Over The Pylon

I spent most of a ten hour drive and the better part of a Friday packed full of rehearsal dinners and other wedding festivities thinking about this particular contest and trying my damndest to wrap my head around the ins and outs of this tilt. It’s BSU-IU, Lucas Oil Stadium, the season opener for both squads, and the excitement is seemingly high on both sides of the fence for the Hoosiers and Cards. What’s also high is the uncertainty, unknowns, and complete mysteries that shroud this contest.

From the offensive outputs, defensive strategies, hell, even the size of the crowd, it’s  all a mystery. You’ve got a better chance of trying to explain exactly what happened with Ronnie Thompson in Muncie than pegging this game correctly in prognostication. So that makes a preview not only tough to write, but ridiculously speculative and usually wildly off base

Predictions may be challenging, but the hopes for this Cardinal team are plentiful. I hope that the offensive line performs the way I know they are capable of. I hope that the receivers showcase their speed and talent. I hope the stable of running backs provide a viable rushing attack and keep the defense honest. I hope that the defensive line and linebackers give some pressure to the Hoosiers and make a bland up the middle rush extremely unsuccessful. I hope the defensive backs perform to their level, one of the best secondaries in the MAC. I hope Sean Baker feasts long and hard on Hoosier souls today when they dare venture into his coverage area. I hope the special teams is a point of pride and not a point of frustration. I hope the fans wearing the right shade of red and white show up in large quantities. I hope the work that Coach Lembo has done on and off the field show results tonight. I hope all this hoping doesn’t make me sound like an elderly African American ex-con released from prison in Maine looking for my wife-killing-but-not-really-banker-friend in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. For the fans going, be safe, be crazy, be Cardinals. For those watching around the globe, be crazier because, you know, the only people that will judge you are the people in your home.

When the proverbial Cardinal rubber hits the Cardinal road, the only thing we know for sure is that this is the first contest of the Lembo era, the return of football for the 2011 season, and the dawning of a new day in BSU football history. Whether that day is sunny and lasts for a while is anyone’s guess, just like the outcome of this game.

Filed under: Ball State, Big 10 |