Ball State at Wyoming: Know the Foe

Sep. 18—Robby General, who covers Ball State for The Star Press in Muncie, Indiana, weighs in on what Wyoming can expect this weekend against the Cardinals.

It's been a unique start to the season for Ball State as far as scheduling goes. They opened up with a win over an FCS opponent, as expected, then last week got beaten by Penn State, also as expected.

Have you been able to get a good sense on how to feel about this team, or are we going to finally get to see that Saturday?

I try not to overreact in the first two weeks. Ball State came out against Western Illinois and was tied 7-7 at the half, then Ball State's offense started looking like its offense. They established the running game and ended up winning. It wasn't the most impressive win against a team you were favored to beat by like 39 points or whatever the spread was. But it was a win, and as we saw across college football in Week 1, there were Power Five teams and teams across the country that did not beat FCS opponents, so I tried not to overreact to that.

Last week, some things carried over. The tackling wasn't the greatest on the defensive end. The offense started off slow, but had some drives against Penn State, but just couldn't really find the end zone. This week, I'm really interested to see what things continue carrying over, and what things they can fix. It's hard to judge them against a now top-10 Penn State team, whether things weren't schematically working, or whether it was just because they were facing off against some big guys over there at Penn State.

Let's take a look back at last season. The Cardinals won their first MAC title since 1996, and all Mountain West fans are well aware they rolled over (MW champion) San Jose State in their bowl game. What's the thing that drove that success?

Ball State talked about this over and over last year, and they kind of adopted this Detroit-or-bust mantra. When you go back to 2019, there were a lot of close games, and they finished that season 5-7. That was a big difference from the 2-10 season in 2017, when they were losing by 40, 50 points. It was just a really bad year, and a lot of the super seniors on this team were freshmen and sophomores on that team, so they know what it's like to be at the beat and that's what they built off of.

They really carried off that. 2019 was a start, and then last year they just found ways to win those close conference games. The defense progressively got better, and the offense started to click, even without a guy like (running back) Caleb Huntley, who is now on the Falcons' practice squad. They just started piecing everything together and got confident, and, in my opinion, played their two best games of the season in the MAC championship and Arizona Bowl.

That 2-10 season was early in Mike Neu's tenure there. Now, he's in year six, and it's safe to say his job security is pretty solid at the moment.

What's the most impressive thing about the way his teams have progressed over these last few years?

You talk about the job security and how much it shifted. There were people before last year who were very upset with the way things were going. Four years in, they're like, 'When are we going to see results?' I don't think those people necessarily saw those close games in 2019 as close games that could've made a difference, and he came out last year and had the team going. There's definitely been a culture change within the program. Guys are buying in, and there's a confidence.

One guy that's been there for pretty much the entire transformation is sixth-year senior Drew Plitt, one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Ball State history. What makes him such a dangerous threat behind center?

Mike Neu talks about this a lot. Just his swagger, he's rocking the headband underneath the helmet and stuff, and there's just a confidence to him. He goes out there, and I think he's earned that confidence. He doesn't put you in positions a lot of times to lose games. He's very smart with the football and understands they're going to succeed when he can get the ball out to a multitude of weapons.

We saw that last week in the drives they drove down against Penn State, I think there were six or seven guys that had positive plays offensively. He's just been super impressive. I saw him grow a lot over the past couple years, and he's seemed kind of off these first few weeks, so I'm interested to see how he responds.

Going over to the other side of the ball, the defense has three players on the Senior Bowl watch list, but they've had their share of struggles early on.

They had some struggles against a Western Illinois team that averaged 16 points per game last season, then Penn State seemed like an inevitability.

If you could pick one area on that defense, where would you say the Cowboys should try to attack?

I'm not sure at this point. I think the running defense was really good that first week for Ball State, and wasn't as great last week. Where Western Illinois found holes was deep down the field. They had one guy that had like 225 receiving yards, so that made their offensive day look a lot better. Then, against Penn State, I think Ball State came in with the mindset of, "We're not going to let anything behind us," but, in turn, that resulted in a lot of 10- to 15-yard runs and passes.

At this point, Ball State's focus has been in two different areas, so I'm curious to see how they balance that aggressiveness. Ball State is still missing the co-MAC defensive player of the year in Brandon Martin. He had a procedure last Friday and didn't travel to Happy Valley, and they had some younger guys step in against Penn State, so maybe that's an area (to attack). But overall, this defense is really experienced and deep kind of everywhere.

Last one for you: Ball State is looking for its first FBS win of the season, what's your score prediction for Saturday?

I think Ball State's offense is going to come out with a little fire under them. I don't think the offense has been clicking these last two weeks. They looked good in the second half against Western Illinois and had a couple good drives (against Penn State). The focus this week is about really finishing some of those drives.

I know Wyoming is a balanced offense, as well, so I expect a little bit of a shootout. I'm taking Ball State, but I'm thinking both teams are going to be finishing in the upper 20s, and maybe the 30s or 40s. I don't have a score prediction, but I'll take Ball State and the offense to find its groove a little this week.

Josh Criswell covers the University of

Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached

at jcriswell@wyosports.net or 307-755-3325. Follow him on Twitter at @criswell_sports.