With no game to prepare for, the Ball State University football team has spent its time at practice this week going back to the basics of the game.
Head football coach Brady Hoke said part of the tackling problems that occurred at Auburn was poor fundamentals, and he said the team would spend time working on these fundamentals.
"We'll go back to the basic fundamentals of tackling and go back to square one," Hoke said. "With a spread offensive team, we tackled doggone well in open spaces. Guys knew where their help was. I don't think we did that this week (against Auburn). I don't know why."
At times, Ball State was out of position to have any chance at stopping Auburn's skilled players.
"We weren't in the right position because those creases open up and that space opens up," he said. "It get's a little tougher to tackle. That was a big part of what we didn't do well."
Other than technique, senior safety Erik Keys said the Ball State defense has to improve its mental toughness in order to improve its tackling.
"It's mostly mental," he said. "It's not about strength, it's about heart, and if you really want to go in there and make the hit."
Hoke also said Ball State lacked intensity against the Tigers and reacted to what Auburn's offense was doing instead of attacking it.
"When you have intensity, you're going to focus," he said. "They had some pretty good backs, but we had some opportunities to make tackles. The intensity that was lacking is not the kind of football team we're going to have here. We need to look square in the eyes, self-evaluate, see where we are."
The off week also gives the Ball State coaching staff a chance to look at strategies they want to change or add to the playbook.
"It's a good time for us to look at some things we're going to do defensively and offensively and in the kicking game down the road," Hoke said. "There's some things that I know offensively our staff will look at and a couple things on defense that we need to keep putting in."
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