OXFORD — The Miami University football team will look for its fourth-straight victory with a Tuesday night trip to Ball State.
The opening kick is slated for 8 p.m., and the Mid-American Conference contest will be aired on ESPN.
The RedHawks are coming off their best offensive performance in a 46-7 win over Central Michigan, which moved them to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the MAC. Miami had 11 offensive possessions and scored on 10 of them.
“If you think anything that happened last week, or records mean anything in this league, you’re an absolute stone-cold idiot,” RedHawks coach Chuck Martin said. “We went from three weeks ago that we stink and what’s the matter with our team. I don’t know how many times I got asked that week, ‘What’s the matter? We need to get those guys playing good. We need this. We need this.’ To now, we’re just great.
“In this league, it’s week to week. We played good three weeks in a row, and we got good results three weeks in a row. There’s four more hard weeks left.”
Here are five things to know heading into Tuesday’s game:
1. ABOUT BALL STATE
Ball State is 3-5 overall, 2-2 in MAC play, and coming off a last-second 25-24 victory over Northern Illinois.
Quarterback Kadin Semonza has thrown for 1,749 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Many of those passes have gone to Tanner Koziol, who leads the team with 64 catches for 580 yards and six touchdowns.
Keionte Newson has a team-leading 45 tackles.
“They’ve got a good team,” Martin said. “They were getting better and better on defense as they’re getting settled in. The last two weeks they held Vandy down, held Northern Illinois down. They’ve been scoring points like crazy all year. They’ve got a potent offense. So, we’ve got a big challenge ahead of us.
“Completely different defense than what they were,” Martin added. “Their (defensive coordinator) had been there for a while. We had great familiarity with what they did on defense. But now, totally different with what they’re playing on defense.
“Offensively, besides last year, they’ve run similar stuff. Their head guys on offense, he’s a really good offensive guy. Ever since he’s been at Ball State, they’ve scored on everybody. They run, they throw. They’re very balanced.”
2. LAST MEETING AGAINST BALL STATE
Kobe Hilton blocked Ball State’s go-ahead field goal try with 1:04to play as Miami held on for a 17-15 win on the road back on Nov. 25, 2023.
Aveon Smith completed 14 of 24 passes for a season-high 170 yards and a touchdown to help Miami finish off its first 10-win regular season since 2003.
“Last year was different,” Martin said of Ball State. “They had some quarterback issues last year, and they ended up going with more of a runner. So, they kind of tweaked their offense for one year. So, it won’t be similar to last year because totally different quarterback. They’ve always had an athletic guy, but a guy that can whip it around.”
3. THE SERIES
The RedHawks lead the series 23-13-1 against the Cardinals and are 10-7 all-time in Muncie.
Miami has won seven of the last eight meetings between the two schools, including each of the last four.
“We’ve got to win Tuesday night on the road,” Martin said. “It’s hard to win on the road any time in our league. The percentage of wins on mid-week on the road — because it’s really hard to travel mid-week — is a tough thing to overcome.”
4. REDBIRD RIVALRY
The RedBird Rivalry trophy game between Ball State and Miami — two MAC universities separated by a little more than 70 miles — is in its sixth year.
The rivalry dates back to a 1931 meeting in Oxford, but it didn’t blossom until Ball State joined the MAC in the mid-1970s.
5. ROCKING THE CRADLE
With the win over Central Michigan on Oct. 26, Miami coach Chuck Martin cemented himself into Cradle of Coaches history.
He had already coached more games (126) than any other Miami coach in program history. Martin’s 60 wins makes him the winningest coach in Miami history, passing Randy Walker’s 59 wins.
