It began in March, a new team motto for the 2012 season.
"Rise Up."
A simple two-word phrase that Ball State football players and coaches have been saying and tweeting in the months leading up to tonight's season opener against Eastern Michigan. It's even found as the avatar on the team's Twitter page.
But the motto goes further than the football team, it reaches out to the Ball State and Muncie communities.
"We created it because we want everybody to rise up," co-captain and linebacker Travis Freeman said. "Not just the football team, but the staff, the people around us, the community and the professors. That's where we got the idea from. It has to do with everything that's Ball State University."
The team has reached out to do its part in helping the community rise up. Over the summer, coach Pete Lembo created a Twitter account to help push promotion of the team and interact with Ball State students. Last week, the athletic department announced many new features to pregame festivities and a new "rewards program" to give prizes to students who attend home games for four sports this season, including football.
And with the season kicking off tonight, the team knows now is the time to "rise up."
Unlike last season's opener, the Cardinals get to play in front of a home crowd instead of a neutral field. While playing in front of 40,000 fans at Lucas Oil Stadium, Freeman said getting to play the first game at Scheumann Stadium is what he prefers.
"It helps the support and gets the ball moving for the season," he said. "It sets the tone for the season. It's in your backyard and you have the home-field advantage, and you want to take advantage of that."
Ball State returns virtually the same offense it had from a season ago. Quarterback Keith Wenning returns for a second full season as the starter, the running backs are deeper and the offensive line is the most experienced line in the country. Outside of losing wide receivers Torieal Gibson and Briggs Orsbon to graduation, the Cardinals return the same core of receivers led by Connor Ryan, Willie Snead and Jamill Smith.
Because of the familiar faces on offense, the coaching staff has had the luxury of being able to install new schemes instead of getting players to learn an entire new offense.
"We're really capturing the whole offense and understanding it further," Ryan said. "Last year was an introduction. Now we're starting to get it and move faster. It really it comes down to understanding it more."
In the spring, Lembo talked about wanting to add a deep-threat dimension to his offense that was lacking in 2011. Having players familiar with the offense will allow him to add that and it showed in the Spring Game with several deep passes from Wenning to Smith and Snead.
But what could make the offense the most dangerous is it's now doing what it did well last season but better.
It also seems like whenever Ball State and Eastern Michigan meet, the game is destined to come down to the final seconds.
The last three games between the two teams have been decided by a total of seven points. Those games include an overtime game in 2010 and a game-winning field goal with 13 seconds left in 2011.
"It's somewhat become a rivalry by how close the games were at the end," Freeman said. "It creates a heated battle and I think that makes for better competition. With them being in our conference it's a tremendous first game to see where we stand in the conference."
Getting a win against Eastern Michigan and in the Mid-American Conference would be an ideal way for Lembo and his team to start the 2012 season. It'll also be a measuring stick on how the team and the community has grown to the "Rise Up" motto. But Lembo expects this year's motto to stick with everyone involved.
"They really feel good about this," Lembo said. "It's both internal and external. [It's] internal because we need guys to step and address issues we had last year. But it's external because we're trying to put more fans in the seats and more season-ticket holders. 'Rise Up' is also an external challenge to all the constituents to our program."
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