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BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo football team will conclude spring practices on Saturday with the annual Blue-White scrimmage at 1 pm at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY.

The scrimmage will be the 15th, and final practice, before players return in August for the 2004 campaign. The scrimmage will give head coach Jim Hofher and his staff a final chance to make evaluations before fall camp. The teams will be split into offense and defense and Hofher expects there to be somewhere between 70 and 80 plays run.

Jim Hofher

"We will work realistic game situations, offense versus defense to ensure that we get them on videotape," said Hofher. "It's our final opportunity to do that. We will work a significant amount of special teams as well. Not necessarily in the flow of the game, but we will construct what those situations are going to be.

"It's fun for the kids to be out there in front of their families and fans," Hofher said. "They know it's their final chance to show what they've learned, try to make an impression, try to make the bus."

There will be scoring in the game with any offensive scores to be kept in the usual fashion (field goals, touchdowns, etc.), while the defense can score points by forcing turnovers, blocking kicks, stopping the offense on fourth down or in three downs and out.

Hofher says he hopes the scrimmage will continue to show his team's improvement, based on a highly-productive spring thus far.

"We've had excellent work," Hofher said. "It becomes really clear who the consistent players are and that's part of the value of practice...to find out who can play well and sustain their effort with great concentration - because that is not easy, it's hard."

There is no admission to the game and all fans should enter the stadium through the tunnel on the far side of the Bills' Fieldhouse.