Buffalo will start redshirt junior transfer Elijah Holmes at quarterback in Thursday night's opener against Albany, according to Pete Thamel, ending a three-way quarterback battle that carried through spring practice and into fall camp.
Sources: University at Buffalo will start redshirt junior transfer Elijah Holmes at quarterback, and he’ll debut for the Bulls against Albany on Thursday night. Holmes is a Wingate transfer who threw for 3,040 yards and 24 touchdowns last year in Division II. He also ran for 290 yards and three touchdowns. Buffalo plays FIU and Penn State later this month.
Holmes didn't just show up to Buffalo on a whim. He spent 3 seasons at Division II Wingate, starting in 2025 and putting up 3,040 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions, plus 290 rushing yards and 3 more scores with his legs. He transferred to UB in January, and per Thamel's reporting, he's the only quarterback on Buffalo's roster who's both started a college game and cleared 3,000 passing yards in a season.
That production made him the presumptive frontrunner the moment he arrived, but it wasn't handed to him. Buffalo carried three quarterbacks through spring ball — Holmes, redshirt freshman Jason Wright and Mason Cumbie — after former starter Ta'Quan Roberson needed replacing. In the spring scrimmage, Wright actually outproduced Holmes on paper, going 6-for-11 for 90 yards with a 40-yard touchdown strike, while Holmes finished 7-for-13 for 57 yards. Buffalo went with the guy whose track record includes a full season as a Division I-caliber starter, and now it's on Holmes to prove the résumé translates up a level.
The stakes get real fast. Buffalo doesn't ease Holmes in with a soft slate — after Albany, the Bulls travel to face FIU and then head to Penn State later this month, a massive step up in competition for a quarterback making his FBS debut. How Holmes handles that jump, both physically against bigger, faster defenses and mentally against a completely different level of scheme, will say a lot about whether Buffalo's bet on a D-II transfer pays off.
For now, the debut against Albany is the appetizer. It's Holmes' first chance to show Buffalo fans why the staff trusted a guy with zero FBS snaps over a returning quarterback who'd already taken his lumps in the program.