FOOTBALL: Ball State takes on Army, former defensive coordinator Jay Bateman

Jay Bateman spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Ball State football team.

On Oct. 4, he’ll try to force Cardinals quarterback Ozzie Mann into making mistakes, stuffing running backs Jahwan Edwards and Horactio Banks at the line of scrimmage, and shutting down wide receivers Jordan Williams and KeVonn Mabon.

Now the defensive coordinator at Army, Bateman is facing off against his old team and friend, offensive coordinator Joey Lynch.

“We both have an idea of what we like to do, but this year is a different year and we want to play to our personnel,” Lynch said. “What he’s doing at Army is a little bit different than what we were doing here.”

So far, Bateman’s defense has struggled. It’s allowing 36.8 points per game, one of the worst rankings in Division-I football. Against Yale last week, Army allowed more than 600 yards of total offense and surrendered seven touchdowns in a 49-43 loss.

That should be music to the ears of a Ball State offense looking to improve off its performance against Toledo.

To keep that momentum going, Lynch wants to get inside the head of Bateman and use what he and the rest of the coaching staff know about him in order to gain an advantage.

“Some of what they’re doing is very similar,” Lynch said. “Our kids have an idea of what pressure packages he likes to bring, but they’ll have new wrinkles for sure. He’s an awfully good football coach, so he’ll be prepared.”

Banks is one of the Ball State players who spent years going up against Bateman’s defense in practice.

It created pressure to the tune of 27 sacks last season and 31 turnovers. It also finished the season as the third ranked scoring defense in the Mid-American Conference, allowing just 24.7 points per game, strong by MAC standards.

Banks remembers what those defenses were like, and said Ball State can take advantage of prior knowledge to come out on top.

As long as Bateman doesn’t get to them first.

“Just like he knows exactly what we’re going to do, we’re going to be well prepared for everything that he’s going to throw at us,” Banks said. “We’ve been going at that with our defense for a long time, so we’ve been seeing it a lot.”

With Bateman possibly using his past as a tool to win, Lynch doesn’t want Ball State to change its identity or switch how the offense is run just to slow Bateman down. He said changing the offense too much would cause more harm than good, and it’s imperative that Ball State tries to play its own game and not become consumed with what the other team is trying to force.

“We’re going to make sure our kids are lined up to play fast,” Lynch said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to do the same thing we do, which is to block them, execute and throw the ball when there are too many men in the box.”

A task that’s easier said than done, especially when both coordinators know what’s going on in each other’s heads.

Ball State’s game against Army is in West Point, New York, on Saturday. Kickoff is at noon.

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