by Kiael Kelly has been through a lot at Ball State.
From the COVID-19 Pandemic impacting his recruitment to being named the starter just to be replaced the following year and forced to play other positions, it has been a road of twists and turns for Ball State’s redshirt senior QB1.
He’s been in the transfer portal twice in his five years in Muncie.
“Do I come back and potentially play both sides of the ball, or do I see what opportunities are out there at quarterback?” Kelly said.
Yet, he will play his final ‘first home game’ at Scheumann Stadium Saturday, Sept. 13, as Ball State football hosts New Hampshire at 2 p.m.
Why is he still a Cardinal?
‘Prove people wrong’
Kelly hated the quarterback position. As a child in Tampa, Florida, he wanted to be the guy who made the ‘flashy plays.’ According to him, that wasn’t the man under center.
“I wanted to catch the ball and play tight end or receiver,” he said.
But as he played it more and more, he began taking an interest in the role. That’s when he realized what it took to be ‘the guy’ and to lead a team. He never looked back after receiving an offer from Illinois as a freshman.
“It took me a while to realize the ball is in your hands every play,” Kelly said. “In order for the team to win, you gotta make plays. That’s why I fell in love with the quarterback position.”
Kelly started his high school football career at Tampa Catholic High School before going to Tampa Jesuit High School. For his final two years, he transferred to play at Gaither High School. Gaither quarterbacks’ coach Jason Silbert originally coached against Kelly, but he still remembers walking into the weight room and realizing he was now a Cowboy.
“This is a kid who’s six-foot-two, 200 pounds as a junior in high school. Just physically put together,” Silbert said. “Take away the football side of it, just meeting the kid and talking to him, you realize he has kind of an infectious personality.”
Silbert said Kelly instantly made contributions. From leading lift sessions to working on his game outside of team workouts, his new quarterback was ready to go. Then two things happened.
Kijah Kelly, Kiael’s older brother, also planned on playing college football as he received an offer to play at UAB. But after tearing his ACL in his junior season and making a return, he tore the same ACL the next season.
Kiael was a freshman at the time, and he said it was one of the hardest things he’s ever witnessed.
“That moment is just nuts because it’s just seeing it all just to be stripped away,” Kiael said. “Nobody worked harder than him, especially after the first injury and getting back … It became real to me that football wasn’t how I saw it. It’s getting to a point where it’s gotta end one day, and really, it’s up to me to at least give myself a shot to decide when that ends. I would rather be done with football before it’s done with me.”
Due to this, Kiael adapted to a play-like-it’s-your-last-play mentality. Determined to give it everything, he locked in to the sport. From personal filmroom sessions, hours spent on the field and consuming everything football, he was ready. Then the pandemic happened, and his junior season at Gaither was changed.
“I mean, what high school kid who now just realized I get to stay home from school, and basically, we’ve told these kids that no matter what you turn in, you’re getting an A,” Silbert said. “They don’t want to go to work.”
This didn’t affect Kiael, however. Silbert said his new quarterback went to work just like it was an everyday scenario. From practicing in public parks that remained open to requesting weekly one-on-one Zoom meetings, Kiael wanted to be ready.
“I think he wants to prove people wrong … He’s a grinder, a battler,” Silbert said. “He wants to battle and he’s going to prove, ‘Hey, if you doubt me, I’m going to outwork you and I’m going to show you why you shouldn’t doubt me.”’
But to Kiael, he was just doing what it took to get to the next level.
“I know that getting there, it’s gotta be the work ethic because there’s 136 [FBS] teams, which means 136 starting quarterbacks,” he said. “I gotta separate myself somehow. I know that in summer workouts, winter workouts, everybody’s doing that. But is everybody coming in first every day?
Is everybody bringing other people [along] with them?”
Throughout his final two years of high school, he received offers from schools such as Kansas, Indiana, Syracuse and multiple other institutions. Kiael said Ball State was late to the party. Though a normal recruit would visit the city they may play in, Kiael and his mother, Jacklyn, never got the opportunity due to the pandemic.
“The first time we saw Muncie was on a video screen,” Jacklyn said. “The coaches were going around to each area and showing us around.”
The coaches told Kiael they were ‘uncertain’ about the quarterback room in the near future and wanted to see if he could become the right fit.
“You don’t know how the future will pan out. So, I don’t want to say that they promised me anything, but it was more like the quarterback room is open,” Kiael said. “If you come in, you can do what you do and we’ll see where it goes.”
But after speaking multiple times with Neu, a former Ball State QB1 himself, Kiael was all in and committed July 4, 2020, as a three-star-recruit. He thought Muncie would be the best location to continue his dream of playing collegiate and possibly professional football.
“I would say in a sense Ball State chose me. The time when I had to commit was a time when I didn’t really know if I was ready to make that decision,” Kiael said. “With people committing early because of COVID and all that, I kind of felt like I was rushed. But Ball State gave me the chance to take my time.”
‘A lot of praying’
When he first got to Delaware County, it was announced that the NCAA would give players more eligibility as the 2021 season was changed due to the pandemic. Because of this, former Ball State quarterback — a Mid-American Conference (MAC) and Arizona Bowl champion — was back on the roster.
“It kind of puts my career path on pause because Drew Pitt had an extra year,” Kiael said. “I get it, honestly, coming off a MAC Championship. Like, he has to start.”
With Plitt leading the way, Kiael became a sponge and tried to learn as much as he could from the Cardinals’ starter. He only appeared in one game that season, rushing for 83 yards and completing a 23-yard pass.
Coming into 2023, it was time for the Red and White to find their next starter. The QB1 position came down to three names: Kiael, then Ball State freshman — and current Tulane quarterback — Kaiden Semonza and graduate student Layne Hatcher.
Through the first six games, all three quarterbacks had opportunities in games. But after a 1-5 skid, Kiael was named the starter for the remaining six games of the year.
“I remembered the day when he called, and I was at work. I asked, “Is everything okay?”’ Jacklyn said. “He was like, ‘I’m going to start.’ And I just screamed, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’ I booked my flight, because at that point, early on, we would come and he was just like, ‘No, I don’t want you to come because I’m not going to play.’”
Kiael was ready to prove what he could do. He led the Cardinals to a 3-3 record — Ball State only won four games — while recording 724 rushing yards with a team-leading seven touchdowns. Through the air, he recorded 577 yards and two touchdowns.
Following the season, Kiael hit the transfer portal for the first time.
“I feel like I use the transfer portal differently from the traditional use,” he said. Like nowadays, I see my portal entries as I was in a situation that wasn’t a bad situation at all, because I was playing snaps.
“It just wasn’t the ideal situation for me and my career.”
But then things changed.
After deciding to remain at Ball State, he was listed as a defensive back by Ball State Athletics. He had lost the starting job as Semonza was named QB1.
“I had such a role, and then you go back,” Kiael said. “It’s right when it feels like you are going up, and you just take a huge step back. It just didn’t feel right.”
The news was not only tough for him, but for the Kelly family as a whole.
“I couldn’t show my face. It was a lot of praying and just having the right words of encouragement,” Jacklyn said.
But Kiael wasn’t solely discouraged about losing the job. He was more upset with the time he spent preparing for the starting role and how he wanted to improve his game. But due to the news, he wondered if he would ever get the chance to play quarterback again.
“What I did in 2023 is what everybody sees me as because that’s what’s on tape. But I didn’t feel like I got a chance to help my case,” Kiael said. “I also feel like there were things from [2023] that I didn’t get a chance to clean up.
‘There was so much film study that I did for those last six games on myself. Learning as a player just for me to think that I would never play quarterback again. It’s not that that stuff goes down the drain, but it was just so long for me to fix those things that I know I could fix.”
Though Kiael was discouraged, he still wanted to be someone his coaches and teammates could count on. He took 74 total snaps in 2024, with 43 under center, eight as a running back and 28 at wide receiver.
He admitted that it was a tough year. Ball State finished the year with a 3-9 record and a 2-6 MAC mark.
The Cardinals were losing, and Kiael said he felt ‘helpless.’
“It was just hard being out there and going out there to games and not being able to help as much as you want to. I’m not saying that I could have changed the outcome of things, but when you are standing on the sideline in your home state, losing by 50 points, you don’t feel good,” Kiael said. “I just wish that I could help. No matter what way that was, I feel like that shows and the way that they were moving me around … I just don’t think they knew how to use me.”
Kiael said the way the coaching staff tried to plug him in also hindered the staff itself.
“It sounds easy. Give him the ball, and hope that he does what he did a year before,” Kiael said. “When you switch positions in the middle of the year, it puts the coaches in a weird position when all throughout fall camp, they’ve been working with certain players.. Now you get this switch in the middle, and it’s hard to just throw me in there.
“I’m a firm believer in controlling what you can control. The last thing I wanted to do was be worried about the amount of snaps that I could get, and then I get in there, and I screw up the little snaps that I did get.”
Kiael doesn’t blame the former staff or Neu for the struggles. He believes the program delivered on its promise of giving him a chance. He did get his dream of playing Division I football and becoming the starting quarterback.
But he wishes they were more upfront with him when he decided to come back.
“The only thing I would say that bothers me is I just wish there was more honesty,” he said. “That’s all I ever asked for, really.”
Neu was fired with two games left in the 2024 season. He finished with a 40-63 record and four straight losing seasons.
Kiael then returned to the transfer portal.
“Yes, I’m entering the portal, but I don’t want to leave. I was more sure of this the second time around, because I even sent the email to [Ball State Director of Athletics] Jeff Mitchell explaining,” Kiael said. “I don’t want to do this, I had to, because we didn’t have a coach at the time.
“I didn’t know who to explain that to, but I knew that I would have been good staying here, regardless. It was just, do I take that risk of leaving?”
‘100 percent effort’
If you ask Kiael about the name Ryan Bowling, all he can do is smile.
“My guy,” he said. “That’s my guy, man.”
Bowling is a 12-year-old kid in Tampa. When he was six years old, he was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft muscle tissue cancer.
Silbert is also a physical education teacher at Mary Bryant Elementary School, and had Bowling in his class during the time Kiael was at Gaither. The entire football program rallied around Ryan and helped keep his spirits up during his battle. Players sent the family videos of encouragement and stopped by when they could.
“We weren’t expecting any sort of support the way that they all pulled together and explained how Gaither High School football is a family,” Ryan’s mom, Lauren Bowling, said. “Ryan, being a student of Jason Silbert, it was kind of like them adopting us.”
Today, Bowling is still fighting, and Kiael hasn’t forgotten about him for one second.
“Kiael definitely speaks from the heart … He would send encouraging messages, and he still checks in on Ryan,” Lauren said. “You could just tell Kiael was very thoughtful, and that always stood out and was just very meaningful.”
But while Kiael wanted to be one of Ryan’s biggest supporters, he himself said the battle this innocent kid was facing at the time opened his eyes. It showed him that there is more to life than just football.
“I just never saw [the situation] as fair, but even with life not being fair, you never saw it hurt him,” Kiael said. “To see him growing up, it’s honestly good to see. It makes me smile, and I let him know that he’s not alone in this. I’m fighting with him. There’s nothing that I can’t do because of that kid.”
The idea of showing that support comes from when Kiael was young. He idolized athletes, and though someone like former NFL quarterback Cam Newton was one of his favorites, he looked to college and even high school players as role models.
Currently, Kiael runs ‘Kelly’s Krewe’, which he uses to sponsor local children. Last year, he sponsored multiple Little League football players back in Florida.
He just wants to be someone who kids can look up to.
“I would have enjoyed a figure like myself, just to be nice. I know how I looked at a college football player as a kid their age,” Kiael said. “For example, when I was a kid, Zay Flowers was playing in Tampa. If I ever met Zay Flowers, I probably would have cried.
“I try to show them that I’m not far from them, because now I can see that I was literally in their shoes. I try to just stay humble and grounded, because it makes me happy knowing that I could make them happy, or I could give them a story that they can take to school and brag about. One day I’ll be gone, but those memories, they won’t.”
When he had to make a decision about his final year of college football, these feelings and his attitude to be the best man he could be while trying to find the right fit all played a role.
Then Mike Uremovich was hired as Ball State’s 19th head football coach.
“I wanted to make sure I did all my background on him, and which I did with all the guys, but I took my time with him because the quarterback obviously is the face of your program,” Uremovich said. “And everybody I talked to from Jeff Mitchell to the people in the building in academics, the people in the community, everybody loved the kid.”
Uremovich went to Florida to talk to Kiael. He echoed what everyone else has said about Ball State’s QB1. From being a good kid, having a great personality and loving football, he fit what the new Cardinal coach desired.
Kiael said, besides having an offensive game plan that would amplify his abilities, Uremovich hit on one trait that he always wanted: honesty.
“Everything that he told me and my family in the summer, he’s done,” Kiael said. “He’s a man of his word. He’s honest, and that really makes it easy to play for him because you know what you’re getting every day.”
But it’s not just Uremovich who respects and enjoys having Kiael as the leader of the offense. Offensive pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Craig Harmon said there is no question who he is when it comes to being on the field.
“He’s always been a quarterback. I’ve never seen him as anything else,” Harmon said. “Everybody has asked that question. Since day one of when our staff got here, he was a quarterback. He’s never been anything but that in my eyes.”
In his first two starts for the Cardinals — two losses to Purdue and Auburn — Kelly is 20-for-32 with 158 passing yards. On the ground, he has 42 yards with a season high 21-yard rush.
With Ball State’s first home game of 2025 just a little over 24 hours away, he gets to kick off the homestand one last time in Muncie. After so many emotions over the last five years in the program, he knows this team — and this staff — trusts him.
But with this opportunity, he knows the games he has left in college football are getting fewer and fewer each week.
“I have flashbacks about literally all my years, but especially my first year here. If I pass somewhere that I haven’t been to in a while, I remember it.. It’s like I gotta go back before I leave,” he said. “I just see the cycle restarting again with the freshmen here now. They just don’t understand how much of a blur this goes by … Once it’s over, it’s over. You can’t rewind and get a year back.”
Yet, that is why he loves Muncie. It’s a place where he can be who he wants to be, and it’s a community that he wants to be a part of.
“It’s the subtleness, and I can literally be myself. Like, you asked me before, what do I do [other than football]? It’s not much,” he said. “Here, I can focus on growing up and being a man. And, I also just see it as my city, in a sense. When my family comes here, I have a place where I can show them around, and I know this city like the back of my hand. And I want to embrace this place.
“I feel like that explains me, explains my journey, getting out of the mud and having to work for everything. There are no handouts in Muncie. You gotta work for what you get.”
So, why has Kiael never left Muncie?
It’s a trick question.
He never intended to, and in return, he only hopes the community and university can one day look back on his time as a Cardinal with a smile.
“I just want to be known as the football player that gave it his all, no matter what was asked of me,” Kiael said. “I did my job with 100 percent effort … I just want to be known as the standard. When I’m gone, they can look back and say, ‘Be like Kiael.”’
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
