The Liberty Flames make their first road trip of the season on 9/11 to Muncie, Indiana to face their lone FBS opponent of the season, Ball State.

Interestingly enough, despite being classified as an FBS program the Cardinals probably know about as much about the Flames as we do them.  Two years ago, Ball State was the toast of the college football world leaping from obscurity as a footnote in David Letterman’s resume to its first ever AP Top 25 ranking.  Behind quarterback Nate Davis the Cardinals reached as high as 12th in the polls before losing in the MAC Championship Game and having their head coach Brady Hoke bolt for greener pastures at San Diego State right before a blowout loss to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl.  Davis then passed on his senior season to enter the NFL Draft and the program quickly returned to its familiar position of mediocrity in the MAC.

Courtesy: Ball State Athletics

The man left to put the pieces back together is Stan Parrish.  A career assistant with an impressive resume that includes a stint with the Tampa Bay Bucs and a 6-year run for Michigan that included two seasons as Offensive Coordinator of the Wolverines, Parrish stepped up from BSU OC to the hot seat when Hoke left for SoCal.  He was given a great deal of credit for the success of Davis and the Cardinals in their magical 2008 season.  But being “The Man” has proved to be a challenge for Parrish as the Cardinals posted a 2-10 mark in his first season at the helm in 2009.  That included a 23-16 loss to New Hampshire in the Cardinals only contest against an FCS opponent.

Courtesy: Ball State Daily News Jess Lanning

It is tough to assess the Cardinals offense based on the 2009 season.  For the first seven games, BSU operated a fairly balanced attack with redshirt freshman quarterback Kelly Page posting some decent numbers.  Page completed 52.7% of his passes for 1019 yards with 7 TDs & 9 INTs before a thumb injury ended his season.  It should be noted that balanced attack had netted BSU a sterling 0-7 record.

Courtesy: EMU Athletic Media Relations

The following week Parrish went back to the drawing board focused on the ground game with amazing results.  Not only did the Cardinals pick up their first victory of the season, but they did it in record-shattering fashion.  MiQuale Lewis rushed for a school record 301 yards and Cory Sykes added 203 more.  Both of those performances accounted for more than a third of each runner’s season totals.  So perhaps it was an aberration, but an amazing one at that.  Both are back after Lewis was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Courtesy: BSU Photo Services

Defensively the Cardinals bring back most of their key performers including senior safety Sean Baker (pictured above) who picked off 4 passes in 2009 while averaging 5.5 tackles a game.  Upfront they appear reasonably seasoned for a team that gave up 387 yards & 28 points a game.  DE Robert Eddins collected 7 sacks in 2009 as a junior while also leading the team in tackles for loss with 13.5.  LB Davyd Jones returns to his locker for a senior season after leading the Cardinals in ’09 with 100 tackles.

Why is there a Purdue logo in this look at Ball State?  Because the week following the Flames-Cardinals contest BSU heads over to West Lafayette.  The temptation for the Cardinals to be looking past the Flames toward their bigtime showdown with the Boilers will be great.  That could play into LU’s hands.  If this game had been played a year ago, I would have expected the Flames to win by at least a touchdown.  This fall, I still believe the Flames will manage a way to pick up their first win over an FBS opponent in 21 years.  But it won’t be as easy some who use Sagarin Ratings might suggest.