Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl ideal for Ball State

Last season as a member of the Notre Dame football team, defensive lineman Brandon Newman was on a football field practicing for a bowl game on Christmas Day. 

This Christmas, he’ll get to spend it with his family because of Ball State’s bowl game destination. 

The Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl on Dec. 21 is an ideal date for Ball State and for several reasons. It allows the players to focus on final exams and still allows the players to be with their families during Christmas. 

“It’s great to be able to focus on football and then relax and enjoy the family in the holiday season,” Newman said. “Last year, I was in Orlando doing a Tuesday practice. All of the guys didn’t want to look at our phones to remind ourselves it was Christmas.”

The team heard the rumors that its destination was St. Petersburg, Fla., and the teams had discussions on which of the bowls they could play in. But the bowl game that kept popping up was the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, which Newman called a “dreamlike” opportunity. 

“A lot of people want to do Florida,” he said. “They like the time frame. This is really a good experience for a lot of the guys playing in their first bowl game. But Beef ‘O’ Brady’s was definitely circled on our calendar.”

At the news conference to discuss the bowl game, coach Pete Lembo said the team felt fulfillment in getting selected for a bowl game. He said the entire Ball State roster will make the trip, not just the usual travel roster of 66 players. 

That brings up the challenge of getting the players who didn’t travel to the road games to approach the game as a business trip. 

“While this is a great opportunity for the program, it’s not a class trip,” Lembo said. “The main reason we’re going down there is to win the football game.”

Newman said he understands the business approach to going to a bowl game because he spent four years at Notre Dame. Now with Ball State, the satisfaction of getting to a bowl game for a team from the Mid-American Conference is still the same for him.

“It’s a great feeling,” Newman said. “When I walked in here, I just wanted to be a part of history at Ball State.”

Ball State has yet to win a bowl game in seven attempts. A win in Ball State’s eighth bowl game could cement Newman into a piece of Ball State history.