RedHawks Close Season With Trip to Ball State
11/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
This Week's Matchup
Miami University and Ball State University will square-off on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. in Muncie, Ind. Tuesday's contest will be the regular season finale for both programs as the two teams begin the "Red Bird Rivalry."
Television
The matchup with the Cardinals will be carried live on ESPN3. Michael Reghi will handle play-by-play duties and Jerod Sherry will serve as color analyst.
Radio
In its 11th year of its partnership with IMG College, the Miami Sports Network continues its coverage of Miami Football with a group of affiliates blanketing most of Southwest Ohio and Southeast Indiana. "The Voice of the RedHawks" Steve Baker will deliver the play-by-play coverage, while Terry Bridge will provide color commentary. Randy Hollowell will be the network's sideline reporter. Tune-in to one of Miami's gameday affiliates:
WMOH-AM 1450 (Hamilton, Ohio)
WFMG-FM 101.3 (Richmond, Ind.)
WDBZ-AM 1230 (Cincinnati, Ohio)
WONE-AM 980 (Dayton, Ohio)
WKBV-AM 1490 and 100.9 FM (Richmond, Ind.)
Need To Know
- Miami football ranks first all-time in the Mid-American Conference in wins (683), MAC Championships (15) and bowl wins (7).
About Chuck Martin
- Head coach Chuck Martin, who earned that title on Dec. 3, 2013, brings an impressive resume to Oxford, Ohio.
- Not only was he 74-7 in six years at Grand Valley State (2004-09), he has coached in seven national championship games in the past 16 seasons. Martin has an all-time head coaching record of 89-40.
- He has twice been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) National Coach of the Year and has been a coordinator on both sides of the ball.
- Martin was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Grand Valley State University on Oct. 23, 2015.
About Ball State
Ball State enters Tuesday's game with a 2-9 overall and 0-7 MAC record. Offensively, they are led by quarterback Jack Milas, who is averaging 84.6 yards passing per game, helping the Cardinals average 18.9 points and 330.1 yards of offense per game. Defensively, they allow 41.8 points and 435.1 yards per game. Jacob White leads the team with 70 tackles.
Series vs. Ball State
Miami leads the all-time series 17-12-1, including a 21-20 win last season at home over the Cardinals. The RedHawks have not won at Ball State since 2007 (14-13), but are 7-6 all time in Muncie, Ind.
Red Bird Rivalry
The Red Bird Rivalry trophy game between Ball State and Miami, two Mid-American Conference universities separated by a little more than 70 miles, will begin this year.
The rivalry between the schools dates back to a 1931 meeting in Oxford, Ohio, but didn't blossom until Ball State joined the MAC in the mid-1970s. The two teams played each other in football every year from 1985 through 1998. MAC expansion in the late 1990s changed league scheduling as the conference had too many teams to play every team on an annual basis. Because Miami is in the MAC East and Ball State is in the MAC West, they have only faced off eight times since 2000.
However, beginning in 2017, Ball State and Miami will once again play every season as they have been granted rivalry status on the MAC football crossover schedules. The only other league series that has that status is Bowling Green (MAC East) and Toledo (MAC West).
Discussions between the two schools led to the creation of the Red Bird Rivalry. The mascots of both schools are red birds. Ball State has been known as the Cardinals since 1927. Miami adopted the RedHawks moniker in 1997.
Eastern Michigan Recap
Eastern Michigan outscored the Miami football team 14-0 in the third quarter to erase a halftime deficit before holding Miami's late rally off to deal MU a 27-24 setback at Yager Stadium last Wednesday night.
The Eagles outgained the RedHawks 454-392 overall on the evening. Ragland finished 22-of-32 passing for 251 yards, firing a touchdown and an interception. Young's 85 yards on 13 carries led MU on the ground while EMU's Eriksen's 112 yards led all rushers. Ryan Smith led all receivers with 73 yards on five catches and hauled in a touchdown as well.
Preseason Honors
Over the past four years, Miami had not received much attention in preseason honors. That has changed in a big way this year. Heath Harding was named to three different watch lists (Bronco Nagurski, Jim Thorpe and Bednarik), Danny Godlevske was honored by the Rimington Trophy, James Gardner earned two awards (Wuerffel and Biletnikoff) and Ryan Smith was named to the John Mackey Watch List.
Roster Breakdown
While Miami's roster is finally starting to trend toward upper-classmen, the youth of this roster is still shocking. Coming into the 2017 season Miami has 124 players on its roster and just 12 seniors. Roster breakdown includes: Sixth-year seniors (1), fifth-year seniors (5), seniors (6), red-shirt juniors (19), juniors (13), red-shirt sophomores (16), sophomores (9), red-shirt freshmen (22) and freshmen (33).
Just the Way the Ball Bounces
You are what your record says you are, but the RedHawks could easily have several more wins this season.
Vs. Marshall: Miami fell 31-26 to open the season to Marshall. In the loss the RedHawks allowed two kick returns for touchdowns and a pick-6. Even with those breakdowns, Miami had a 41-yard Hail Mary to end the game that just fell incomplete.
Vs. Cincinnati: The RedHawks led 17-6 with just under four minutes to play. In that contest, Miami threw a pick-6 with under two minutes to go to give the Bearcats the victory.
Vs. Bowling Green: Trailing 30-29, Miami fumbled the ball on the BGSU 1-yard line with 1:59 to play. The Falcons would return the fumble for a touchdown to secure the 37-29 victory.
Vs. Kent State: Miami led 14-3 at the half versus the Flashes, but missed a 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and then had its final drive of the game come up short at the KSU 41-yard line in a 17-14 defeat.
Keeping It Close
Miami has played 660 minutes of football this season and have either been tied or leading games for 407:38 (61.8% of the time). For example, Miami lost the Cincinnati contest 21-17, but trailed for just 2:42 of the entire game. Miami led BGSU for 41:17 and Kent State for 40:34, but lost both of those contests.
Miami has also rarely trailed by more than one score this year, which would be odd for a team that is 4-7 overall. Of the 660 minutes of football, Miami has trailed by more that one score for just 94:58 (14.4% of the time) this year and 57:32 of those minutes came at Notre Dame. If you remove the ND contest, Miami has trailed by more than one score for just 37:26 (5.7% of the time) all season long.
Senior Moment
Miami has 15 seniors playing in their last game with the RedHawks: Ikeem Allen, Jordan Diamond, Alec Greene, Heath Harding, Randy Heideman, Zach Hovey, Sam Martin, Jared Murphy, Grant Niemiec, Tony Reid, Kyle Row, Liam Sallquist, Ryan Sandles, Ryan Smith and Zach Swarts.
Taking Its Time
Through 11 games this season Miami ranks 23rd in the country in time of possession, holding onto the ball for an average of 32:00 per game. Five times this season Miami has surpassed 33 minutes of time of possession and four different times it has held onto the ball for over 35 minutes of play.
Land of No Return
Miami's punt coverage team has allowed just 15 return yards all season. Of Kyle Kramer's 58 punts, just 10 have resulted in returns, the longest being 10 yards versus Buffalo. Overall, Miami is allowing 1.5 yards per punt return this season, which ranks third in the country.
Gardner Growing
James Gardner has still only played 30 games in his Miami career, but the junior is making his mark on the program. In 2016 he finished as a third-team All-MAC player, with 45 catches for 750 yards and six touchdowns. This season he has 45 catches for 899 yards and 10 scores, while averaging 20.0 yards per catch. He currently ranks 16th in the nation in receiving yards, fifth in receiving touchdowns and 13th in yards per catch. In his career he has 94 grabs, for 1,735 yards and 17 touchdowns.
In Gus We Trust
After beginning last season 0-6, head coach Chuck Martin turned to quarterback Gus Ragland. Ragland led Miami to six straight wins over Kent State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Buffalo and Ball State. The now junior quarterback finished last season, throwing for 1,537 yards, 17 touchdowns and just one interception.
Nice Way to Start a Career
Ragland began his career by throwing 203 consecutive passes before throwing an interception late in the contest versus Mississippi State in the 2016 St. Petersburg Bowl. In all, the Cincinnati, Ohio native has thrown just eight interceptions in 452 career pass attempts (1 INT every 56.5 pass attempts). In fact, Miami is 8-0 in games in which Ragland does not throw and interception and 1-6 when he throws it to the other team.
Ragland Versus The MAC
Junior quarterback Gus Ragland is 8-2 in his career as a starter versus teams from the Mid-American Conference. In those nine games Ragland has completed 161-258 passes (62.4%) for 2,241 yards, 23 touchdowns and four interceptions. The RedHawks are also 8-1 all-time versus the MAC in games where Ragland starts and finishes the contest. That lone loss was last week versus eastern Michigan.
Small But Carries a Big Stick
Kenny Young may be listed at just 5-foot-7, but he has been a load to bring down to begin the MAC season. In Young's last seven MAC games he has averaged 88.3 yards per game on the ground. He had 100-yard games versus BGSU, Buffalo and Akron, including a career-high 125 yards and two scores in the win over Bulls. The junior has added 20 catches for 200 yards this season versus the MAC.
Record Watch
ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â'¬ ' Alonzo Smith is closing in on 2,000 career rushing yards, currently sitting at 1,965 yards on the ground. Just 13 Miami players have surpassed 2,000 yards rushing in their career.
ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â'¬ ' Miami has two career 3,000 yard passers. Billy Bahl's 3,633 yards passing and Gus Ragland's 3,617 yards passing rank 10th and 11th in the Miami record books.
ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â'¬ ' Miami has four receivers with over 1,000 yards receiving on its roster. Jared Murphy (2,013), James Gardner (1,735), Sam Martin (1,360) and Ryan Smith (1,195).
ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â'¬ ' Heath Harding is 19 tackles shy of 300 for his career.
ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â'¬ ' James Gardner is 101 yards away for 1,000 receiving yards for the season. The last time Miami had 1,000-yard receiver was Nick Harwell (1,425) back in 2011. Gardner also has 10 receiving touchdowns this season. The last RedHawk to record double figure receiving touchdowns was Martin Nance (14) back in 2005. The last time a RedHawk had over 1,000 yards receiving and double figure touchdowns in the same season was Nance in 2003 (1,498-11).
