Saturday against Miami, Ball State is shooting to win followinga bye week for the third-straight year.
The Cardinals grabbed their first win of the 2001 season, 35-14at Eastern Michigan, after an off week. Last season, the Cardsemerged from Central Michigan with a 38-21 victory. In both cases,Ball State also won the next Saturday.
Despite the program's recent success after an extra week off,head coach Brady Hoke said he won't know if the bye was worth ituntil "about 6 p.m. Saturday," when the game between the Cardinals(3-3, 2-0 Mid-American Conference) and RedHawks (5-1, 2-0) iscomplete.
"That's what we'll evaluate first, how we handled the off week,"the first-year coach said. "I've seen teams that have gone outthere, lost the momentum you had and played poorly, and in the sameplace (I've seen) where you had a week off, you corrected somefundamentals and mistakes and you went out and playedoutstanding."
Certainly, though, the bye let the Cardinals to nurse someinjuries. Two weeks ago at Kent State, junior Alan Buckley wassummoned to start at middle linebacker because of sophomore DontaSmith's Achilles'-heel injury. Hoke said he thinks Smith will dressSaturday, but the coaches are bringing him back slowly.
"It's a funny thing because of where (the injury) is," Hokesaid. "He's doing more, but it's not 100 percent. You're back andforth. How much do you want to push him without hurting?"
At the same time, however, Hoke said he is pleased withBuckley's performance.
"Alan got in there and played well," he said. "At BostonCollege, I don't think he played near as well, and he needed tostep up."
Quarterback Andy Roesch dressed at Kent State -- the first timethe former starter has done so since injuring his shoulder in gametwo -- but Hoke was mum as to whether Roesch could play onSaturday.
"He could, and then he couldn't," he said. "I don't know yet.He's doing more things, and we'll just take it as it comes."
This year Ball State's bye week fell at the midway point, givingHoke a chance to reflect some on his first season as head coach, hesaid.
The emergence of younger players -- particularly freshman BryanWilliamson at receiver and freshman Terry Moss and sophomore DavidGater on special teams -- has pleasantly surprised Hoke, he said,but the ground game has been a sore spot on both sides of theball.
The Cardinals stand 11th in the MAC in both rushing offense(110.3 yards per game) and defense (188.5).
"I don't think we've done a good job of stopping the run ondefense, and we haven't run the ball like we need to run the ball,"Hoke said. "That's disappointing, and we've got a long way to go inboth those areas.
"I know we're a better team than we were in the spring. I knowwe're a better team than we were in the Indiana State game. Butwith this league, with outstanding coaches and outstandingathletes, we've got to get a lot better."
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