Auburn University has the best offense Ball State University will see all season and the Cardinals will have to face it without safety Sean Baker.
The reigning Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year will miss Saturday's game with a broken hand. Coach Stan Parrish said Baker broke the hand on the second play of last week's game at Army.
"Baker's probably our best playmaker on defense," Parrish said. "But nobody of the Auburn sideline is going to feel sorry we don't have our guys."
Baker was fully dressed for practice Tuesday, but did not participate in many drills. Parrish said Baker wanted to play this weekend.
"He begged me to play," Parrish said. "Medically, it would not be a good decision. It's not in his long-term best interest."
Baker has Ball State's lone interception of the year. He has 16 tackles and has forced and recovered a fumble.
Parrish said senior Kyle Kuntz will replace Baker in the starting lineup. Sophomores Josh Howard and Kyle Hoke are also expected to see an increase in playing time this week.
Fast break: Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn operates a high-speed attack seemingly better suited for the Phoenix Suns than the football field.
"It's never too fast, unless you're at the end of the game, trying to win the game and slow the thing down and run the clock out," Malzahn said. "We're going to continue to stress pace."
That pace caught the Cardinals off guard last year in the GMAC Bowl when Malzahn directed the University of Tulsa offense.
Parrish said it's difficult to slow down the Tigers.
"You can't do anything," Parrish said. "Take timeouts and slow their momentum a couple times, which we will. We just need to get a deep breath and let our guys relax a little bit."
The big stage: Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium will have the largest crowd Ball State has played in front of in at least two years.
In 2007 when Ball State almost upset the University of Nebraska, Memorial Stadium had 84,394 people packed inside. Since then, Ball State crowds have all been smaller than 60,000.
Jordan-Hare can hold 87,451 people and the Tigers have averaged 84,621 in their three home games so far.
Parrish said it's a good opportunity for the Cardinals.
"It's why you came to play college football," Parrish said. "It gets very, very loud, that's the nature of big-time college football. You have to embrace that and have some fun."
Know your opponent: On Auburn's schedule, Ball State finds itself sandwiched between West Virginia University and the University of Tennessee.
It would be easy for the Tigers to overlook the Cardinals, but coach Gene Chizik is preparing the team the same way.
"We're going to do what we always do," Chizik said. "You hope that maybe you have enough older guys, you hope that you have a focused enough team where a football game is a football game and you only have 12 of the so you play them all the same."
Linebacker Adam Herring said Tuesday he doesn't know much about Ball State.
"All I've heard is that David Letterman went there," he said. "That's all I know about Ball State right now."
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