Leeper To Play For University Of Buffalo

Aaron Leeper spent most of the 2000 high school football season breaking records set by David Hinson in 1994.

Hinson finished the 1994 season as a member of Jamestown’s Class A state championship team, the Class A state Player of the Year and the winner of the Connolly Cup as the best high school player in Western New York. Then Hinson went to the University of Buffalo to continue his football career.

This past season Leeper was a member of Jamestown’s Class AA state championship team, was named the state Class AA Player of the Year and also won the Connolly Cup.

Now Leeper is staying in step with Hinson by verbally committing to play football for the UB Bulls.

A formal announcement will be made this morning at JHS, but UB’s website announced Leeper’s commitment to the Bulls on Wednesday night.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for me,” Leeper told The Post-Journal Thursday morning. “I don’t think UB can go anywhere but up. They have a new coaching staff. I think it will be real good for me.”

Bulls coach Craig Cirbus was fired after a 2-9 season, his fifth, that included a 63-7 loss to Syracuse and a 73-10 loss to Northern Illinois. Former Syracuse quarterbacks coach, Jim Hofher, who has also been the head coach at Cornell and an assistant at North Carolina, Tennessee, Wake Forest, and Miami of Ohio, was named Buffalo’s new head coach on Nov. 30.

“We had a meeting, he and I, and I think it went pretty well,” saio Leeper about Hofher.

The new head coach, plus the proximity to Jamestown, are a couple of the reasons Leeper chose UB over the other colleges that had been recruiting him – Rhode Island, New Hampshire and West Virginia.

Basically it was Rhode Island and UB,” he said. “UB’s always been a top contender in my mind.”

And the choice was made Sunday after Leeper returned from a visit to Rhode Island.

“I think it’s a great signing for UB,” said Jamestown coach Wally Huckno. “They have the Player of the Year, the Connolly Cup winner, a first-team all-state player. Here’s a young man that can probably satisfy both sides of the ball. He cam also be a receiver and return punts and kickoffs. To me, I think it’s a steal.”

“I believe Aaron Leeper is one of those youngsters that has slipped through the cracks. Maybe his size (5-10, 180) is a little marginal for Syracuse or Penn State, or his speed is, but I don’t think that’s really true. I would love to build a team around Aaron Leeper.”

Leeper earned the bulk of his attention last season as a running back with a Western New York-record 2,276 yards rushing and a state-record 47 touchdowns, but he is also a talented defensive back who had five interceptions and returned two for touchdowns.

“When Aaron was on the field, he shut down the fastest receivers in Western New York,” Huckno said.

Leeper said he is ready to play any position at UB.

“If I go up there and I can contribute more on defense, I think Coach Hofher will do what is best for the team and I believe I should do what is best for the team,” he said.

“I don’t care, just as long as the team is prospering and getting some Ws on the board, that’s all I care about.”

The Bulls didn’t get many Ws on the board during Hinson’s four seasons at Buffalo and the former Jamestown running back saw very limited action, which could have been a “red flag” for Leeper.

“That didn’t concern me because David played under Coach Cirbus,” Leeper said. “Now Coach Hofher is there. I know if I play hard enough, I’ll be able to start.”

Huckno noted, “David was a one-dimensional player. He wasn’t big enough to block. We thought he could run the ball successfully at UB, but they never did develop a running game.”

Leeper sought out Hinson for information about UB.

“David took Sheldon Battle and me out for lunch about two months ago and we sat and talked for 3 or 4 hours,” he said. “I think I got a lot accomplished. I learned a lot about UB. There were more positives than negatives about it.”

Leeper also talked with Frewsburg Central School graduate Chris Gray, who was the Bulls leading tackler last season as a senior.

Also on the UB defense last season was senior end, Joe McKoy, a JHS graduate, and former Maple Grove quarterback Randall Secky was a red-shirt freshman.

UB is the perfect academic setting for Leeper who said, “I want to go into law, so I’ll probably major in history and minor in political science.”

Huckno noted, “No matter what you want to do education-wise, they have every major known to man in that school, so it will give him a lot of flexibility as well.”

Leeper is already looking ahead and said, “All I know is we open on Thursday night, Aug. 30, at home and I would love to show the people of Jamestown and Buffalo what I can do at the next level.”