When fifth-year senior Dan Gerberry looks at his younger teammates, he often can't help but flash a grin.
Through eight weeks, the freshmen on Ball State University's football team haven't lost a game. The Cardinals' sophomores have a 14-6 career record and shared in the excitement of a bowl game in their first season.
The underclassmen are part of a program that grabbed its first-ever BCS ranking at No. 20 in the initial poll that was released Sunday.
"I look at all the freshmen that come in," Gerberry said, "they're just spoiled."
Ball State's offensive captain had a different start to his collegiate career.
The first game Gerberry and his fellow seniors played with the Cardinals ended in a 56-0 defeat at the University of Iowa. Despite a 4-7 record that season, Gerberry said, the team felt a sense of accomplishment because it finished .500 in the Mid-American Conference.
The expectations are higher now. The program has a winning culture. But Gerberry continues to remind the underclassmen of how good they have things, because success used to seem like a distant possibility.
"I'll make offhand comments when we look at something," Gerberry said. "I'll just say, 'Oh man, you guys don't even know,' because in reality, they don't. That's a good thing, because they don't know what it's like to lose."
Ball State's seniors had to learn how to win, and the lesson taught them how fragile success is at the Division I level. It's the reason they say they're not bragging. They'd prefer to focus on how to prepare for their next opponent.
Senior offensive tackle Robert Brewster said that 56-point loss in the first game of his collegiate career has motivated him for the past four years.
"I really wasn't used to getting beat that bad," Brewster said. "The moment really opened my eyes up. It showed me if we do a lot of work we can get up here, and teams won't be beating us like that no more. It was a lot of motivation for me."
Quarterback Nate Davis said he and his teammates received fresh motivation during the Cardinals' bye week. Like most of his teammates, Davis took advantage of the idle weekend to watch college football. He saw seven of the nine teams ranked directly above Ball State in the Associated Press Poll lose, and five of those teams were dropped from the poll.
"That's how college football goes - anyone can lose at any given time," Davis said. "That's why you've always got to bring your A game, and that's what we're working on. It's so easy to lose, and it just takes one game to drop [from the polls]."
Gerberry said his goal is to make sure that one game never happens. Even though Ball State doesn't play the underdog role anymore, Gerberry said the team's mind--¡set hasn't changed.
"It's a lot about the culture we have," Gerberry said. "We all come in, and we expect to win every game. It doesn't matter if we play the New England Patriots, we're going to expect you out on the field to compete."
From trounced to undefeated
Sept. 3, 2005 Suffer a 56-0 loss in first game at Iowa
Sept. 17, 2005 Lost 63-3 at Auburn, the largest margin of defeat in program history
Oct. 1, 2005 Lost fourth-straight game to open the season
Nov. 19, 2005 Lost to Central Michigan to finish the season 4-7 overall record
Aug. 31, 2006 Beat Eastern Michigan 38-20 to open the season
Sept. 9, 2006 Lost 24-23 against Indiana after leading 23-7 at halftime
Nov. 4, 2006 Almost shocked No. 2 Michigan with an upset in the Big House before losing 34-26
Nov. 24, 2006 Won 30-6 against Kent State to finish the season with a 5-3 winning record
Sept. 15, 2007 Won 34-31 at Navy in overtime
Sept. 22, 2007 Led No. 24 Nebraska by nine points in the fourth quarter before losing 41-40
Nov. 13, 2007 Beat Toledo 41-20 in the first home game ever broadcast on ESPN's family of networks
Jan. 5, 2007 Lost 52-30 to Rutgers in the International Bowl, the first bowl game Ball State competed in since 1996
Sept. 13, 2008 Won third-straight game to open a season for the first time since 1988
Oct. 4, 2008 Won sixth-straight game to open a season for the first time since 1965
Oct. 5, 2008 Ball State cracked national poll for the first time in school history with No. 25 rank in Associated Press Poll
Oct. 19, 2008 Ball State ranked in the BCS standings for the first time in the poll's history
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