by Mike Uremovich put it simply two days after Ball State football (0-1) fell 31-0 to Purdue Saturday, Aug. 30, in his debut as the Cardinals’ head coach. The Red and White didn’t execute.
“We went through the game on Sunday, and I think it was a 21-play cut-up I went through with the team,” he said. “I said, ‘Okay, these are 21 times that Purdue didn’t beat Ball State. Ball State beat Ball State because we weren’t being fundamentally sound.’
“You’re going to lose in football. You’re going to get beaten physically; that’s going to happen. But we can’t lose leverage, we can’t run the wrong route, we can’t not get off on a snap count.”
Purdue’s offense scored on the third play of the drive with a deep touchdown pass. Uremovich said secondary players missed reads and allowed space that the Boilermakers (1-0) used to their advantage.
Redshirt senior receiver Qian Magwood said he was happy with the way the offense communicated throughout the opening game of the season. However, he agreed with his head coach when it came to making moves with the football.
“[Purdue] is a good team and I have to give them credit,” Magwood said. “But a lot of the errors you saw on Saturday were from us. We have to clean up in certain areas.”
Some of those errors include not converting on third down and not allowing Ball State redshirt senior QB1 Kiael Kelly enough time to look downfield. Uremocvih said the team averaged third and seven in those scenarios, and said you ‘can’t convert’ in that setting consistently.
However, the Cardinals waste no time taking on another skilled opponent, as they will head south to face Auburn (1-0) on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m. This will be the third time the two have played — Auburn leads the series 3-0 — and the most recent installment since 2009.
The Tigers face the Red and White after taking down Baylor (0-1) 38-24 Friday, Aug. 29. In the win, junior QB1 Jackson Arnold went 11-for-17 with 108 passing yards. But on the ground, he proved to be deadly as he carried the ball 16 times for 137 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Now, it’ll be the Cardinals’ turn to see if they can contain him.
“The good thing for our defense is that we run our quarterbacks a ton [in practice], so they’ve been prepared for that all spring and fall camp,” Uremovich said. “There are times [Arnold] will hand it off, and sometimes he’ll pull it and run. It’s something we see a lot in college football, and our defense obviously has got to be geared towards it.”
Overall, Auburn finished the game with 415 total offensive yards — 108 passing and 307 rushing — and five touchdowns. While the quarterback position will be something the Cardinals plan to keep an eye on, they understand the rest of the Tigers are just as skilled.
But with that in mind, Uremovich wants his guys to keep their focus on the motto he’s highlighted throughout camp and the start of the season. Ball State needs to keep improving, plain and simple.
“I feel like they had [that mentality] yesterday,” he said. “The challenge is to have that mentality for 12 weeks. That’s something we have to help them with as coaches, and that’s something that they have to do as players as well. But it is a one-week season, and every week’s different.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
