With the search for a new head football coach well into its second week, the returning Ball State players are in a waiting game while athletics director Bubba Cunningham compiles information on candidates.
The new coach will be replacing Bill Lynch, who compiled a 37-53 record in eight seasons. He had one year remaining on his contract and will be reassigned within the university. Lynch was informed of the decision on December 1, one day after the Cardinals lost to Marshall to finish a 6-6 season.
Since then, Cunningham has been talking with prospective candidates and references. He says the interest in the job has been "outstanding."
"We've looked at head coaches at a lot of levels," he said. "We've looked at coordinators, position coaches and some former head coaches of BCS schools."
Coaches from BCS schools would be from any one of six conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10 and Southeastern.
Cunningham said that over the next four to five days about "eight to ten" candidates would be visited about the job, although he declined to name any.
"We will meet with them, talk about the job, and learn more about them," he said.
Both Cunningham and associate athletics director for external affairs Joe Hernandez said that no official interviews have been conducted or scheduled for the immediate future.
"No hard dates (for hiring) have been set," Hernandez said. "We're not in a hurry, but we do want to get this done quickly and do it thoroughly. We have to for recruiting purposes.
"Bubba's been doing a lot of this himself. We're just helping out with what we can."
Cunningham is in his first year as athletics director at Ball State, and this search for a new head coach is his first one. Before coming to Muncie he worked in the University of Notre Dame athletics department for 15 years.
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