Hi everyone,
Ball State fan here. I'd encourage you to visit https://overthepylon.boards.net/ for the Ball State message boards. Here's more than you probably want to know.
We don't know what to expect out of our team. I said earlier in the year this is a prove it year for us. Last year we won the conference and our first bowl game by blowing out SJSU in the Arizona Bowl. I think a lot of our fans have had this game circled on the calendar as the first real measuring stick for this year. We opened against FCS Western Illinois and we played very vanilla clearly looking forward to Penn State. Last weekend we didn't put up nearly as much of a fight as we hoped against Penn State, so hopefully PSU is worthy of the hype they're getting.
Last year was totally bizarre. We opened with a loss at Miami. Game 2 we came from behind at the end to beat MAC cellar-dweller EMU at the buzzer. Game 3 we again escaped with a win against NIU which finished 0-6 and who you are familiar with. Game 4 we got a large and unexpected lead against probably the best team in the conference, Toledo, only to almost blow it and win by 3. Game 5 we handled CMU. Game 6 was winner goes to the conference championship and we got dominated by Western Michigan basically more than I've ever seen anyone get dominated and still win, and we still won. WMU had 34 first downs and almost 500 net yards. They made stupid mistakes that kept us in the game and you may have seen the final play on Sportscenter where WMU lateraled like 25 times and eventually scored what would have been the game winning touchdown after our team rushed the field thinking we'd recovered a lose ball. There was an illegal forward lateral prior to the TD and so the game was over. The ESPN feed cut out right when the ref started explaining, so only the teams and fans allowed in actually know what happened. We were big underdogs in the MAC championship to Buffalo, but going into the game I thought Buffalo was overrated, having played in the much weaker division of our conference and having only one cross-over game against winless NIU. It was a nailbiter, but we scored on a missed coverage long passing play and then a scoop and score on Buffalo's next possession to take a 2 TD lead into halftime and played the second half basically to a stalemate to hold on. SJSU I think had 14 players in COVID protocol and neither coordinator coached the bowl game. We opened the game with a pick-6 and just poured it on them.
So basically we don't know if last year was a fluke.
Our players to watch on offense are Drew Plitt (QB), Justin Hall (WR), and Yo'Heinz Tyler (WR). We also have a promising true freshman running back who has looked good while our starter is out. Plitt loosened up a bit in the second half against Penn State, but otherwise has been pretty tight and doesn't seem to be handling the pressure of expectations as well as he handled being the unknown underdog. Hall is super explosive and we all thought he'd go pro. Tyler is big and finished last year with a touchdown in I think every one of our wins, but we've not really used him much this year and I have no idea why.
On defense our "heart and soul of the defense" Brandon Martin (MLB) got hurt in a no-contact situation and there hasn't been any word about him but I'd be surprised if we see him again any time soon. We're supposed to be very deep at linebacker but he's a big loss. Bryce Cosby (S), Christian Albright (OLB), Jimmy Daw (ILB), Anthony Ekpe (OLB) are all solid. We're an opportunistic defense but we tend to give large cushions and so far this year have not been solid tackling. If you have athletic wide receivers you can probably get some explosive plays.
After you guys we play Toledo who is expected to be our strongest competition for the West division. Followed by Army and then WMU who is our second strongest competition for the West. So we're all hoping we can leave Wyoming with some momentum. Looking forward to a great game.
