MUNCIE, IND. - All football teams, regardless of their record, like to end the season with a bang. UB is no exception. There were a lot of fireworks in this game, but in the big picture, the Bulls ended the 2002 campaign with a whimper. Buffalo (1-11, 0-8 MAC) lost to Ball State (6-5, 4-3 MAC) 41-21 at Ball State Stadium in front of nearly 8,000 fans.
With a strong wind blowing across the field, Ball State wisely chose to use senior All-American and Doak Walker Award candidate Marcus Merriweather to provide a strong ground game. Merriweather ended the day with 37 carries for 224 yards and four touchdowns, including a career-long 67-yard run to open the scoring at the end of the first quarter. On Merriweather's third score he set the all-time BSU record for rushing touchdowns and ended the game with a new career total of 31.
"He ran really well, very smart, and very patient," said UB Head Coach Jim Hofher.
BSU Head Coach Bill Lynch echoed Hofher's respect for Merriweather.
"It was a good solid win for us," said Lynch. "We felt like we needed to control the ball and the clock. Marcus had a typical Marcus day. If he carries it enough he's going to get that many yards. He's a great football player."
UB knew what they were up against from Ball State's running game and played accordingly. The Bulls played well for most of the first quarter, shutting down Merriweather until he broke the 67-yard run. On that play Merriweather broke through the line and was being sized up by junior safety Mark Graham. When Graham made a move to tackle, he slipped, and took down freshman corner Kevin Concepcion with him to give Merriweather a clear shot at the endzone. The field caused problems for both teams Saturday afternoon.
"We didn't know it was going to snow like it did," said BSU junior cornerback Jesse Avant. "The footing was horrible. ... Normally we are a press team and like to have man coverage on the outside, and we couldn't do what we wanted to because of the footing."
Despite the lack of traction on the field, UB answered the Merriweather score with a 16-play 75-yard drive that ended with a one-yard plunge by freshman running back Aaron Leeper. The most impressive thing about the drive was that UB converted on four straight third downs including a third and twelve. The wind intervened in the second quarter, causing a short kick, which allowed the Cardinals to start on their 44-yard line.
"It was beyond breezy," said Hofher. "It affected the game."
The Cardinals used the short field to their advantage and junior quarterback Andy Rask hit freshman wide out Dante Ridgeway in the endzone for a 28-yard score that put BSU back on top 14-7.
Buffalo's next drive stalled and senior Scott McMahan's punt into the wind only went fourteen yards giving Ball State a drive start at the UB 44. The Cardinals once again capitalized with a 6-play 44-yard drive that culminated with Merriweather's second touchdown from three yards out. The first half ended with BSU on top 21-7.
The second half started where the first ended, with Ball State killing both the clock and the hopes of the Bulls to notch their first ever MAC road win. Merriweather scored from three yards out in the third and again in the fourth on a great second effort after senior DB Dahnel Singfield failed to wrap him up at the two-yard line.
Down 34-7 after a failed extra point, UB pulled out some tricks to try to claw back into the game. The Bulls ran a reverse to senior wide out Andre Forde who, with quarterback Randall Secky blocking, ran for 17 yards into the endzone. He then caught a two point conversion pass from Secky to make the score 34-15. Forde ended the day with six catches for 45 yards and one carry for 17 yards and a touchdown. Forde's 62 total yards were good enough to allow him to break the UB single season all-purpose yards record with 1,595.
Forde's score came with 5:43 left in the game, and at this point both teams emptied their benches to let most of the seniors play in what was UB's last game and BSU's last home game.
BSU scored again during the fourth quarter, this time on a six-yard run from back up tailback Scott Blair.
UB got the ball back with less than a minute remaining, and freshman QB Michael Radon made sure UB went out with a bang. On the last play of the game Radon scrambled to his left and launched a pass to wide-open senior wide out Maurice Bradford who took it in for an 80-yard score to end the Bulls season.
Going 1-11 is hard for any team to endure, but many people on the team think there is hope for the future.
"I believe (the seniors) have been a stepping stone for the last four years for this program to progress into something great," said Forde. "We're really hoping for good things in the future for this team."
"We weren't a seasoned team by any means," said Hofher. "So it's going to be critical that our off-season development begin as soon as possible."
A more important question in the big picture is how does such a bad record affect recruiting. Hofher has confidence that it will not.
"We've had a terrific response by kids throughout the season," said Hofher. "We've had a terrific response by a lot of guys who we'd really like to have in our football program, so I'm positive that a lot of these guys will be in our program next year, and they'll help us."
