Keith Wenning didn’t look like Keith Wenning in the first half against Illinois State.
He was off target on short routes, threw high on slants and overthrew his receivers on deep routes. But he did what any struggling quarterback would do — he found his favorite target.
The senior quarterback completed passes to senior wide receiver Willie Snead twice in the five-play drive to start the second half. The first was a 50-yard completion on an underneath route to the left side before being tackled at the Illinois State 11-yard line. Three plays later, he hit Snead for a nine-yard touchdown to the right corner of the end zone that gave Ball State its first lead of the game, en route to the 51-28 win.
“We got on the same page with everything [in the second half],” Wenning said. “We really came out and showed what we can do.”
The Redbirds gave Wenning a number of different looks on defense. They used different zone and man coverage schemes, which seemed to throw off Wenning’s timing and accuracy on some throws.
He also dealt with pressure from the defensive line. Ball State’s new-look offensive line was tested against Illinois State, which brought pressure on Wenning.
He was sacked five times and was hit on three occasions. In 2012, Wenning was sacked a total of 14 times.
But in the second half, Ball State was able to figure out Illinois State’s schemes and get big plays.
“They had a good plan on defense — a nice mix of zone and man,” head coach Pete Lembo said. “When you’re getting a lot of man-to-man, you’re going to miss some, but you’re going to hit some. We hit them for a bunch in the second half.”
Snead would score his second touchdown of the quarter on a 40-yard reception. Lined up on the right side, Snead made a cut on a slant route toward the right hashes that gave him space past Illinois State cornerback Mike Banks.
Wenning hit Snead in stride and Banks had no chance of catching him.
“It just comes from watching film,” Snead said. “We knew what they were going to do and we just needed to execute.”
Ball State’s leading receiver from a season ago had only 63 yards on four receptions in the first half. Snead exploded in the second half for five catches and 101 yards and two touchdowns.
Wenning finished the game 24-for-40 passing with three touchdowns.
Snead’s two touchdown catches gives him 13 for his career, which is seventh best in program history.
It took nearly 30 minutes of game time, but Wenning calmed down and showed the crowd of 16,327 at Scheumann Stadium why he is one of the top quarterbacks in the Mid-American Conference.
The attendance number was the largest crowd for a home opener at Scheumann Stadium since the 2009 game against North Texas. The crowd for that game was 16,054.
