Ball State football players sprawled out on the visiting locker room floor in Toledo. Some sat, some stood, all tried to relax, but there was nothing they could do about their bodies and minds being ready for a game.
It wasn’t that the game hadn’t started, 14 plays had already been run, and over five minutes had ticked off the clock. But when tornado sirens sounded and a rainstorm of seemingly biblical proportions opened up and shut down the Glass Bowl for nearly three hours, there was nothing for Ball State players to do but sit and wait.
“It sucked, really, but our coaches were preaching to stay mentally ready,” wide receiver Jordan Williams said. “Originally, they told us it’s only going to be 30 minutes. But then it turns into another 30 minutes, and another 30 minutes, and you have to keep your mind on the task at hand.”
During severe weather delays, a game can’t be restarted until at least 30 minutes have passed since the last flash of lightning. As players wondered when they’d be allowed back onto the field, each flash reset the clock.
Offensive coordinator Joey Lynch said Ball State preaches to control what can be controlled, and not worry about the uncontrollable.
The coaching staff checked the radar in the hours prior to the game and alerted the team that there was a possibility of a mid-game delay.
“When it happened, I thought the kids handled it great,” Lynch said. “They got comfortable in the locker room, sitting down and relaxed and waited it out.”
Lynch used the time to talk to his offense about what he saw during Ball State’s six offensive plays. Toledo had already shown multiple coverage looks and Lynch wanted to take advantage of the break to regroup.
About an hour and a half into the delay, lightning subsided and the teams came onto the field for a quick 10 minute warmup before restarting the game. Players were finishing their final stretches and coaches were getting ready to send the Toledo offense and Ball State defense back onto the field, as the clock showed less than two minutes remaining until the game officially restarted.
A flash of lightning shattered the black sky.
They went back to the locker rooms, again, for at least another 30 minutes.
“You get so amped up to get ready to play, and then you have to come back in, go out, come back in again, it’s hard,” offensive lineman Steven Bell said.
It isn’t easy for all players to get their minds and bodies ready to play, and then suddenly shut them down at a moment’s notice. Bell said it’s easier for linemen to do it, but many players struggle.
A lot of players have mental and physical routines they go through before a game. When they’re disrupted, it can throw the players off focus.
Ball State head coach Pete Lembo said after the game that his team did a good job of staying mentally ready throughout the break, some of which may be credited to the coaching staff. Bell said the coaches tried to hide how bad the storm actually was, so that the players wouldn’t know how long the delay would last.
“They didn’t want us to just lounge around and get comfortable for a couple hours,” Bell said. “They’d come in and say, ‘Another 30 minutes, another 15, 10.’ They didn’t tell us exactly how bad the radar looked but we found out later on how nasty it was out there.”
After Ball State went into the locker room for the second time, Bell described it as depressing, as he just wanted to get out and play. Williams agreed with the sentiment.
“We’re all talking and saying “Man, how long is this going to take,”’ Williams said. “We had to keep our minds right so we’d be ready to come back out.”
By the time two hours and 42 minutes passed and the delay came to an end, Bell was more than ready to get on the field.
“Playing in games is so much fun. Once it was finally over, I just couldn’t wait to get the game restarted,” Bell said.
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