All week head coach Mike Neu has been preaching, “We can beat this football team.”
Neu said Vanderbilt is the story of college football, but it only takes 60 minutes to change that.
“Nashville is the center of opportunity, and for us, there is a great opportunity to come in here and steal the story,” Neu said.
The Cardinals hijacking the story came close but fell short with Ball State losing to Vanderbilt 24-14.
Even in a close loss to a Southeastern Conference (SEC) school, Neu said the loss stings because the Cardinals were in a position to win.
Heading into halftime, Ball State was trailing 14-7. Neu said he could see a look in the Cardinals' eyes at halftime, knowing they could fight with Vanderbilt.
“They realized after the first half of play, we can beat this football team,” Neu said.
Redshirt junior linebacker Joey Stemler said he could feel a sense of hunger in the locker room and on the field.
“We had it,” Stemler said. “The energy was up [and] I’ve never seen it like that before.”
Regardless of hype and emotions, Ball State’s negative offensive plays and the defense's inability to get the Commodores off the field late in the fourth quarter were the deciding points in the game, Neu said.
“We can’t have those mistakes that hurt ourselves,” redshirt freshman quarterback Kadin Semonza said. “When we play a team like that, we can't afford it, or else we're going to lose like we did today.”
Win or loss, Neu said he was proud of the all-out fight.
“Our team has the right attitude,” Stemler said. “...It is a heart and gut-wrenching loss but we have to look at the positives from it and keep stacking days.”
One of the biggest positives was the Ball State defense. Neu said it was the best four quarters the squad has put together all season and it is easy to see they are getting better every time they hit the field.
Stemler said the execution of the Ball State defense gives the group a big confidence boost. A main reason for the improved play comes with the Cardinals improved tackling.
Stelmer has talked extensively about improving tackling for Ball State and he said he saw a noticeable difference in the Cardinals' ability to make open-field tackles.
“[Those tackles] really, really helped us out and put us in a good spot to get off the field,” Stemler said.
The performance against Vanderbilt might not have been the outcome that was wanted, but it could be what was needed to boost the Ball State defense confidence, Stemler said.
Stemler said he has noticed a clear difference in communication from week one to now.
“Honestly, we are just having a lot more fun,” Stemler said. “Everybody is just flying around doing their job. It has taken a full group effort and we are all just doing our thing.”
Semonza agreed with Stemler and said he saw Ball State take a step forward today, but still missed their end goal of winning.
“At the end of the day, the goal is to win and we did not get that done today,” Semonza said. “[There are] a lot of steps forward though. There are positives to take away from this but we are not walking away feeling like we won, because we lost the game.”
The Cardinals offense only scored on the first drive of each half. Every other possession for Ball State resulted in zero points.
“The thing that was frustrating more than anything else is we would have some negative yardage plays that would get us behind schedule,” Neu said. “...Those are the things that are tough. When you're getting some drives, you got some good things going, and then there's a negative play.”
Semonza said he would like to see the Cardinals all be on the same page going forward. He said there is no excuse for why they are not this late into the season.
With how well the defense played, Semonza said the offense did not do its job by playing complementary football.
There were strong offensive drives, strong defensive drives and strong special team plays for the Cardinals. The issue was none of those lined up and put all three phases together, Neu said.
Going forward, Neu said there is an overwhelming sense of fight in the Cardinals going forward with the right team mentality.
“We’ve gotten knocked down a bunch of times, but I want to be around a group of guys who keep getting up one more time,” Semonza said. “We have a group of guys who believe that and live by that.”
Ball State will return to Muncie to take on Northern Illinois University in the Battle for the Bronze Stalk Oct. 26 at 3:30 p.m.
Contact Elijah Poe via email at elijah.poe@bsu.edu or on X @ElijahPoe4.
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