MUNCIE – At first it was shocking for Ball State football’s dual-threat quarterback, who led a 4-8 Cardinals team to a .500 record in the six games he started, to completely switch sides of the ball when it was made public Kiael Kelly would suit up at defensive back in 2024. It’s still sinking in for Kelly, and whether or not the move will pay off remains to be seen. 

Yet the fact remains, nearly all of Kelly’s reps in the first two weeks of Ball State’s training camp have come at defensive back aside from participating in kick return drills. His days of playing quarterback for Ball State are dead and gone, but Kelly is starting to feel comfortable competing at a position he had never previously played. 

“My confidence grows every day,” Kelly said. “The hunger to be the best I can be, I want to be the best … I can feel myself getting better.” 

Head coach Mike Neu made it clear that Kelly’s long arms and raw athleticism gave him no reason to doubt moving Kelly to defensive back in his redshirt junior season at Ball State. New cornerbacks coach Darrell Perkins feels the same way. 

Ball State is Perkins’ 12th stop in his coaching journey that has spanned more than 25 years, including stops at Purdue, Maryland, UConn and Syracuse. And after starting at half back for the Wyoming Cowboys during his playing days, Perkins knows a thing or two about bringing offensive knowledge to the defensive side of the ball as a coach. 

It’s this common ground and Perkins’ boundless experience that Kelly attributed to his seemingly quick adjustment to the defensive back group.

“I just try to soak in as much as I can,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s about being a man or playing football … I have never had a doubt with him. Once I took what he was saying to the field, it became way easier.” 

Truly a player’s player, it wasn’t just the addition of Perkins to the coaching staff that has made Kelly’s move to defensive back more digestible; he’s playing alongside two of his best friends. 

While Kelly is entering his fourth season suiting up for Ball State, the 2023 season was DD Snyder’s first as a Cardinal after he transferred from Illinois. A Tampa native, Snyder said his near-decade long bond with Kelly that drew him to Ball State.

The two went to the same high school during Kelly’s freshman year, and even when Kelly transferred to Jesuit High School in the Tampa area for his sophomore season, he and Snyder continued to compete against each other and kept their friendship strong. 

In fact, Kelly said Snyder was a big factor that led to his decision to stay with Ball State after he entered the transfer portal for a few months this past spring. 

“When a visit was over, he was probably the one to pick me up from the hotel or the airport,” Kelly said. 

Snyder even claimed he was right next to Kelly when the Ball State coaching staff let him know they would be moving him to defensive back.

“I was telling the whole city,” Snyder said. “During this whole transition and when he hit the portal I was by his side and in his ear telling him, ‘Come back.’ He played a big part in getting me here, and I think I played a big part in keeping him here.”

Another familiar face that welcomed Kelly into the defensive back room with open arms was brought into the Ball State football family at the same time. During their first two years in Muncie, redshirt junior Thailand Baldwin and Kelly lived either in the same hallway of a Ball State dorm complex or on the same street once they moved into off-campus housing. 

Although the teammates were in completely separate meetings, workouts and sides of the ball, Kelly and Baldwin formed a fast friendship. Even if the soft-spoken Kelly operates with an opposite demeanor compared to Baldwin’s vocal charisma. 

“I’ve been that way since I came out of the womb,” Baldwin said. “I just continue being me as much as I can. All I can do is be me.”

Baldwin started in half of the Cardinals’ 12 games last season, earning the most playing time of his collegiate career in the process. However, with five of Ball State’s consistent starting defensive backs from 2023 either graduating, transferring or landing in the NFL, Baldwin’s goal for 2024 is to play every down for the Cardinals’ defense.

Snyder is in a similar headspace, yet he didn’t see nearly as much playing time in 2023 as Baldwin. In his first year with the program, Snyder sustained a concussion, a broken hand and a pulled hamstring at three separate points of the season, limiting him to just six games, none of which in a starting role. 

Feeling fully healthy for the first time since joining Ball State, Snyder couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when talking about his aspirations for the upcoming season.

“Words can’t even explain it, I’m just ready to go with the guys,” Snyder said. 

Despite its lackluster record, Ball State finished with the second-best Mid-American Conference (MAC) defense in yards allowed per game in 2023. However, the Cardinals finished dead-last in the MAC with just five interceptions.

That’s something the entire Ball State defense is looking to change, and it may just be the main emphasis for the defensive backs heading into the 2024 campaign. Perkins said before truly taking the next step toward making game-changing plans like interceptions or defensive touchdowns, the relatively inexperienced defensive back room must take care of their basic situational understanding, their effort and their technique. 

Baldwin agreed, but he also said the opposing team’s quarterback needs to be “oblivious” and “delusional” in a potential interception situation, too.

“Thai Baldwin: you should hear that name a lot this year,” Baldwin said. “I want them to see me in the end zone … I need interceptions, touchdowns, pass breakups. I need my name to be said by the announcer a lot.” 

It’s confidence like that which makes Perkins optimistic towards his group reaching their goal.

“Before you can win, you gotta talk it,” Perkins said. “You have to speak things into existence. All week long during game week, you have to be thinking about winning, you have to be talking about winning, your body language has to say, ‘Winning.’

“If not, you’re not going to be successful.”

Contact Kyle Smedley with comments via email at kyle.smedley@bsu.edu or via X @KyleSmedley_.

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