Community college football transfer looks to compete for role on defensive line

When the Ball State football team went into the locker room after practice, junior transfer defensive lineman John Swisher stayed outside, practicing on the tackling dummy.

Swisher and sophomore Kevin Thurmon, two of the nine defensive linemen on the roster, were getting extra reps.

“There’s a lot of good defensive tackles here. … I’m just trying to get my stride in the spring,” Swisher said. “I just want to be an impact player and climb up the depth chart right now.”

On Dec. 18, 2015, Swisher was one of three players who signed National Letters of Intent to join Ball State in the spring. Just four days later, former head coach Pete Lembo stepped down.

For a span of 16 days, Swisher was unsure of who his new head coach was going to be. Former quarterback Mike Neu took over the position less than a week before classes started for the spring.

Before he even began recruiting, Neu already had three players who had expected to play for a different head coach coming in.

“They were already on campus and started the same time I did. … It was a new situation for both of us,” Neu said. “They were great about it. They’ve done a great job coming in being open-minded and working hard.”

The competition is nothing new to Swisher. He spent two years at Iowa Western Community College, a program that was ranked third in the National Junior College Athletic Association in each of the past two seasons.

In 2015, Swisher finished with 64 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. He earned first team all-conference and earned an NCJAA All-America honorable mention.

From there, he decided to look to play at the Division-I level.

“That was my last year of eligibility [at Iowa Western] and usually guys leave when they have a good year,” he said. “[Ball State] was just the right fit.”

Swisher heard about Ball State through Twitter after he followed tight end coach/recruiting coordinator Patrick Dougherty.

Toward the end of the fall semester, Dougherty invited Swisher out to visit and on Dec. 14,^,2015, he committed to Ball State.

Swisher will have to compete for a spot against a trio of defensive lineman that have combined for 74 games played in their careers – redshirt senior Darnell Smith and juniors Kevin Willis and Anthony Winbush.

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