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FOOTBALL: Three points from Ball State's win over South Florida

Lembo said team had great week of practice in preparing for game

COMING DOWN TO PREPARATION

Before the game between Ball State and South Florida even started, Ball State's coaching staff may have already known the final score would be close.

A successful week of practices leading up to the game gave coach Pete Lembo confidence heading into Saturday that the Cardinals would match up well against the Bulls.

Ball State's practice on Tuesday emphasized that point the most, Lembo said.

"I told these guys it was our best Tuesday of the year," he said. "And it was very clear on Tuesday that Indiana was history. And that was very good to see, because I'm sure on campus, every person they ran into was putting their arm around them for beating Indiana, because that's a big deal around here."

On the road last season, Ball State was no match for South Florida, losing 37-7. The Cardinals surrendered 372 passing yards, turned the ball over three times, allowed three sacks and punted eight times.
Most importantly, Ball State only scored seven points.

377 days later, everything changed in the rematch.

On Saturday, Ball State surrendered 312 passing yards, recorded zero turnovers, allowed zero sacks and punted only twice.

Lembo didn't think the biggest change in the last year came from South Florida's team.

"I'm sure some people don't appreciate just how good these guys are," Lembo said. "But our guys knew when they turned the film on that the Bismarck was sailing into town."

A GAME-WINNING ROUTE

Willie Snead's toe-tapping, game-winning touchdown in the final minutes to put Ball State ahead 30-27 started with a choice by the sophomore wide receiver.

With the ball on South Florida's 19-yard line, Snead lined up on the far left side of the field as the offense ran out of a four-wide receiver set. South Florida cornerback George Baker was playing press coverage on Snead, giving Snead two options: he could either "knock it down," as Snead put, pulling his route up to give quarterback Keith Wenning a closer option out of the shotgun, or he could run a "9-ball," also known as a go-route.

Baker's press coverage made it an easy choice.

"He was pressing me; he was on the line with me, so I knew I was going to run a go-route, and I beat him," Snead said. "Keith threw a perfect ball. He had my right arm, and I sniped him with the left hand, and I was able to get the left foot down."

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Snead failed to catch a potential touchdown. He didn't let the next opportunity get away.

"I think I made up for the dropped touchdown pass earlier," he said.

"TIRED OF BEING AVERAGE"

Midway through Ball State's postgame press conference, senior linebacker Travis Freeman was asked what the win over South Florida means to the team, especially coming after an emotional victory over Indiana last week.

Always one for a good quote, Freeman, one of the most experienced players on Ball State's roster, didn't hold back in defining the moment with an off-the-cuff answer.

"You've got a Big East school coming to our stadium, which could be arguably one of the biggest teams to come through 'The Scheu.,'" he said. "We wanted to take advantage of that opportunity. Like I told the guys again last night, at some point, you have to be tired of being average.

"You work all year for these opportunities. You bleed. You sweat. Your body is sore 90 percent of the year, and it pays off for games like this. And I think the guys kind of took that into consideration and took that to heart, and they left all on the field tonight."
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