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"We've never been in these types of living rooms before," said the University of Buffalo's sixth-year coach.

Cirbus isn't dazzled by matching carpet and drapes. He's amazed at the audiences he's getting with high school talent interested in playing for Buffalo. That's Buffalo, SportsLine's No. 114 out of 114 Division I-A schools at the end of last season. That's Buffalo, 0-11 in its first season competing in the highest division of college football.

"I was devastated after each week of losing," Cirbus said. "The fact that we played a I-A schedule jumping right from I-AA didn't help. In one sense you ask, who were we supposed to beat? But we're very aggressive on being a I-A program."

It's easy to get caught up in the recruiting class at Florida State but even the Seminoles (0-11 in 1973) had to start somewhere. Cirbus is there, in the basement of his sport trying to claw his way up with an offense that was 112th in national scoring and a defense that was last, giving up 494 yards per game.

The only thing Cirbus and Bobby Bowden will have in common Wednesday is that they will both announce their 2000 recruiting classes. Florida State's recruits could be the foundation for a national championship; Buffalo's recruits of today could be the medical school applicants of tomorrow.

Not that that is a bad thing. Buffalo considers itself one of the most prestigious schools in the region. But when asked about big-name recruits headed there, Austin, Texas-based recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree couldn't come up with one.

"I'm really encouraged by the quality of people," Cirbus said. "It's a very, very easy sell. It's still going to take some blue chippers before we can go toe-to-toe. "

Cirbus, 43, arrived in Buffalo in 1995 from Penn State where he had been one of Joe Paterno's assistants since 1984. He was almost perfect for the job. As a Buffalo alum, Cirbus valued the university's history and mission. In his second year, the Bulls finished 8-3, their first winning season in a decade. Three players went to the NFL.

But the next year, Buffalo president William Greiner decreed that the football program would begin the move to I-A. The 154-year-old school founded by a former president -- Millard Fillmore -- has a great story to tell. It is the flagship university of the State University of New York system. Its law and medical schools are world class. It is the jewel of the upscale Buffalo suburb of Amherst.

As Greiner said at the time, Buffalo could compete with the Michigans, Virginias and Southern Cals on every level but one. Athletics. Even if it meant taking huge lumps, I-A football was a huge marketing tool.

Championships and blue-chip recruits like Peter Warrick didn't come easy for Bobby Bowden and FSU, either.(AP)

Going I-A meant joining a conference, the Mid-American Conference. It meant having wire services run your scores carried by every major newspaper in the country. On Saturday nights, those cable stations carried those scores in a crawl at the bottom of the screen.

"The University of Buffalo is what Penn State is to Pennsylvania, what Ohio State is to Ohio," Cirbus said. "We're so much better as a football team than we were in '98. Now with the legitimacy of being I-A, we can talk to I-A recruits."

Talking is one thing. Driving the conversation past the living room color scheme is another thing. You've probably never heard of most of Buffalo's recruits. Despite recruiting in the high school football hotbeds of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida, Cirbus gets the leftovers after the major powers are finished feeding. He knows that. It will be that way for a while.

"I can't sit back and complain that we should have waited," Cirbus said. "I was asked to build a I-AA program. The president decided to go to I-A. I had to scrap the plan and do it on a I-AA budget and a I-AA coaching staff."

Remember these names, if you can. The jewel of the Buffalo recruiting class is Albert Grundy, a fullback from Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa. Buffalo beat out Iowa and Temple because it was the only school that wanted Grundy to run the ball instead of just block.

Then there's Maurice Bradford, a second-team junior college All-American from State University of New York-Morrisville junior college. Buffalo beat out Temple, Delaware, Massachusetts and Florida A&M.

"I can't imagine what it would be like recruiting a class as an 0-11," said Morrisville coach Terry Dow. "That's the approach they've taken, slow but steady. They definitely have their work cut out for them after the season they had last year."

There is hope. Playing with a roster that was recruited to play a I-AA schedule, Buffalo lost to Akron 17-10 in the season opener. The Bulls trailed 24-14 at halftime of an eventual 55-24 loss at Virginia. Those who listened to Cavalier coach George Welsh's postgame comments thought Virginia had lost.

Buffalo was impressive at times. It just didn't win. That might begin to change on Wednesday.