The Cards find themselves in a stormy situation against the homestanding ‘Canes.
Ball State, coming off a victory in their pit fight against FCS Missouri State last week, now travels to the 305 to play the Hurricanes in Miami.
While this is probably the wrong game to be looking towards Ball State to somehow prove themselves, it is an important game for Miami, who is looking to close out their non-conference slate 3-0 for the second straight year and keep pace for the College Football Playoff race.
Miami’s a somewhat painful program to cover for the author because of one specific athlete, and probably the one worth the biggest mention in this preview, but they’ll do their best to plod along.
Game Info:
- Date and time: Saturday, September 14th, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern
- Location: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida
- Weather: High of 90 degrees, with heat indexes going up to 108, with heavy showers and thunderstorms likely towards the back half of the game. Please prepare adequately for heat.
- Gambling considerations: Spread is Miami -36.5, O/U is 54.5.
- TV options: The game will be on ACC Network, part of the ESPN family of networks. A valid cable subscription is required for viewing.
- Streaming options: The game will be available for streaming on the ESPN App or on applicable cable/satellite services. A valid subscription is required for viewing on either platform. Other streaming carriers include Sling, DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, or YouTube TV.
- Radio options: Joel Goddett (play-by-play) and Mark O’Connell (color) will provide the Ball State call for WLBC-FM 104.1
Getting to know the Hurricanes
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The Hurricanes enter this match at #10 in the AP poll, coming off extremely strong victories in their first two games. They beat the daylights out of moribund Florida 41-17 in Gainesville, leading to most of the college football fandom speculating as to when— not if— Billy Napier was going to lose his job. They then played Florida A&M, where the Canes held the defending HBCU National Champion and #10 team in the FCS last year to nine points, while scoring a whopping 56.
Mario Cristobal, in his second year leading his alma mater, is currently shedding a lot of the worries people had about his coaching last year. The Canes are averaging 48.5 points and 539 yards of total offense a game, including 354.5 average passing yards off Miami’s brightest star.
Sigh. Cam Ward. What could have been. After two years of being the brightest star at quarterback Washington State had seen since the Mike Leach years and the Mike Price era 20 years before that, he initially declared for the NFL Draft in the aftermath of the PAC’s collapse, before retracting and entering the transfer portal.
He became, instantly, the most sought after transfer prospect in the nation. Miami won the bid for his services, and he has absolutely not disappointed. He opened the season with being on the watchlist for pretty much every major award in the country, and absolutely obliterated the record for most yards passing by a Miami quarterback in their first start since at least the Jim Kelly years of the late 1970s. He’s also the first ever Canes quarterback to throw for at least 300 yards in his first two starts. Cam isn’t all Miami boasts on offense, however. Watch out for WR Xavier Restrepo, who found his way into the top 10 of Miami’s all-time receiving yards list last week against Florida A&M, and only needs 286 more yards to crack the top 5. Miami’s three tight ends have combined for almost 200 yards and three touchdowns, as well.
On the defensive side of the ball, Miami sports defensive end Tyler Baron, who defected from his hometown program of Tennessee to join the Hurricanes (albeit after spending spring semester in Louisville). He’s been a phenom, clocking fours sacks, one of only two players in the FBS with four sacks entering Week 3 alongside Jahvaree Ritzie of North Carolina. He logged 3 takedowns against the Rattlers, achieving only the 10th three-sack game in Hurricanes football since 2004. The Canes are the only program in the country with two starters with 17.5 career sacks each (Baron and Akheem Mesidor).
Getting to know the Cardinals
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Given that Ball State has only played one game, it’s hard to make any sort of statement about them that isn’t just a quick recap of their game against Missouri State, combined with what we already knew about this program going in.
This team had a hard 2023, and even though their win against Missouri State was a lot more hard-fought than I think many were hoping for, there are things to like about this Cardinal side.
Kadin Semonza completed over 70 percent of his passes for the third time in his two seasons last week, and his four touchdowns all found different recipients for the first time in a long while. Ball State’s #1 and 2 receivers, Justin Bowick and Ty Robinson, were hurt, which meant that Cam Pickett was Semonza’s primary target on Saturday, and presumably will be again this week. 2023 All-MAC tight end Tanner Koziol also played a big role in the Cardinals’ offense last week. FCS All-American running back Braedon Sloan had a nice day for 149 all-purpose yards, 103 rushing and 46 receiving, including a touchdown catch.
On defense, there’s some new fun things afloat. 2023 starting quarterback Kiael Kelly is now playing in the defensive backfield. He’s joined by a cast of newcomers to the Cardinal defense, although Keionte Newson returns as the unquestioned leader of the unit. They held Missouri State to 62 yards rushing the entire game.
Two areas the Cardinals absolutely need to clean up are ball control and penalties. Both very nearly lost them the game against Missouri State at a couple of points.
At the end of the day, the important thing to remember is that this is more about what Miami can do about all types of competition rather than what Ball State can do this early in the season with a very green team.