Broncos season on the line Saturday at Ball State

By Chris Willis
Western Herald

It’s now or never for the Western Michigan University football team.

WMU will travel to face its Mid-American Conference West Division rival, the Ball State University Cardinals.

The Broncos (1-3, 0-1 MAC) are in fifth place in the MAC West standings, but a win at Ball State (2-3, 1-0 MAC) this week would put them right back in the MAC title mix.

That’s assuming WMU’s conference rivals, with nearly unwinnable match-ups, don’t pull off major upsets.

The University of Toledo plays at Boise State University. Loss.

Central Michigan University plays at Virginia Tech University. Loss.

The University of Northern Illinois plays at Temple University. Tough game, tough call.

And WMU plays at Ball State.

With a win, the Brown and Gold have a chance to move from fifth to third place in the MAC West standings, with some help from MAC West opponents.

A loss would drop the Broncos to 1-4 and 0-2 in the MAC. Then they’ll visit South Bend, Ind. next week to face the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The season is on the line this Saturday.

“In my mind, I think every game is a must win,” said WMU head coach Bill Cubit.

“You put all this time and effort into winning games and on Saturday if you don’t win, it’ll be over? I never got that philosophy.”

The MAC is a very even conference when it comes to parity. There is no room for any team to take a week off. Cubit knows how to win in the MAC and his overall record in conference play is 24-16.

“It’s a MAC game on the road. You’ve got to win on the road in this conference. You can’t afford to lose games,” Cubit said.

“Look what’s happening in the MAC West. Does [Northern Illinois University] play Temple [University]? Is it a must-win game? Probably. Central [Michigan University] plays at Virginia Tech University. You gotta go win games.”

This Broncos team hasn’t faced much pressure yet and they’ll find out a lot about the inner drive of this team on Saturday.

“You can’t put too much pressure on these kids,” Cubit said.

“But that’s half of the problem. We can’t baby these kids or they won’t know how to face pressure. That’s not how it is in the real world. There’s pressure. If you don’t think there’s pressure, then you’re not doing anything with your life but just sittin’ around. So get used to it.”

This no-nonsense approach is why players, alumni and fans alike respect Cubit.

WMU ranks 25th in the nation for passing offense and will need to return to form against Ball State University if they hope to win the game.

The team still has MAC title aspirations but the offense needs to start clicking if they hope to achieve this goal.

“If we win this week, it’s one step closer to our goal of becoming MAC West champions and playing in the MAC championship game,” said senior guard Phillip Swanson.

“In the beginning of the year, that’s where we wanted to be and it’s still very attainable.”

WMU is 17-19 all-time against Ball State and is 7-10 at Scheumann Stadium.

Under Cubit, WMU is 1-4 against the Cardinals, tying his worst record versus any MAC rival, which CMU holds.

Ball State has an excellent defense and the shaky blocking for the Brown and Gold will be tested once again.

“We’ve seen some Ball State film before this week. They’ve got some really good players and some more that come in as back-ups and they’re just making plays,” Swanson said.

“They have a defensive end that is going to be a tough challenge for us up-front. It’s one of those things where we’re going to have to rise to the occasion every week.”

WMU and Ball State own the record for the longest game played in MAC history with a five-time overtime contest in 2005. Bronco fans hope this game will be nearly as exciting.

Cubit is just four wins shy of moving into seventh place as the all-time wins leader in school history.

WMU will look to repay Ball State the favor that Idaho handed to them last week; a homecoming defeat.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 6 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com