Lakewood’s Cole Snyder, above, Fredonia’s Jovany Ruiz-Navarro and a group of about a dozen University at Buffalo football players are gearing up for their season opener at Maryland on Sept. 3 under second-year head coach Maurice Linguist. Photo courtesy of UB Athletics

AMHERST — 716.

It’s just a number — in this case, an area code.

Heck, until late last year, you didn’t even have to dial it before a phone number to get in touch with local friends and family.

But to some people, especially student-athletes, 716 has more meaning.

Despite multiple Western New York high school teams performing well at the state level — even winning championships — it felt like student-athletes from The 716 were often overlooked by NCAA Division I programs.

Lakewood’s Cole Snyder, Fredonia’s Jovany Ruiz-Navarro and a group of about a dozen University at Buffalo football players are hoping to change that feeling.

It’s a feeling that Snyder didn’t get to fully experience with Canisius High School graduate Paul Woods at Rutgers, but the pair saw in a lot of their Scarlet Knights teammates in Piscataway, New Jersey.

“It’s almost like when I was at Rutgers, what those guys from Jersey felt playing for their home state,” Snyder said Tuesday at UB’s Media Day inside the Murchie Family Fieldhouse. “When I come back here it’s playing for the home team, playing in the 716. It’s a different feeling that you can’t describe.”

It’s one of the reasons Snyder transferred following last season. Upon arriving on campus in suburban Buffalo this spring, Snyder began to feel the pride.

“Knowing where these guys all come from, and knowing the limited opportunities that we all get, it’s cool to be around them,” Snyder said. “We all have a chip on our shoulders. To be playing with those guys is something special.”

In fact, one of the biggest competitions this summer for the Bulls — for the starting quarterback position — is between a pair of 716ers. Snyder is a 2018 Southwestern Central School graduate and Matt Myers is a 2018 West Seneca West graduate.

Myers is the incumbent with four years of UB experience behind him. After redshirting in 2018, Myers was named the starter in 2019 and went 49 of 105 for 602 yards and six touchdowns before an injury ended his season. Kyle Vantrease took over for Myers and started the final eight games of the season before being the predominant starter the past two years.

Vantrease transferred to Georgia Southern University following last season, leaving the door open at the position this fall.

“Like Coach (Maurice Linguist) said, it’s an open competition. That’s how they’re treating it so that’s how I’m treating it,” Snyder said. “He hasn’t named a starter yet so we’re just all competing as hard as we can right now.”

Snyder opted to leave Rutgers last winter and enrolled at UB in time for spring classes and practices, bringing his Big Ten training with him. He played in six games with the Scarlet Knights last fall, going 18 for 28 for 130 yards and a touchdown.

“You dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have. I’ve always prepared like the starter when I wasn’t and I’ll prepare like I’m the starter if I get the opportunity to be,” Snyder said Tuesday. “Saturday is a little less than a week away, so I’m just focused on (today) right now.”

Snyder was a finalist for the Connolly Cup following his senior year in 2018, the annual award given to Western New York’s top high school player instead going to Myers.

Now the two are competing for the same title once again.

“I think it’s a healthy competition,” Snyder said. “I don’t think anybody is out there scratching and clawing. We definitely push each other every day, that’s what it’s all about.”

Snyder insists that whoever wins the job, the other will give their full support.

“As long as we get a win at Maryland,” Snyder said of the Bulls’ Sept. 3 opener, “that’s what I’m focused on.”

And while a ton of pride goes into the Western New York upbringing the players have experienced with their Buffalo-area raised teammates, the coaching staff has also put a lot of time and effort into recruiting from the entirety of the Empire State.

It’s why past walk-ons like Ruiz-Navarro, West Seneca East’s Shaun Dolac and Lockport’s Tajay Ahmed are now playing with the support of a scholarship at UB.

“We’ve awarded scholarships to multiple … New York high school guys that came to UB,” Linguist, the Bulls’ head coach, said Tuesday. “Walked on, did what they had to do and then we awarded them that scholarship.”

If the Bulls experience success this season, it will likely be due to the play of a Western New York quarterback and some of the 37 New York-groomed players on the roster.

“There is not another college program in the United States of America that has more New York high school athletes on their roster than the University at Buffalo,” Linguist said. “We take so much pride in in-state recruiting. … We feel like we have some of the best high school football. … We know that our success is tied to New York high school recruiting and we take it very seriously.”