Chris Willis
Sports Reporter
The Western Michigan University football team heads back
onto the road this week after playing its last three contests at Waldo Stadium.
The Broncos (3-3, 1-1 MAC) travel to face its first Mid-American Conference
West Division opponent on the road in the Ball State University Cardinals (3-3,
1-2 MAC).
WMU is coming off of the 52-14 drubbing of the University of
Massachusetts Minutemen last week, and will play four of its next five games on
the road before concluding the season at Waldo against the Eastern Michigan
University Eagles on Senior Day.
BSU is coming off of back-to-back MAC losses after posting
victories against back-to-back Bowl Championship Series schools.
With both teams coming in with a .500 record at the halfway
point, the loser of this game will likely be on the outside looking in of any
MAC Championship game aspirations.
“They’re desperate for a win just like we are,” said WMU
head coach Bill Cubit. “They’re 1-2 in the conference and have lost two
straight. We’re looking forward to going down there.”
WMU quarterback Tyler VanTubbergen became only the second QB
in school history to have a pair a five touchdown passing days last week, but
will make his first career road start this week.
“He really understands what’s going on out there,” Cubit
said. “He’s a really talented guy and he’ll be fine. It’s all communication.
The guys around him just gotta step up and take more ownership.”
With seemingly weekly injuries to key members of the receiving corps,
the Brown and Gold have struggled with just knowing who’s going
to be healthy and plugging in different players.
“We’ve gotta re-create the wheel every week with these
injuries,” Cubit said. “The problem is we just keep losing people. We just have
to make it easier for [Tyler]. We don’t even talk about injuries around here.
We just go out there and play. We don’t make excuses.”
Since 2002, the margin of victory in this series has been a
minimum of eleven points in games played at Cardinal venues.
WMU starting quarterback Alex Carder had the pin removed from his
throwing hand this week but there is still no time-table for his expected
return.
BSU celebrates its homecoming against WMU this week with a
3p.m. kickoff in Muncie.
“If we play the game we know we can and follow
the game plan that the coaches put out there for us, we’ll be successful,” said
WMU runningback Brian Fields. “We’ve just gotta go down there and play up to our potential and we’ll be fine.”
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