When Ball State and Central Florida meet Saturday at 4 p.m. inBall State Stadium, the Cardinals will be looking at a team thathas gone through struggles akin to their own.
Youth and inexperience at numerous positions have been largecontributors to both BSU's 1-8 record (1-5 Mid-American Conference)and UCF's winless mark (0-9, 0-6). For Senior Day, the Cardinalslook to snap a five-game losing streak at the expense of the GoldenKnights and first-year coach George O'Leary.
"There's not any question there's a lot of similarities," BallState head coach Brady Hoke said. "(O'Leary's) going through aprocess of evaluating and playing lot of younger guys."
O'Leary, formerly the head coach at Georgia Tech and (for acouple days) Notre Dame, agrees with that assessment.
"Ball State has done some good things," he said. "They have alot of youth in some situations."
One of those situations has been a bright spot for the Cards, astrue freshman Adell Givens has rushed for 816 yards and fivetouchdowns. While Givens' burst is always noted, the 5-10,190-pounder's penchant for breaking tackles surprises many.
Hoke, knowing Givens' high school coach and his school's league,isn't surprised, though.
"You know there's going to be a toughness he has," Hokesaid.
At quarterback, Hoke is going with sophomore Joey Lynch overfreshman Cole Stinson. Central Florida started freshman Kyle Israellast week, but he suffered a stress fracture and sophomore StephenMoffett stepped in and help the Knights force overtime against Ohio(they lost, 17-16, on a missed extra point).
Regardless of UCF's signal-caller, its offense is the worst inthe MAC, producing just 14.9 points and 260.5 yards per game.
While the offensive line features three sophomores and twofreshmen, running back Alex Haynes (613 yards) and top receiversLuther Higgins and Tavaris Capers are all seniors.
On defense, the Golden Knights have been better than BSU inpoints (33.3 to 38.6) and yards (405.2 to 475.6) allowed.
Despite Central Florida's winless record and its meager offense,Hoke doesn't feel his team is experiencing any added pressure toget its second win.
"I don't get that sense," he said. "We've gotten better the lastthree weeks."
Junior receiver Dante Ridgeway, on the other hand, has beenoutstanding the last six games, getting at least nine catches and114 yards in each one. On the season, he has 90 receptions for1,103 yards and five scores. The 90 catches are 13 away from theMAC single-season record.
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