Pete Lembo
Pete Lembo held Buffalo at Regional Program IV for 3 seasons.
In his own words
Awaiting signal — no quotes collected from this staff yet this cycle.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
0–5 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Rod Carey.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
7th-best Buffalo tenure of 11 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
| Season | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 0–0 | 5–7 | 0–0 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #110 | #92 | #101 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||
| Pass rate | 39.7 | 49.9 | 60.3 | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | Dave Patenaude | Dave Patenaude | Tony Tokarz | |
| DC | Joe Bowen | Joe Bowen | Brian Dougherty | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 38 | 12 | 16 | |
| Defense | 79 | 64 | 58 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 40.3 | 55.1 | 45.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 34.6 | 42.7 | 78.6 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 46.3 | 44.2 | — | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Typical size for position, once adjusted for position mix.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
1 NFL Draft pick: Red Murdock (2026)
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Shaun Dolac (2024)
7th-best Ball State tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Stan Parrish (2008–2010) · succeeded by Mike Neu (2016–2024).
| Season | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 6–6 | 9–4 | 10–3 | 5–7 | 3–9 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | — | — | — | #101 | #105 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||
| Pass rate | — | — | — | 47.7 | 51.2 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | — | — | — | Joey Lynch | Joey Lynch | |
| DC | — | — | — | Kevin Kelly | Kevin Kelly | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | — | — | — | 46 | 15 | |
| Defense | — | — | — | 24 | 3 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | — | 38.2 | 48.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | — | 42.6 | 39.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | — | 25.0 | 33.3 | |
2 NFL Draft picks: Jonathan Newsome (2014), Keith Wenning (2014)