By Mat Mikesell
With junior quarterback Keith Wenning ruled out for the season finale Friday against Miami, Kelly Page will get the ball once again.
Page filled in for Wenning after he suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter of Ball State’s 52-27 win over Ohio and led the team to its highest offensive output of the season. Now, he’ll get a full game to try to repeat what he did.
After Wednesday night, he has the confidence to do it again.
“It showed me that I don’t have to do anything different or anything crazy that I haven’t done before,” Page said. “I just went out there and did what was asked of me. I wasn’t asked to play out of my comfort zone.”
Page’s focus this week has been fine-tuning his fundamentals and perfecting his timing with his wide receivers. Even with just an extended-week to get those down, Page said it isn’t a difficult task to do.
“We go out here and throw one-on-ones with the guys every day,” Page said. “I throw with the same guys that Keith is, it’s just the amount of reps that Keith has gotten compared to what I’ve gotten.”
The wide receivers haven’t seen much of a difference in their route running either while in practice. Sophomore wide receiver Willie Snead said the only real difference between the two quarterbacks is that Page is more willing to throw into smaller windows than Wenning is.
He also said he isn’t used to throwing with Page as much as he is with Wenning, but he doesn’t expect to see drastic differences Friday.
“We just have to get the timing right,” Snead said. “Once we do, it’ll be like Keith and me, but it’ll be Kelly and me. We’ll be all right.”
At his news conference Monday, coach Pete Lembo said Wenning’s injury is a bone chip in his ankle, not an Achilles injury like originally thought after the game against Ohio. Wenning was seen at Monday’s practice wearing a walking boot, and Lembo said he’ll be in the boot until next week. From there, the team will wait a few days to have Wenning start running again.
But Lembo said he expects Wenning to be ready for Ball State’s bowl game, no matter which bowl game.
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