Ball State University Athletics
Inside the Chart: Notre Dame
September 07, 2018 | Football
'Inside the Chart' is a new weekly column from Ball State radio voice Joel Godett with nuggets, stats and notes from his prep, or charts, for each game. Check it out every game week or weekly during basketball season.
"So who does Ball State have non-conference this year?"
It's one of the top three or four questions I get over the summer if/when people find out what I do for a living. Since working at Ball State I've had some pretty cool answers: Texas A+M, Clemson, Indiana, West Point (twice). This year, however, I got to tell people "Notre Dame." Their reactions were pretty much what you'd expect.
Yeah, calling a game at Notre Dame is going to be pretty cool. So let's take it the next step and put into perspective how unique it's going to be as a player.
RARE TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND
The trip to South Bend is the first for the Cardinals, and it's not a trip a lot of teams that aren't college football blue bloods get to make. This year marks the 11th straight that the Fighting Irish welcome a non-power five team to Notre Dame Stadium, but before that it was an almost unheard of occurrence.
Excluding service academies and BYU, 2008 was the first time a non-power conference school played Notre Dame (at all) since 1997! That year the Irish took a trip west to Hawaii, but the last team prior to 2008 to make the trip to South Bend? Well that was back in 1988 (Rice … where coincidentally Pete Lembo is now on staff). Two decades later a non-power school finally returned when San Diego State came to Indiana.
While we're on the subject … the last non-power school to beat Notre Dame in South Bend? Well that was Tulsa in 2010 and it came under some unique and unfortunate circumstances. That game was played just days after the death of team manager Declan Sullivan and also included freshman quarterback Tommy Rees being thrust into the spotlight after an injury to veteran Dane Chryst. So, that game has to be considered somewhat with a grain of salt.
Winning at Notre Dame is hard, but, for what it's worth, no non-power school had beaten Notre Dame at home in basketball since 2014 … until last year (a span of almost 30 games). I believe Tayler Persons had something to say about that.
QUICK HITSÂ Â
Before we get into some Ball State statistical notes, some quick nuggets that may or may not make the air that we've got on Notre Dame …
There is no second first catch. Your first catch is the only first catch you'll every have in college, so what are the odds it goes for a touchdown? Well, that I don't know, but I can tell you that nine percent of completions last year went for a touchdown across the FBS and two of those were first career catches by Ball State Cardinals. Nolan Givan's first grab at Illinois went for the first BSU score of the season and Khalil Newton later made his first grab for six at Eastern Michigan. Well, history repeated itself last week when Yo'Heinz Tyler's first (and second) college receptions went for touchdowns. By comparison Ball State has had 14 players in the last three years haul in 10 or more catches while only being lucky enough to score one or no touchdowns.
Tyler, by the way, is for sure the only Yo'Heinz in college football, and he might just be the only one at all … kind of like Tigger. A Google search of just "Yo'Heinz" returns the first 16 searches about the Ball State freshman. The 17th page is about, you guessed it, the food company. The "Yo" in Yo'Heinz's name comes from his mother's name, Yolanda. You can hear more from Yo'Heinz on this week's ChirpCast.
NO YARDS FOR YOU
Ball State's defense last year struggled defending the big play, ranking 122nd nationally in plays over 30 yards.
That trend reversed itself in a historic way last week vs. Central Connecticut State. Not only did the Cardinals not allow a play over 30 yards, but nothing more than even 20 yards too! The game marked the first time Ball State hadn't allowed a 20 yard gain since beating Buffalo, 20-3, in 2010 – a span of 87 games.
SIX DEGREES of KEVIN BACON
Jokingly we played a little six degrees of separation last week with Central Connecticut State. We'll keep it going to round out column number two this week, although it is pretty easy. Notre Dame, of course, can claim the movie Rudy which starred Sean Astin, who was in White Water Summer in 1987 with Kevin Bacon.
To make it more football related, Brian Kelly is the coach at Notre Dame. He used to be the coach at Central Michigan where he went 3-0 against Ball State from 2004 to 2006. Those games were wild too. The 2004 game was won by CMU in overtime after the Chips took a late lead on a blocked punt. In 2005 CMU won 41-40 despite Cardinals OC Joey Lynch throwing for more than 400 yards.
The game kicks off Saturday at 3:30 pm. If you can't make I hope you'll join Rich Spisak, Mick Tidrow and I on 104.1 WLBC starting with the Mutual Bank Countdown to Kickoff at 2:30 pm.
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"So who does Ball State have non-conference this year?"
It's one of the top three or four questions I get over the summer if/when people find out what I do for a living. Since working at Ball State I've had some pretty cool answers: Texas A+M, Clemson, Indiana, West Point (twice). This year, however, I got to tell people "Notre Dame." Their reactions were pretty much what you'd expect.
Yeah, calling a game at Notre Dame is going to be pretty cool. So let's take it the next step and put into perspective how unique it's going to be as a player.
RARE TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND
The trip to South Bend is the first for the Cardinals, and it's not a trip a lot of teams that aren't college football blue bloods get to make. This year marks the 11th straight that the Fighting Irish welcome a non-power five team to Notre Dame Stadium, but before that it was an almost unheard of occurrence.
Excluding service academies and BYU, 2008 was the first time a non-power conference school played Notre Dame (at all) since 1997! That year the Irish took a trip west to Hawaii, but the last team prior to 2008 to make the trip to South Bend? Well that was back in 1988 (Rice … where coincidentally Pete Lembo is now on staff). Two decades later a non-power school finally returned when San Diego State came to Indiana.
While we're on the subject … the last non-power school to beat Notre Dame in South Bend? Well that was Tulsa in 2010 and it came under some unique and unfortunate circumstances. That game was played just days after the death of team manager Declan Sullivan and also included freshman quarterback Tommy Rees being thrust into the spotlight after an injury to veteran Dane Chryst. So, that game has to be considered somewhat with a grain of salt.
Winning at Notre Dame is hard, but, for what it's worth, no non-power school had beaten Notre Dame at home in basketball since 2014 … until last year (a span of almost 30 games). I believe Tayler Persons had something to say about that.
QUICK HITSÂ Â
Before we get into some Ball State statistical notes, some quick nuggets that may or may not make the air that we've got on Notre Dame …
- Running back Dexter Williams is not expected to play for the Irish due to a suspension. That hasn't been officially confirmed, however, leading to the best quote ever from Brian Kelly a couple weeks back. "He's going to be," Kelly said, "you know, on our roster …" Well, alright then.
- Cornerback Julian Love might be the most American player on the ND roster. The junior was named a high school All-American in Illinois, a freshman All-American in 2016 and was a Sports Illustrated second team All-American in 2017.Â
- Jerry Tillery is a freak for the Irish. The lineman is listed at 6-7, 305 lbs and competed in two triathlons the summer before enrolling at Notre Dame. There's also video of him basically jumping over a blocker in a highlight on Youtube … kind of like Justin Hall … if Justin Hall was actually five Justin Halls in size.
- ND linebacker Drue Tranquill has ruined proposals for every other man for the rest of time. The grad student was married this summer to the former Jackie Gindt and proposed by surprising her while she studied abroad in Europe. The Fort Wayne product dropped to one knee outside what looked like a lighthouse in Iceland while not wearing a jacket in, I think, winter. So, yeah, top that. You can't. Probably. The video is online.
There is no second first catch. Your first catch is the only first catch you'll every have in college, so what are the odds it goes for a touchdown? Well, that I don't know, but I can tell you that nine percent of completions last year went for a touchdown across the FBS and two of those were first career catches by Ball State Cardinals. Nolan Givan's first grab at Illinois went for the first BSU score of the season and Khalil Newton later made his first grab for six at Eastern Michigan. Well, history repeated itself last week when Yo'Heinz Tyler's first (and second) college receptions went for touchdowns. By comparison Ball State has had 14 players in the last three years haul in 10 or more catches while only being lucky enough to score one or no touchdowns.
Tyler, by the way, is for sure the only Yo'Heinz in college football, and he might just be the only one at all … kind of like Tigger. A Google search of just "Yo'Heinz" returns the first 16 searches about the Ball State freshman. The 17th page is about, you guessed it, the food company. The "Yo" in Yo'Heinz's name comes from his mother's name, Yolanda. You can hear more from Yo'Heinz on this week's ChirpCast.
NO YARDS FOR YOU
Ball State's defense last year struggled defending the big play, ranking 122nd nationally in plays over 30 yards.
That trend reversed itself in a historic way last week vs. Central Connecticut State. Not only did the Cardinals not allow a play over 30 yards, but nothing more than even 20 yards too! The game marked the first time Ball State hadn't allowed a 20 yard gain since beating Buffalo, 20-3, in 2010 – a span of 87 games.
SIX DEGREES of KEVIN BACON
Jokingly we played a little six degrees of separation last week with Central Connecticut State. We'll keep it going to round out column number two this week, although it is pretty easy. Notre Dame, of course, can claim the movie Rudy which starred Sean Astin, who was in White Water Summer in 1987 with Kevin Bacon.
To make it more football related, Brian Kelly is the coach at Notre Dame. He used to be the coach at Central Michigan where he went 3-0 against Ball State from 2004 to 2006. Those games were wild too. The 2004 game was won by CMU in overtime after the Chips took a late lead on a blocked punt. In 2005 CMU won 41-40 despite Cardinals OC Joey Lynch throwing for more than 400 yards.
The game kicks off Saturday at 3:30 pm. If you can't make I hope you'll join Rich Spisak, Mick Tidrow and I on 104.1 WLBC starting with the Mutual Bank Countdown to Kickoff at 2:30 pm.
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