo, Lembo began his coaching career at UAlbany as a graduate assistant under Bob Ford in 1992, when the Great Danes were a Division III program. UAlbany upgraded to Division II in 1995 and the Division I Football Championship Subdivision in 1999.

“While we’re FBS and they are FCS, there’s no doubt that they take athletics seriously at Albany,” Lembo said. “I have not seen their new stadium, but watching their film from this last game against New Hampshire, it looks like they really built a really cool facility. … To the credit of this Albany team, they came out in their opener on Friday night and looked like an FCS playoff team.”

Traditionally, FCS teams carried a limit of 63 scholarships against the 85 scholarships allowed for FBS teams. That line was blurred by the House vs. NCAA settlement. Division I teams are allowed to offer scholarships to a roster limit of 105 players, though that depends on each school’s financial means.

A Buffalo spokesman said the Bulls are still at 85 scholarships “as far as I know.” While UAlbany’s exact number of scholarships wasn’t available, Perkovich said there’s still a sizeable gap between the SUNY schools.

“Definitely, from the financial piece of it, from scholarships and money, and (revenue) share and NIL, is definitely a big difference,” Perkovich said.

Buffalo is paying UAlbany a guarantee of $315,000 for Thursday’s game.

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This article originally published at Coming off season-opening win, UAlbany football looking to get passing game aloft at Buffalo.