by TOLEDO, Ohio — Ball State football might have fallen to Toledo 38-9, but Jalen Bonds won the fight.
No, the Cardinals’ freshman running back did not get into any type of physical altercation. But last summer, he suffered an injury to his hamstring and also had Rhabdomyolysis. This is a medical condition where damaged muscle tissue breaks down and releases contents such as myoglobin into the bloodstream. If not treated, it can be fatal.
In the loss, Bonds led Ball State with 48 rushing yards on 12 carries and 54 receiving yards. He was back.
“I was pretty down in the dumps, but just having this opportunity helped me a lot … I had a lot of fire for this game,” Bonds said.
First-year Ball State head coach Mike Uremovich highlighted the young running back’s performance after the defeat.
“I’m really encouraged by him and his future. Obviously, he played a good game,” Uremovich said. “We’re gonna need him [next] Saturday. But for a freshman to go out there and do what he did against a really good team, it was fun to watch.”
But the game itself did not end in favor of Ball State. The Cardinals struggled to find any momentum in the loss as Toledo fired on all cylinders, according to the stat book. The Rockets finished the game with 404 total yards of offense and five touchdowns while holding the Cardinals to just one touchdown and a field goal on the day.
“That’s the second-best defense in the country. We haven’t performed how we want to on offense, so it’s gonna be tough,” Uremovich said. “Obviously, they’re really good. We had opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of them.”
One positive for the Cardinals was that they picked off Toledo senior QB1 Tucker Gleason twice as sophomore corner backs Will Yates and Eric McClain both snagged interceptions. This was Ball State’s sixth straight game with an interception.
McClain said everyone wants to get one after seeing other teammates do so.
“They’re contagious,” he said. “Once the first pick happened, everybody just started making picks. I think we are just getting better at seeing the ball, and then we go get it.”
But besides that stat line, the scoreboard summed up the rest of the contest with a 29-point difference. The Cardinals will finish the regular season at Miami Saturday, Nov. 29, at noon. Uremovich said they want to end the year in the right direction.
“We’ve got seven days left together, and we’re going to do everything we can these next seven days to go win our last game of the year for the seniors and everybody else in the program,” he said. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs this year, and we’ll worry about all that later. This game’s over, and we’ve got to get ready to go beat Miami.”
Though the Cardinals have seven days of practice to prepare for the final contest of 2025, those days mean something to players, according to Bonds. He said you never know when it will be your time to shine.
“You can just talk to these guys about coming out of an injury,” he said. “I had to do a lot of praying, and it took some time with just being in rehab and stuff like that. You really have to hone in on the playbook, and even though you’re not on the field, you have to take mental reps and just always stay ready. You never know when you’re going to be out on the field because your name can be called at any moment. So it’s about just staying ready.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
