Five months removed from their 2023 season, Ball State football took the field today for their annual spring game. 

Here are three things learned from the 2024 football squad. 

Semonza or Kelly? Who will be the QB1?

Last season saw quarterbacks fight for a start in preseason. This season is no different with Kiael Kelly and Kadin Semonza. 

Semonza first saw action in week one against Kentucky and got a start against Georgia. He had standout moments like a touchdown to Ty Robinson, and some bad ones with three interceptions in one half against the Bulldogs.

The young quarterback ended up taking a redshirt year due to lack of action and looks to be competing for the illustrious QB1 title. He can at moments have more passing accuracy than Kelly, but where Kelly wins is with his legs. 

Last season, Kelly was named the starter to close out the season in week seven against Toledo. The Cardinals went 3-3 with Kelly at the helm. A big reason for his success was his ability to run the RPO offense with then-running back Marquez Cooper. His ability to read a defense and quickly react with his legs put the Cardinals in good situations later down the season, like a comeback drive against Northern Illinois. 

During one-on-one drills in the spring game, both quarterbacks had some effective passes deep but also tended to be a little long with their tosses. 

In 11 on 11, there was a variety of good passes and bad passes, but the thing to know most is that there is a possibility for inconsistency for both quarterbacks heading forward while still developing. 

Passing game weapons 

This year returns redshirt junior Qian Magwood and redshirt junior Ty Robinson for the wide receiver group. A new addition to the receiving group is junior Justin Bowick.

Bowick is coming from Eastern Illinois in a season where he had 30 catches, 459 yards and five touchdowns. He should be an addition that will help in droves as now the Cardinals have three wideouts with a good amount of experience to help their younger quarterbacks. 

Robinson only played in the first two games of last season. Even with two games, Robinson was fifth in receiving yards with 111.

Magwood led the Cardinals with 358 receiving yards and had some highlight plays sprinkled throughout the season. 

New defensive faces

The Ball State defense not only lost a majority of their players to the draft and graduation, but they also lost their defensive coordinator Tyler Stockton. 

Senior Keionté Newson was hurled into the defense last season after then-linebacker Clayton Coll went down with an injury in week one. Through last season and especially now, Newson is the leader of the 2024 defense. 

With new defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles, the defense offers a lot of new faces. Those new faces are mostly younger or transfers, so the defense still has a lot of questions heading into the new season. 

Contact Elijah Poe via email at elijah.poe@bsu.edu or on X @ElijahPoe4.

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