Ball State football: Will Cardinals finally break through, get back to bowl?

Defense must make major strides for MAC contention

While the Cardinals may have the top scoring offense in the conference, the defense is another story. The Cardinals gave up over 31 points along with over 420 yards per game last season.

For the defense to take a step forward, it will need to find a way to rush the passer as the Cardinals only produced 15 sacks — one of the worst marks in the country.

There are two transfers that could be a big help to the Cardinals defense and they are former Rice linebacker Anthony Ekpe and Sacred Heart’s Chris Agyemang. If the transfers can help the pass rush, this defense could take a major step.

The best unit on this defense is the linebackers and the evidence of that is the promotion of inside linebackers coach Tyler Stockton to defensive coordinator. He was a member of Notre Dame’s 2012 team that went to the national championship and is well thought of as a coach. He has some exciting pieces to work with, including the top returning tacklers Jaylin Thomas, Jordan Williams and Christian Albright. Those three guys caused some havoc last year and contributed to the defense forcing 24 turnovers and had a plus-eight turnover margin which was 15th-best in the country.

The secondary intercepted the most passes in the conference last fall and that was due in large part to Amechi Uzodinma who had five and had 12 pass deflections. He will be joined by seniors Bryce Crosby and Antonio Phillips who combined for six interceptions as well last season.

The secondary can be a strong point of the defense and if the front-seven can fix the run defense and pass rush, Ball State could have one of its best units in quite some time.