My freshman year at Ball State was the second year that BSU played under Brady Hoke, he replaced former coach, Bill Lynch, who did a far less than stellar job. Some would say he ruined the program, and left Brady Hoke with nothing. I had no idea who Brady Hoke was when I came to Muncie in 2004, all I knew is that the football program wasn’t very strong and they were trying to rebuild from, basically, the ground up. Lets first mention that Brady Hoke knew what he was getting himself into, and god love him, he’s alumni and I’m sure bleeds cardinal and white and was the first man to put his name into the hat to coach this team. Lets see the rise of Ball State football.
We all know Bill Lynch left in 2003 after a record of 37-53 after 6 years of coaching in Muncie. He lead them to the Las Vegas Bowl in 1997, which he lost. He then coached them to a 1-21 record in from 1998-1999. ONE AND 21!! Then stayed steadily at around 5-7, 6-6 until he took a job with Indiana as an offensive coordinator. Being the great professional that he is, the little fuckhead left the program in shambles, for someone else to clean up his mess. And now after the sudden, and horribly tragic death of Terry Hoepenner in 2007, Lynch was named head coach of the IU football program, and we all see how that’s going now.
So now, Brady Hoke is left with bottom of the mill MAC team at a university more known for being a volleyball mecca, then anything remotely to do with football. When I arrived at in Muncie, the state of the football program was on life support. We hadn’t had a winning season since 1997 and were in danger of losing our D-1 status because we were unable to have an average attendence of 10,000 each home game. Not only did he to endure that kind of pressure, but the program was stuck playing “Pay Games.” Pay games are when a big team like USC or LSU pays the smaller school to play them as tune-up game for their conference schedule. Don’t quote me on this, but if I remember correctly Ball State made about 4-5 million dollars playing those big teams from 2004-2007. They suffered beat downs from Boston College (L 19-11 and 38-0, 2004-2005), Purdue (59-7, 2006), Iowa ( 56-0, 2005) and to top it off we were absolutely embarrassed at Auburn, 63-3 in 2005. If there is one thing Brady Hoke has showed is improvement. In 2006, BSU’s non-conference was Indiana, Purdue, and Michigan. They lost to Indiana 24-23, Purdue 38-28, and Michigan 34-26. They had the lead most of the game with Indiana and Michigan. And in 2007, we lost to Nebraska by only one point and we lost to Illinois, Indiana and of course Rutgers in the bowl game. We did get a win over Navy, which was big, but even in the losses they stayed close.
I think the real turning point for Brady Hoke and the program was the game against Michigan, and ill tell you why. Its not because I was sitting in the seventh row for the first half and the student section for the second half. It was incredible to watch the team lead most of the game against a Michigan team, that was at the time ranked #2 in the nation.
When I first came to Muncie, I became a huge critic of Brady Hoke and his weak record. Brady Hoke has now shown not only me but the entire campus and alumni that he cannot only recruit great players (Nate Davis, Darius Hill, Dan Gerberry, Dante Love) but he can coach them as well. He has put together a fantastic season and here’s to hoping you can continue your success and getting the respect that you have worked so damn hard for.
I almost forgot...Great job Dante Love!! Hope nothing but the best for you and GET WELL SOON!! *86*
Thanks For Stopping By,
Jackson
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