INDIANAPOLIS –The game over, the 5,904 Ball State students excitedly emptying into the Saturday night air downtown, the Cardinals continued their celebration in the Colts locker room deep within Lucas Oil Stadium.
They had done it. Ball State had knocked off Indiana 27-20, securing its second ever victory against a team from an automatic qualifying BCS conference and its second consecutive upset of the Hoosiers in four years.
Strains of the fight song spilled out of the room, followed by athletic director Tom Collins. He couldn't have scripted a better start to the Pete Lembo era, to start washing away the pain and disappointment of two straight losing seasons. Not only had his new coach beaten the Hoosiers, the decision to move the game from Scheumann Stadium to Lucas Oil had been a success. In the final minutes of the fourth quarter with victory seemingly in hand, attendance was announced at 40,224, surpassing Collins' stated goal of 40,000.
Lembo himself came next, all smiles and seemingly too excited to articulate his thoughts about the game, at one point even admitting to reporters that he was rambling.
So it was left to sophomore wide receiver Connor Ryan, whose diving touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone late in the third quarter provided the Cardinals with the margin of victory, to sum the game up best.
"It's huge because this is so much bigger than us as a football team," Ryan said. "This is about the university; this is about Tom Collins giving coach Lembo a shot."
As well as the game ended for Ball State, however, it could not have started much worse. Indiana won the coin toss and took the ball 76 yards in 15 plays for a touchdown, quickly taking a 7-0 lead. The Cardinals responded with a drive that netted -10 yards and included two penalties and a timeout.
"We were a little geeked up early," Lembo said. "Some of our older guys are really passionate about playing Indiana."
Once Ball State settled into the game, it slowly began to take control. It began, as it so often does in a football game, at the line of scrimmage. Despite being smaller than their counterparts, the Cardinals pushed the Hoosiers around on both sides of the ball. The result was open holes for running backs Barrington Scott and Jahwan Edwards and time for quarterback Keith Wenning to survey the field.
"We knew to win this game the O-line was going to have to play well," Lembo said. "The second half, [I] just really felt good about how we were playing up front."
Wenning may have been the biggest beneficiary of the offensive line's play, playing the best game of his career. The sophomore completed 23 of 29 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 61 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Ryan said he could sense an increased level of confidence in his quarterback Saturday.
"He's not scrambling all the time," Ryan said. "It's a big improvement and that's a big shoutout for [offensive line coach John] Strollo."
But in the immediate aftermath of the victory, it didn't matter how much time Wenning had to throw or how many yards he passed for. No, after the clock had ticked off its final seconds and the Cardinals had moved their celebration to the end zone with their classmates, all that mattered was Ball State 27, Indiana 20.
It was just the kind of scene Lembo wants to see repeated many times during his tenure at Ball State.
"We want football games to be a big deal, whether they're on campus or down here," Lembo said. "And this was a big deal."
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