Eastern Michigan at Ball State--This is an in-conference matchup between two 6-6 teams that also went 2-3 in division last fall. Eastern Michigan is a running oriented offense that has trouble scoring while the Ball State offense is more balanced but also had trouble scoring in stretches last fall. Looks to be a very even matchup to start the season.
Offense: The Eagles of Eastern Michigan bring a running game that was at times dominant from the spread formation. Quarterback Alex Gillett and running back Javonti Greene booth ran for at least 650 yards on the season with White and Sherrer adding 596 yards and 572 yards respectively. The Eagles scored 16 rushing touchdowns on the year. The passing game was horrible for the Eagles with only 126 yards in the air per game, only good for 117th in the country last fall. As a result of such an unbalanced offense, the Eagles could only muster 21.3 points per game, good for the 16th lowest scoring offense in the country. Ball State had a much more balanced offense with 138 yards on the ground and 241 yards in the air for a total of 379 yards per game last fall. Even though the offense was balanced with very solid quarterback play, the Cardinals were only 72nd in the country in scoring at 25.3 points per game. The scoring numbers were slightly out of whack due to three blowout losses endured in which the Cardinals only scored a total of 13 points. Taking out those three games, the Cardinals scored 31.5 points per game. EDGE: Ball State
Defense: Eastern Michigan gave up 140 yards per game on the ground while giving up 209 in the air last fall. The Eagles were in the top 35 in yards given up per game but only 50th in scoring defense at 24.3 points per game. Ball State had one of the worst defenses in the country last fall giving up 226 yards on the ground per game and 284 yards in the air per game. The total yards given up per game of 510 yards put them as the second worst statistical defense in the country, only narrowly beating out Kansas. The Cardinals were slightly better at keeping their opponents from scoring giving up 34.7 points per game, beating out 17 other FBS teams. EDGE: EMU
Coaching: Ball State coach Pete Lembo is in his second year at Ball State after spending the previous 10 seasons coaching in the FCS ranks. Lembo started his head coaching career at LeHigh where he went 44-14, including a 11-1 season in his final year. Lembo then moved to Elon where he led them to a 35-22 record that saw 4 winning seasons in 5 years. After his 4th straight winning season at Elon, Lembo was offered the job at Ball State where he went 6-6 in his first year with the program last season. Eastern Michigan coach Ron English is in his 4th year at the program going 8-28 in his first three seasons on the job. EMU is English’s first head coaching job and after 0-12 and 2-10 seasons in his first two years, English came up big in year three going 6-6 with his job on the line. Now that the program has finally won some games under English, a bowl game is the much needed next step for the program. EDGE: EMU
Ball State leads the all-time series 30-21-2 over Eastern Michigan. The Cardinals have won 9 of the last 12 versus the Eagles including a 33-31 thriller last November. That Ball State win essentially cost Eastern Michigan a bowl berth in 2011.
As evidenced by last years’ game, Ball State and Eastern Michigan are very even teams. The game will come down to how well the Ball State defense can slow down the rushing attack of Eastern Michigan. The Cardinals know what is coming but watched in horror last season as the Eagles rolled out 305 yards on the ground and over 500 yards of total offense. If the Cardinals do not slow down the rushing attack, don’t expect Eastern Michigan to bail them out with penalties like last season. Expect a hard fought game that comes down to the wire but my gut feeling is that EMU pulls it out this time.
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