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FOOTBALL: Mershman among four players not returning for fall season

Defensive end competing to start decides to transfer

For reasons ranging from medical precaution to personal matters, four players will not be back with the Ball State football team this season.

Coach Pete Lembo confirmed in a recent interview that tight end Aaron Mershman and defensive ends Anthony Kukwa and Matt Fox all left the program this spring. 

Tight end Jacob Green's profile on ballstatesports.com includes an update that he left the team this spring as well. 

Lembo said the team's medical staff determined that it would be best for Mershman to withdraw from the team due to his concussion history. Lembo added that Mershman will be kept on scholarship and will likely still have some kind of involvement with the program.

Mershman was heading into his junior season with the team. 

Lembo said Kukwa had family matters to address, forcing him to transfer closer to his home in Perry, Ohio. The News-Herald, which covers the northern Ohio area, reported that Kukwa had transfered to Division II Lake Erie. The team's coach said Kukwa will be converted to a tight end there. 

Kukwa spent his only season at Ball State as a redshirt in 2011. The initial depth chart on Ball State's Spring Prospectus indicated that Kukwa was competing with Ohio State transfer Jonathan Newsome to be the starting right defensive end. 

Lembo said Fox told him this spring he had lost the passion for football and couldn't continue with the team. Like Kukwa, Fox redshirted his one year with the team in 2011. 

Green had been with the team for the past three years, including one redshirt season in 2009, but had only played in two games in 2010 and none in 2011. 


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