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BUFFALO, NY - Following a pair of road games, the Bulls return to UB Stadium this Saturday afternoon for their Homecoming game against the defending Mid-American Conference champion Marshall Thundering Herd.

UB has an 0-3 home mark this season and lost its only MAC home game to Akron. Buffalo is looking to snap a 17-game losing skid.

Meanwhile, Marshall will be playing its first MAC road contest of the season. The Thundering Herd is trying to win its second consecutive game and move above .500 in conference play for the first time this season. Last week, Marshall earned its first MAC victory of the season and improved to 3-3 overall with a 49-33 home win over Kent State.

Coach Jim Hofher

"Arguably, Marshall has had as challenging of a schedule as anybody else in the conference," said UB head coach Jim Hofher on Tuesday at UB's weekly press conference. "Their record is very deceiving and misleading when you take into consideration what their schedule has been. The challenge continues this week for us against a very dynamic football team."

The Thundering Herd - who graduated current NFL starting quarterback Byron Leftwich last season - still have an extremely potent offensive attack. Last week, Darius Watts - the NCAA's active career leader in receiving yards - moved atop the all-time MAC list in career receptions (243) and career receiving yards (3,610).

"Darius is not a good player, he's a great player," said Marshall head coach Bob Pruett during Monday's MAC teleconference. "He's got great leaping ability, tremendous speed and great work habits. He is a player that - if he stays healthy - will play for a long time on Sundays."

Another Thundering Herd receiver, Josh Davis, can be just as devastating for opposing defenses. Davis has posted back-to-back 100-yard receiving games in the last two weeks.

"Darius Watts has tremendous vertical speed and Josh Davis may be his equal as a receiver," Hofher said. "They both have good size, height and range. They are clearly the most talented receiving tandem we will see this season. It's a tremendous match-up challenge for us."

Marshall quarterback Stan Hill missed some time this season due to injury, but returned in grand fashion last week and posted some eye-popping numbers. Hill was 27-of-32, throwing for 392 yards and five touchdowns.

Another standout performance versus Kent State came from running back Earl Charles, who ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. Charles was filling in for regular starter Franklin Wallace, who is also expected to miss this week's game because of an injured hand.

"Earl Charles is a big back and they can feed him the ball," said Hofher. "Marshall is a very complete team on offense. They can run the ball, which is a little bit different than what they have had recently. They now have the ability to be a dominant rushing team."

Dave Dawson

The Bulls also have the ability to get big plays out of their backs. Sophomore running back Dave Dawson (Camp Hill, PA/Bishop McDevitt) has a propensity to break big runs. He recorded his third 50-plus yard gain of the season with a 55-yard burst in the second half of last week's game against Miami.

This season, Dawson has recorded two of the longest five runs in UB's Division I-A history (since 1999). His 76-yard touchdown run at Rutgers remains the longest run by any back in the MAC this season.

Dawson recorded his second 100-yard game of the season and the third of his career last week. On the season, Dawson ranks 13th in the MAC and 95th in the country with 60.6 rushing yards per game.

Offense is not the only area in which Dawson has shined, either - he also ranks first in the MAC and 23rd in the nation with 25.9 yards per kickoff return.

Dallas Pelz

Another Bulls' special teams standout has been senior kicker Dallas Pelz (Holland, NY/St. Francis), who moved into second place in career field goals made (23) with his second of the season last week. Gerald Carlson (1993-96) is UB's career leader with 28 field goals made. Pelz now has 103 career points, which has him ranked 14th in all-time scoring at Buffalo.

Those three points were the only points the Bulls put on the board last week, but don't expect Marshall to take the Bulls lightly.

"We're in a six-game playoff situation where we need to win them all to get back to the MAC Championship Game," Pruett said. "We need to come out and play extremely hard. We can't look at anybody's record right now - we have to look at what we need to do to be successful."

The Thundering Herd has an all-time mark of 6-1 against the Bulls, including victories over UB in each of the last four seasons.