After the team shocked the Mid-American Conference with an outright West division title, a convincing MAC Championship win over a ranked Buffalo team, then took down the undefeated Mountain West champs in San Jose State, Ball State’s looking to #RunItBack with so many seniors opting to come back for their bonus season in 2021.
Last week, the team announced the names of 16 seniors and graduate students that opted to come back, most of which were starters on each side of the ball. Those coming back (starters in bold):
- DE, Chris Agyemang
- LB, Christian Albright
- S, Brett Anderson
- RT, Curtis Blackwell
- S, Bryce Cosby
- LB, Anthony Ekpe
- TE, Dylan Koch
- WR, Justin Hall
- WR, Hassan Littles
- QB, Drew Plitt
- FB, Cody Rudy
- LT, Kaleb Slaven
- P, Nate Snyder
- C, Anthony Todd
- LB, Jaylin Thomas
- CB, J.T. Wahee
Had there been a normal eligibility clock for all in 2020, this would’ve been one of those dreadful offseasons for Ball State, who worked its tail off to go from nothing special to national gem, to see all of its starters go buh-bye and move on to their normally scheduled 2021 NFL tryouts. Instead, 13 starters on both sides of the ball chose to come back to Ball State for one more year.
The Cardinals’ starting offensive line will all be back. The starting quarterback will be back with more than just Yo’Heinz Tyler, junior, to throw to. The co-defensive MVP Brandon Martin, redshirt-junior, will be back with four other All-MAC defensive players.
The team will be missing stars in RB Caleb Huntley, WR Antwan Davis, and CB Antonio Phillips, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be missing a beat when the team re-takes the field this fall.
