Cardinals Seek Momentum and Second Straight Win While Hosting Kent State Saturday

Ball State (3-7, 2-4 MAC) vs. Kent State (1-9, 0-6 MAC)
Game 11 - vs. Kent State	Saturday, Nov. 18 at 2:00 p.m. Live Stats \| ESPN+
Notes	Ball State \| K ent State \| Media Center
Social Media	X (Twitter) \| Instagram

MUNCIE, Ind. – Winners of two of their last three games, the Ball State Cardinals welcome Kent State to Scheumann Stadium for the first of two straight home games to close the 2023 regular season. Hoping to ride the momentum of a last-second win at Northern Illinois to close #MAC-tion midweek play, Ball State has sights set on consecutive wins for the first time this season. Saturday's home game is sponsored by American Pest Professionals.

** The Battle for the Bronze Stalk may be the youngest rivalry game in the Mid-American Conference, but it has hit full stride the past two seasons with Ball State winning a double-overtime thriller over Northern Illinois in 2022, 44-38, and a walk-off winner on 36-yard field goal as time expired last week, 20-17.

** The Cardinals enter Week 7 of their MAC schedule this week and seek their third win against MAC competition. Since Kiael Kelly was inserted as the starting quarterback for Week 3 of the MAC season against Toledo, Ball State is 2-2 while falling to only Toledo and Bowling Green by a combined 10 points.

** Redshirt sophomore Kelly expects to make his fifth straight start at QB this week. He rushed for 66 yards and a touchdown last week at NIU, while completing 15 of 25 passes for 115 yards. All three figures were career highs.

** The Cardinals' defensive unit once again put Ball State in position to earn its victory last week -- this time by winning the valued turnover battle 3-0 and putting Ball State in position for a tying touchdown and go-ahead field goal late in the fourth quarter. It was Ball State's biggest fourth-quarter margin since beating Indiana State and it was the Cardinals' bigges turnover margin of the season.

WHAT A WIN MEANS:
** The Cardinals will rise to 4-7 overall, 3-2 at Scheumann Stadium and 3-4 in the MAC.

** Mike Neu will capture his 38th victory as head coach of his alma mater, tying Ray Louthen (1962-67) and Bill Lynch (1995-02) who are tied with the fifth-most career coaching wins at Ball State. Neu was Lynch's QB during the 1990-92 seasons as QB coach and offensive coordinator.

BY THE NUMBERS:
** +3: Mikhari Sibblis (2) and Jordan Riley helped BSU claim a season-high three fumble recoveries at NIU, with win the turnover margin by their largest margin since the final regular season game of 2021 vs. Buffalo (+4 on four INTs).

** 4-of-5: Ball State scoring in the Red Zone last week marked the second time in three weeks to score on four RZ tries.

** 41: Rushing yards needed by Kiael Kelly in order to pass Riley Neal with the most rush yards by a Ball State QB since 2000. Kelly enters the game with 500 rush yards on the season, Neal had 540 in 2016.

** 233: Rushing yards needed by Marquez Cooper in order to reach his third straight season with 1,000 rush yards. Ironically, his last two 1,000-yard campaigns came while playing for the Golden Flashes. He enters Saturday's game with 767 yards on the ground this year.

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Cardinals Seek Momentum and Second Straight Win While Hosting Kent State Saturday

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Players Mentioned

Marquez Cooper

Kiael Kelly

Jordan Riley

Mikhari Sibblis