Ball State’s biggest question mark entering the 2005 football season is its lineman play on both sides of the ball, head coach Brady Hoke said.
Three redshirt freshmen are expected to start on the offensive line in the season opener at Iowa — left guard Jason Sippel, right guard Brian Trowman and center Dan Gerberry.
“They haven’t played a football game in 18 months,” Hoke said. “The first time they’ll all line up in a game situation is out in Iowa City. So to see their development is going to be critical.”
The defense will see some young returning linemen who gained experience last season. Right end Temidayo Macarthy and Riley Larimore, who started in nine games last year as a right tackle but moves to defensive end this year, return. Macarthy moves to tackle.
“The two fronts are the places where we really strive to make improvements,” Hoke said.
The offensive line has only two seniors and two juniors. The remaining 10 linemen on the depth chart are freshmen or sophomores.
“We’ve got to continue to develop the young offensive linemen we have,” Hoke said. “You’re talking about a lot of guys who haven’t had game experience in a while.”
On the defensive side, both Macarthy and Larimore are listed on the second-string of the line. True sophomore Amara Koroma will start at tackle ahead of redshirt sophomore Macarthy. Larimore moves to left end, where he’ll back up senior Blair Kramer, who started in every game last season. With Macarthy and Larimore playing on the second-string, it should give the defensive front some more depth, Hoke said.
Cortlan Booker, formerly a defensive end, moves to linebacker this season. Nose tackle Tom Kellar returns this season with a healthy back, which slowed him down last year.
“We’ve got to stay healthy, and we’ve got to keep improving as a defense,” Hoke said. “I’m talking about the run defense, the rush defense and creating more turnovers.”
Hoke noted that Ball State’s offense turned the ball over just six times last season, but the defense forced only 11 and that needs to change.
“That’s part of your tenacity toward the football, your pass rush, your secondary doing a great job of breaking on the ball — a lot of different combinations,” Hoke said. We’ve got to be able to put pressure on the QB. Consistently, we didn’t do that [last year]."
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