Mike Neu didn’t waste time setting the tone for the 2020 season as soon as his team showed up for fall training camp.
“Detroit or bust,” the fifth-year Ball State coach told his players.
Fast forward a few chaotic months, and mission accomplished.
The 6-1 Cardinals upset the previously unbeaten Buffalo Bulls 38-28 in the MAC Championship at Ford Field in Detroit last Friday to clinch the school’s first conference title since 1996.
The MAC championship victory set up a date with another unbeaten program — the No. 22 San Jose State Spartans of the Mountain West Conference. The Cardinals and Spartans, two schools enjoying historic seasons, will clash in the Offerpad Arizona Bowl Dec. 31. No fans will be allowed because of the pandemic, but the game will air on CBS.
The next goal to cross off — winning a bowl game — is something Neu was unable to do during his time playing quarterback for his alma mater and one the Ball State program has yet to accomplish since joining the MAC in 1973.
“I know it’s a reward to go to a bowl game and to have the bowl experience that is awesome,” Neu said. “But there’s a game to be played and there’s a win and a loss that’s at stake.”
A Ball State lifer, the 49-year-old coach knows the weight a team has on its shoulders.
Neu, the youngest of eight in his household, grew up less than two hours from Ball State’s campus. As a Ball State player, he helped guide the Cardinals to a MAC Championship in 1993 — his senior year — while being named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year. Neu’s final game in a Cardinals uniform was a 42-33 loss to Utah State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Ball State never having won a bowl game is something, “our guys are certainly aware of,” he said.
After graduating and then briefly playing quarterback in the Canadian Football League, Neu worked his way through various coaching jobs for nearly the last 20 years, including a two-year stint (2014-15) as the New Orleans Saints’ quarterbacks coach. He was content working with Drew Brees, one of this generation’s best quarterbacks.
Then home called.
“When I got a phone call from the athletic director at that time at Ball State, it tugged at my heart,” he said. “I love this place.”
Neu returned to Ball State in 2016, inheriting a team that went 3-9 — the most losses in program history — the year before his arrival.
After a rocky start to his tenure — Ball State won 10 total games in his first three seasons — the Cardinals turned heads in 2019. They went 5-7 while leading the MAC in scoring with 34.8 points per game. They’ve been even better this season. Ball State has made a jump, and then some.(t)
The Cardinals enter the New Year’s Eve bowl game riding a six-game winning streak after losing the 2020 season opener at Miami (Ohio). Their offense remains potent: Ball State has scored 30 or more points in six of seven games this season. The Cardinals are averaging 453 yards of offense per game. Both figures rank in the top half of their conference.
“Our team, our staff and the locker room are special. We worked hard for this,” Neu said of the season and the team’s first bowl appearance since 2014. “Lots of growing pains over the years, but we just continue to get better.”
The 6-1 record in 2020 gives the team an 85.7% winning percentage. A win over San Jose State on Thursday would give the Cardinals the highest winning percentage in a season since 1978, when it went 10-1.
“A lot of hard work to be done between now and the game,” Neu said.
Tucson or bust, it is.
