Cardinal Roundtable: Kent State

(Every week, The Sixth Ball Brother and the other two Ball State sports blogs, Over The Pylon and Ball U Nation, participate in a Cardinal Roundtable, where we attempt to answer the key questions concerning this coming week's opponent. Which is, Kent State. You can click on their answers at the bottom of this. This week's questions come from...me.)

1. How important was last week's victory over IU last Saturday?

In terms of Ball State finally beating a BCS conference team, it's huge. It finally gets the Cardinals over the hump and now they can look at the bigger picture, which is going 12-0 and possibly reaching the BCS. And, at the very least, it shuts up the IU fans. The win almost makes up for the heartbreakers against Indiana in 2006, Michigan and Nebraska, and all of the stupid MAC losses we never should've had.

2. Feel free here to share your favorite Dante Love moment and what his loss will mean to the football team.

For me, it'll always be his touchdown reception against Nebraska, where Nate Davis heaved the ball 65 yards in the air and hit Love on the button with a touchdown pass. Love was draped by two Nebraska defenders too. It's at the 1:31 mark.



Dante was anything and everything to the receiving corps. And even better, Dante's a great person. He was the sparkplug to this offense and could be used in any capacity. He will be sorely missed, but at least he will be able to live a healthy life, and that's all that matters. Just the thought of that play makes me sick to my stomach.

3. With Saturday being Homecoming and all, what is your favorite Homecoming memory?

Definitely Homecoming 2001. It was a combination of a lot of things. The Late Show with David Letterman was here for a skit, and most important, I'm actuallly in it! You can see me at the 4:12 mark in the Cubs hat and blue Aeropostale sweatshirt. But of course, it was the game that stands out. The Cardinals stunned a ranked Toledo squad on Corey Parchman's electrifying kickoff return with just a few minutes to go. Being part of the group of kids that carried the goal post from the football field to the Duck Pond was just unbelievably sweet.



4. Kent State has a MiQuale Lewis of its own in the MAC's leading rusher last year in Eugene Jarvis. Can the Mighty Bird shut him down?

We did a pretty decent job in shutting down Marcus Thigpen for the game, so hopefully that will carry over. Jarvis and Lewis are near identicals in size and stature, but Jarvis seems to be more durable. Can we shut him down? Absolutely. We will probably have to if we want to win this game.

5. Julian Edelman is another guy who has shown ability to run the ball in the past. Was the shutting down of Kellen Lewis in the second half just an aberration or has the defense turned the corner?

I hope that I didn't just get drawn in with our second-half performance against Indiana, but Edelman is nowhere near as talented as Lewis is. As has been stated a million times before, if this team wants to accomplish all of its goals this year, the defense has to play better. Hey I gave Mark Smith a tip of the cap last week, we're going places, baby!

6. Does Saturday's game at Kent State feel like a trap game at all?

Not at all. I think we'll still ride the mometum off the Indiana victory for a least a few more weeks. And coupled with the fact that it's Homecoming and there will be a lot of fans at the game, the Cards should win this game easily. We always seem to play our best in front of big crowds and Saturday is no exception.

7. I'll keep this tradition alive: What one player on Kent State's team would like to have roaming the Ball State sideline?

I'm going to start sounding elitest at this point, but I don't know if there's anyone on Kent State's team I'd rather have than the guys we got going right now. Jarvis has only rushed for 204 yards on the year, and Edelman is their leading rusher. But it couldn't hurt to have another receiver, and Shawn Bayes could fit the ball, who has 204 receivng yards and two touchdowns.

8. Where do you rate Ball State's BCS chances at this point?

Yes, I'm going to send you to another place to read it because I wrote about it in a column for today at my big-boy job. But here's the part I wrote about the BCS:

It's going to be awfully tough to get there. For starters, the Cardinals have to go 12-0. Second, the other non-BCS teams who are undefeated - like BYU, Utah and Boise State - need to lose a game. And even then, that might not be enough. The Cardinals lack now and will lack later a marquee win. They'll travel to Auburn next year, a game that would've looked much nicer on this year's schedule to the BCS computers if Ball State could pull out a win.

Hope I'm wrong.

Here's everybody else's answers
Over The Pylon
Ball U Nation