MUNCIE, Ind. — Anthony Todd’s had a sense of deja vu at times, as he’s spoken with people he knows in the area ahead of BSU football’s 2021 season.
It seems like almost every person ends up asking him how football’s going. People keep telling him, “You guys are supposed to be good again. You’re supposed to be good again.” Then the veteran offensive lineman, for whom 2021 will be his sixth with the program, will reply, “On paper we look great … but at the end of the day we’ve got to come out here and perform.”
Todd understands that, according to the Mid-American Conference’s preseason media poll, Ball State is the favorite to win the MAC in 2021. He thinks that, at least publicly, the anticipation ahead of the program’s 2008 season — when it went undefeated in the regular season — is probably the closest comparison that can be made to explain what the Cardinals are facing right now. But Todd is adamant that hasn’t and won’t change how the team operates as it chases a second-straight MAC title.
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“Like coach (Mike) Neu likes to say, ‘Don’t bite the cheese,’” said Todd, who joined BSU after playing in high school at Yorktown. “You bite the cheese, you get trapped. So, we come out here and humbly work every day. We know what it takes now. We’re going to give 110 percent. We’re going to outwork people, out hustle people, and ultimately if we continue to do that then come December we’ll be in Detroit again.”
Neu, who brings the vast majority of his starters from 2020 back, said: “I’m excited just to have a lot of guys that’ve played a lot of football back again, and a lot of guys that certainly have started from the bottom and worked their way up to the kind of year we had last year. So, I’m excited for that part of it. But, like I try to preach day in, day out, every year’s a new year and just because we were good at something last year doesn’t just automatically guarantee … I’m saying something to a group of guys that’s smart enough to know that.”
As Neu spoke Wednesday after the team’s first practice of fall camp, he brought up himself a key difference between the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He pointed out how BSU did in one-possession games in 2019. He pointed out how BSU did in one-possession games in 2020.
Specifically, Ball State went 2-3 in such games in 2019 on the way to finishing with a 5-7 record. And Ball State went 4-1 in such games in 2020 on the way to finishing 7-1 with a victory in the Arizona Bowl, too.
Neu began to laugh as he was asked whether he thinks he’s been relaying the same answers over and over to fans, as they talk about the upcoming season. But on top of noting how thankful he was to be speaking with people and to have people interested in the team, Neu said what he’s been saying isn’t “lip service” because it’s true. Neu can still remember how, after BSU won the MAC during his first year with the program as a player when he redshirted, he thought he’d be leaving college with five championship rings.
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That didn’t happen. Ball State only won one more conference title during Neu’s playing career there, in 1993 in his final season.
Ahead of Neu’s first four seasons as the Cardinals’ head coach, from 2016-19, the MAC’s preseason media poll predicted BSU would finish second-to-last in its division, last in its division, last in its division and second-to-last in its division, respectively. Across those four seasons, Ball State finished 4-8, 2-10, 4-8 and 5-7 overall, respectively and struggled mightily at times against conference opponents.
Only in anticipation of the 2020 campaign did Ball State finally receive at least a vote to win its division and the MAC as a whole, and in that poll it was still just third in the West Division. Neither Neu nor Todd have forgotten about being picked to finish last, and Neu knows no one wants to go through the lows of the early years of his tenure again.
So, when it comes to how beneficial it is for the younger guys on the team to have veterans who’ve experienced so much at BSU they can learn from, Neu considered it a “dream scenario.” There are players on the roster who are 24 years old. There are players on the roster who are much younger.
“If I’m a 17 year old I’m coming into a situation where I’m extremely lucky,” Neu said. “There’s a lot of snaps and a lot of knowledge that I can pick off that guy’s brain to help me and to maybe learn from some of the things. ‘What would you do if you were a young guy and you were in my shoes and you had to do it all over again now?’ That’s part of our team building, too, that we do at night, where our older guys can give some advice to the young guys and to the freshmen.”
Like Neu and Todd, veteran inside linebacker Brandon Martin has a tie to BSU that dates back much farther than just the seasons Martin’s been on the team. Martin said his mother graduated from Ball State, and that he’s been a fan since he was younger. He takes pride in the Cardinals being a team the community can root for, and appreciates the fans.
And like Neu and Todd, Martin’s focus is clear regardless of how high the expectations may be from those outside of the program because BSU is coming off of a conference title. Martin echoed a sentiment Todd expressed, saying, “That’s just a piece of paper.” Martin brought up something defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Tyler Stockton said Wednesday, saying, “We’re going to work just as hard as like when we were at the bottom of the totem pole and nobody expected anything out of us.”
After a player-led practice this summer that occurred after the release of the MAC’s preseason media poll, Todd said seniors took time to reinforce the overall message with their teammates. According to Todd, it was Martin who led it. Martin remembers saying, “It’s all about us. Any outside voices, any outside noise, doesn’t mean anything.”
Neu was pleased Wednesday to hear something like that had happened.
“I certainly didn't tell anybody, ‘Hey, when you guys have a player-run practice, get the guys together afterwards and tell them that’s BS,’” Neu said. “It’s good to hear that, because I did not know that and I think that speaks to the maturity level of the group of guys. And also, I hate to keep pounding this one, but a lot of these guys were here in 2017 when quite frankly you could say that was the worst year of many of our lives as being involved in football.”
Jordan Guskey coversBall State and East Central Indiana high schools at the Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5813, jmguskey@muncie.gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
