Who is Ball State?

Who is Ball State?

The Bulls play the first game of the 2011 season at home against MAC opponent Ball State (a team that rose to number 12 in the country back in 2008) on Saturday night.

Ball State won their first game of the season against Indiana 27 to 20 to get the 2011 season started. They are hoping to improve over their bad 2010 season.

Ball State (Muncie, Indiana) finished the 2010 season at 4-8 (3-5 in conference). They averaged 22 points per game on offense and allowed 30.4 points per game on defense, so the Bulls should have a great opportunity to get points on the board in this one.

The bulk of the offense relied on the running game. Ball State (Cardinals) averaged 152.2 yards per game on the ground (will need defensive line to step up) and averaged 153.6 yards in the air, ranking them 109th in the country (Team No Fly Zone will be on patrol in this game). That is a grand total of just 305.8 yards per game on offense.

On defense, it wasn't much better for the Cardinals. They allowed 178 yards per game rushing the ball (Scott and Murray should have a great chance to churn up the yards) and allowed 220 yards per game through the air (weren't facing talented wide receivers like the Bulls). This leads to a total of 398.6 yards per game, so both on offense and defense, the Bulls have the advantage.

So what can we make of this Ball State team? They have talent, but have all new coaches, both at head coach and both starting coordinators. Their defense is not the best in the league, giving up quite a few yards on the ground and the offense will probably be going through growing pains and will be facing the Bulls defense that is very fast and will fly to the ball. This week we will be breaking down all the players for Ball State to get a better understanding of who we are facing this week.