This Is A Big Waste of My Time: The Ball State Preview

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​I watched The Break Up last night. It was an excruciating hour and forty-five minutes that I'm not going to be able to get back. But that will be nothing in comparison to three hours I will spend at this weekend's football contest between Michigan and Ball State. Non-conference action in early November? Senior day against the Cardinals? Ahhh yes, you can feel the tradition.

Ball State comes into Ann Arbor

 fired up and on a roll after last weeks pasting of Miami of Ohio, 20-17. They boast the nation's 14th ranked passing offense using a two-quarterback system, and one badass punter named Chris Miller. However, their prolific passing offense might be attributed to the fact that they are always playing from behind. Ranked 116 out of 119 Div 1A teams, the Ball State 'D' has given up over 450 yards per game. Highlights of their sieve include surrendering 610 yards to Northern Illinois and 535 yards to North Dakota St. Their offense is so potent, and their defense is so poor, that they are thinking of playing West Virgina and Louisville in a round-robin tournament of shitty-ness every Thursday next year.  

We do have some ties to Ball State.

 Their head coach, Brady Hoke, was our defensive line coach between 1995-2002, during which time we had less penetration than (fill in your own Captain Michigan joke here). Stan Parrish coaches the Cardinal offense coming off of his masterful gameplanning of two of the Navarre years back in 2001-2. But perhaps our biggest tie to Ball State is the Ball Jar, the namesake of the school that can be found all summer long in Ann Arbor filled with the chemical goodness that is Casa Dominick's Sangria. Yum.

The School:

  • Enrollment: 20,113

  • Mascot: Charlie Cardinal

Notable Alumni:

Numbers:

  • This will be the first meeting between Michigan and Ball State

  • Michigan is 21-0 all time against teams from the MAC conference

  • A win this Saturday will mark Michigan's 25th 10-win season, which is second all-time only to Alabama.

  • This will be Carl Tabb's last game at the Big House, marking the end of his 12 year career as a Wolverine receiver. It seems like only yesterday that he was playing catch with Todd Collins.