The Ball State football team's less-than-inspiring showing hasgenerated some grumblings about athletics director BubbaCunningham's decision nearly two years ago to fire Bill Lynch(after a 6-6 season) and bring in Brady Hoke.
Hoke's tenure in Muncie currently sports a 5-15 record (1-7 thisyear), and that's considering a 4-4 start. The Cardinals have wonjust one road game in two years.
The head coach of Saturday's opponent, Joe Novak, can more thanempathize with Hoke, and likewise Northern Illinois' fans withours.
Novak's first three teams at Northern went 3-30, including 0-11in year two (1997).
Since then, however, the Huskies have gone 5-6, 6-5, 6-5, 8-4and 10-2 (with a national ranking that reached 12th). They bring a6-2 (5-0 Mid-American Conference) into Ball State Stadium.
There's no reason to believe that Ball State can't do the sameunder Hoke. In fact, the former Michigan assistant shouldn't haveto fall to the drastic depths Novak did.
When Novak arrived in DeKalb, he weeded out the undesirables,probably more than he would have liked (Northern was down to 60 orso scholarship players). But he stayed the course, built up depththrough solid recruiting and now has a consistent winner.
Hoke's remodeling job won't have to be as drastic. He hasn't hadto gut the roster left behind by Lynch, but the lack of depth andoverall talent in the upper classes has forced the coaching staffto go with a youth movement across the board.
Look at Ball State's two-deep chart for Saturday. Of the 44positions (some players listed in two places), 28 are third-yearsophomores or younger, and just four starters are seniors.
The starting quarterback, tailback and two defenders are truefreshmen. A redshirt freshman starts at defensive end, and truesophomores start at wide receiver and cornerback.
A college team that grows as much as Ball State will in the nextcouple years is bound to improve, and Hoke has said NorthernIllinois is a program he wants to emulate in many ways.
Provided Hoke and his assistants continue to recruit well, thedepth and talent will return, as will the wins. It's a reasonableargument that BSU has better facilities than Northern, and DeKalbmakes Muncie seem like paradise in some ways.
Stalwarts like strong safety Justin Beriault, defensive tackleConrad Slaughter and center Nick Tabacca won't be on the field toenjoy the success that will return to the Cardinals program, butthey rest assured that they have laid a strong foundation byguiding the team through a transition period.
Being a Ball State Cardinal isn't easy right now, but it'scertainly no reason to give up.
Remember, 0-21 is still far away.
Write to Mike at
mlgenet@bsu.edu
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