The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

CHASING history has been a common theme for the Charlotte 49ers and Buffalo Bulls and, after a week of enjoying the amenities that come with a visit to the Bahamas, both teams shifted their focus to today’s kickoff and getting their first bowl win in school history.

Both teams and stakeholders addressed the media for the final time ahead of today’s matchup - all set for 2pm at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium to officially open the NCAA bowl season.

Buffalo and Charlotte will play for The Prime Minister’s Trophy, awarded to the champion of the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl - the longest running international bowl game in college football history.

Charlotte will play in its first bowl game in school history, while Buffalo will participate in its fourth bowl game.

The 49ers enter the bowl on a five-game winning streak and seven victories overall – both school records – as Charlotte finished the regular season with a winning record for the first time in school history.

Charlotte head coach Will Healy said his team has been able to balance the experience of being in The Bahamas and now shift attention to game preparation. “I don’t know how you ever top this trip. From our perspective - your first ever bowl game you get to go to The Bahamas, it’s been everything I could ever think of and more. To see the smile on these guys faces and watch them enjoy what this bowl game has to offer has been amazing. When it’s time to lock in I expect the guys to be professional and mature enough to lock in. These guys have been very mature in how they have handled this entire week. These guys have enjoyed this trip, I can assure you. I have never seen smiles on our guys faces like I have walking around this week,” he said, “If you got one chance to walk through the lobby and look at our guys and talk to our guys you would realise why they play bowl games outside of the College Football Playoff. THey have locked in, they have been great, they handled the situation very well. I said nobody is going to have more fun than we will and nobody is going to lock in like we will and these guys have done that.”

The Bulls played in the Dollar General Bowl last season, the 2008 International Bowl and the 2013 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. They also seek their first bowl win in school history.

Bulls head coach, Lance Leipold, called it an ‘experience of a lifetime’ for his programme.

“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,” he said, “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.”

He placed what a win would mean in the historical perspective for either programme.

“We’ve talked about it a lot because there’s a lot of things in a programme, and really, this is such a special matchup. You have two young FBS football programmes 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,” he said, “There’s a lot of things we can do as a programme 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.”

This will be the first meeting between Buffalo and Charlotte. Conference USA leads the all-time Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl series 3-2 over the MAC.

On defense, the 49ers are led by redshirt senior defensive end Alex Highsmith, a former walk-on who had a school-record 4.5 sacks in the regular-season finale at Old Dominion. Charlotte posted a school-record 36 sacks in 2019. The 49ers have also held opponents to 198.3 passing yards per game. The AP named Highsmith a third team All-American.

He ranks second in the nation in sacks (14) and fourth in tackles for loss (21.5) while leading Conference-USA in both categories. He set school records for sacks in a game (4.5), season (14) and career (20) and TFL in a game (5) and season (21.5) during the 2019 season.

“It’s been unforgettable being here, being able to send a once in a lifetime trip with your brothers is really awesome. What a week to enjoy all of the hard work we have put in. it’s just been awesome,” he said, “When this senior class first got here we just wanted to leave this place better than we found it. Now that we’ve done that and we set a standard for what this programme is going to be, this programme will do even bigger better things in the future so it feels cool to be apart of the first bowl game in school history.”

Charlotte senior offensive lineman Cam Clark will start his 49th game with the programme.

“Winning this game, It would mean the world to us,” he said, “We didn’t just come down here to have fun, we came to win a game. We will put our best foot forward and play our brand of football.”

Clark said the week has been a bonding experience for the entire roster, coaches and staff.

“Being outside of our normal element, with all of us interacting, especially the seniors, we could not have had a better experience. We attacked this offseason like we never have before. We were not surprised when the success happened, it was more like a breakthrough. Once we started playing for each other and got back to the basics there was nothing that could stop us. We’ve been talking about this all season,” he said, “Our strength coach gave us our summer packet, and on it it had the logo of every team and the phrase ‘We Will Outwork Them’ and at the bottom in had the C-USA Championship and the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl. We accomplished it and we did it. It’s nice to reap the benefits of all your hard work.”

The Bulls average 254.3 yards per game rushing with 33 touchdowns, and that attack is led on by sophomore running back Jared Patterson, who has rushed for 1,626 yards and 17 TDs, including a school-record and MAC-record-tying six touchdown runs on a 26-carry, 298-yard game against Bowling Green in the regular season finale.

“I’ve enjoyed everything, 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,” Patterson said, “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.”

After a loss in a bowl game to end the season in 2018, Patterson said the Bulls look to end on a high note this time around.

“We just have to focus on ourselves and do the small things right,” he said, “Last bowl game, we turned the ball over. Just do the small things right to win the game.”

Bulls senior linebacker Matt Otwinowski said his class also looks to leave their mark on the Bulls programme in their final game.

“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,” he said, “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.”

The game is again sponsored for the second year by Elk Grove Village, Illinois, using its business slogan – Makers Wanted. The Makers Wanted tagline serves as a call-to-action for Elk Grove Village’s thriving community and the thousands of businesses that are based there. It is home to the largest contiguous industrial park in the United States, featuring six square miles and 62 million square feet of inventory.

Craig Johnson, Mayor of Elk Grove Villiage was on hand to tout the game and announce his community’s $50,000 donation to the Ranfurly Home.

“When we saw the needs of what happened in the Bahamas, our hearts went out right away. The first thing we did was to have our business owners donate to the Red Cross of the Bahamas to help out. But then we thought within our business community, there was another

way we could help. We know about the needs at Ranfurly and our businesses stepped up bigtime and the shipment just came in the other day,” he said, “Being down here and seeing how beautiful it is is great. The Bahamas is open for business, come, enjoy, you are going to help the people, help the relief effort and more importantly, you are going to have a great time. The whole experience is beyond belief. Elk Grove is proud to be unique in sponsoring a bowl game.”