When coach Brady Hoke addressed his players Sunday, he drew from his previous coaching experiences to keep No. 25 Ball State University's first national ranking in context.
Hoke was an assistant coach at the University of Michigan in 1997, when the Wolverines won a national championship. Michigan began the year No. 14 in the Associated Press Poll and was able to climb the national rankings as the season progressed.
The Wolverines entered the next season ranked No. 1 and were favorites to repeat their national-title run. Hoke said the coaches and players allowed the hype to get to their heads, and the team began the year 0-2 after losing to the University of Notre Dame and Syracuse University.
The 1998 season showed Hoke the little importance national rankings hold.
"Rankings don't mean anything. It's where you end up at the end of the year," Hoke said. "If you make your goals and you can match them, then you'll be successful. Anything in the moment is just that - it's in the moment. Winning is so fragile in this business, and I think our kids have been focused on the task at hand."
Whether Hoke's message sunk in with his players is yet to be seen, but they collectively said the right things to the media Monday afternoon.
Safety Sean Baker said he was excited when he surfed the Web on Sunday and saw his team cracked the AP Top 25 poll. But after a couple moments, Baker said he realized there's much more riding on the success of this season than the Cardinals' No. 25 ranking.
"It's just a number next to your team name," Baker said. "No one remembers who was ranked 25th in the sixth week of the season. We're going to keep working, and we want to improve and get better every week."
Running back MiQuale Lewis didn't find out his team was ranked until Hoke met with the players at 5 p.m. His response to the news was similar.
"I thought it was pretty cool," Lewis said. "At the same time, we've still got more to prove. We have something to prove each week going into each game. We've still got to work hard in practice, and it will pay off in the end."
Hoke said Ball State's first national ranking is flattering for the program and special for the university. He said it also provides the opportunity for his team to rest on its success - much like the 1998 Michigan team - without finishing the second half of the season.
Midway through this season, Hoke said, his team is more focused on its next six games than what occurred in the past six.
"If you get complacent in anything in life - and it doesn't matter what your job is - you're going to fall behind, and somebody is going to catch up," Hoke said. "We haven't met one goal yet. We've got six games to play. And we're starting this week with a Western Kentucky [University] team that is a very good football team."
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