TAKEAWAYS: Pete Lembo Talks Plans For Buffalo Football

Earlier this week, new Buffalo Bulls football head coach Pete Lembo stepped up to the microphone for the first time as the program's new leader. Lembo replaces Maurice Linguist, who resigned his position to join the Alabama staff as an assistant coach.

The press conference lasted roughly 40 minutes with the former South Carolina special teams coordinator taking questions from local media with regards to his aspirations for his new team.

After reviewing Lembo's comments, here are G5 Football Daily's biggest takeaways from the first official day of a new era for UB football.

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New Job, New Pete

Lembo has had success as a Division I head coach at several stops in his career, and a fairly successful one at that. However, it's been eight seasons since Lembo has been a head coach. Since his last head coach job at Ball State in 2015, Lembo says he embraced the opportunity to learn from, as well as occasionally offer advice to, head coaches like Mike Norvell, Mike Bloomgren, and Shane Beamer. 

Those support roles have helped Lembo refocus his own strengths as well as redefine what it takes to build a successful program in 2024 and beyond.

"One of the best things that happened to me is going back and being an assistant coach again for these last several years," the former Georgetown lineman emphatically stated. 

"I came up through the small college ranks. Every place that I have been has been a 'do more with less' type of environment. That's a good thing in a lot of ways because you look for creative ways to get the job done...For me, these last several years have been like getting a PhD in college football in terms of taking a fresh look at everything from when you practice, how you practice, the technology that you're using at practice, what days of the week you're practicing, analytics...There has been a lot that has changed and a lot that has advanced and I fell like my time at Power Five schools and Group of Five schools the last several years has been very very helpful to opening my eyes to a lot of new, different, and perhaps even better ways of getting things done."

Despite the changes to both the game and himself, Lembo was adamant he's up to the challenge of being a head coach in a sport that's seen what feels like a century's worth of change in the last half decade. 

"I feel like this is the best version of me as a football coach that I've been in my career on and off the field."

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Blame It All On His Roots

Part of what made the UB job appealing for Lembo was the opportunity to return to his home state. Lembo is a native of Staten Island where he attended Monsignor Farrell High School. Lembo also earned a Master's degree from Albany during his time as a graduate assistant in the early 1990s. 

One of Lembo's more successful stops as a head coach was at Lehigh, located about an hour north of Philadelphia. In total, Lembo spent seven seasons at Lehigh as an assistant or the head coach.

Because of his ties to the area, Lembo has also made frequent return trips to the Northeast as a recruiter for the larger institutions on his resume. He aims to utilize those relationships when building his roster through high school players, as well as the transfer portal.

"One of the things that I really enjoyed about working at South Carolina was the opportunity to come recruit in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic area...It's been incredible to rekindle so many of these old relationships with high school coaches from Boston, to Pittsburgh, down to the DMV."

Lembo was also sure to note that several former protegés of his colleagues are current members of the UB football team. 

"That really excites me about the potential here...Having those relationships in place with so many of those coaches in this geographic footprint I think is going to be very very valuable."

The Transfer Portal Approach

As previously mentioned, college football has changed significantly since the last time that Lembo was a head coach. Arguably the most notable changes have come with regards to transfer eligibility and their effect on player retention. While Lembo admits that will be a new and tough challenge for him, he's looking forward to creating a culture that will help his program rise to it.

"It all gets back to relationships and the student-athletes feeling like they're a part of something special, something that's bigger than them, but they have a meaningful role in, whatever their role may be," Lembo stated I've always felt like the 110th guy on the roster is just as important as the top guy on the roster...That's a big part of the tone that I need to set every day. The staff that we put together has to have that same kind of approach when dealing with our student-athletes...When you build that kind of culture, I believe it helps you retain players because they look look forward to coming in the building every day and they look forward to contributing in a meaningful way."

Lembo went on to note his experience at South Carolina in particular has given him an appreciation for the nuances of modern roster building.

"In a lot of ways, where in the past, you used to take a very long-term approach to developing your team and building your program, there's a lot more change in the short term now in college athletics...You used to say it was a marathon, but now it's a little bit more of a race to get everybody working together and to maximize everybody's potential so that you can head into September feeling really good about your football team...You can't 'boo-hoo' the things you can't control. But you have to have a plan. You have to do the very best job you can with the guys you have and do everything you possibly can to keep good people around. But then, you have to have contingency plans as well to make sure that you are putting together the very best group you can each and every year." 

The Bulls enter 2024 seeking their fifth winning season since 2013.