The 2025 Ball State football staff looks almost entirely different from just months ago amid the 2024 season.

New head coach Mike Uremovich is leading the reigns and his staff decisions have all been finalized.

Here is information on the 2025 Ball State football staff.

Mike Uremovich: Head coach

Uremovich was named the Ball State football head coach just around a month ago and comes to Muncie from Butler University.

He has spent time at Saint Francis, Northern Illinois University, NC State, Temple and more. Uremovich spent three seasons as a Bulldog and guided the program to three straight winning seasons.

The Cardinals staff has no named offensive coordinator because Uremovich will guide the Ball State offense himself. His offenses at Butler led FCS teams in red zone offense in 2022.

The Bulldogs also ranked near the top in scoring offense, total offense and rushing offense in 2023 and 2024. The 2024 Butler squad averaged 35.6 points per game and 407.8 points per game.

The head coach is 56-56 in his ten years with the title.

Jeff Knowles: Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach

Knowles's first year as a Cardinals coach was 2024, and he, Shaq Vann and Mayomi Olootu are the only coaches to be retained from last season. Knowles and Uremovich have coached together at multiple stops along their careers including Saint Francis, NIU, Temple and Butler.

Knowles was under Uremovich just two seasons ago, and the two are reunited again as Cardinals.

Ball State had the second-to-worst defense in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) last year under Knowles and was dealing with a new roster on the defensive side. The defense did improve week by week last season but still failed to climb up the MAC rankings.

The Cardinals allowed 40.1 points per game, 176 yards on the ground and 279 yards through the air in 2024.

Craig Harmon: Offensive pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach

Harmon joins back up with Uremovich where he had previously coached beside him at NIU, Temple and Saint Francis.

Harmon has spent the past four years in the Chicago area, helping Batavia High School and Benet Academy to playoff appearances in three of four seasons.

Harmon was also the quarterbacks coach at Temple and NIU. The 2016 NIU quarterbacks had four different starters but amassed 2,688 yards and 20 touchdowns. In 2018 Huskie QBs racked up 2,175 yards with 15 touchdowns.

He helped NIU reach four bowl games in his five seasons at NIU: 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Adam Siwicki: Defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach

Siwicki and Uremovich first coached together at Butler in 2022, where Siwicki moved up the coaching ladder quickly. He was moved up to recruiting coordinator for the Bulldogs in 2023 and was then named the defensive coordinator for Butler in 2024.

Butler ranked fourth in FCS under Siwicki with just 16.3 points allowed per game last season. The Bulldogs also recorded 15 sacks in the first two seasons Siwicki coached the defensive line unit and had 28 sacks in 2024.

Siwicki spent five seasons at NAIA Culver-Stockton where he was the defensive coordinator and later promoted to associate head coach in 2019. The 2019 Wildcats ranked ninth in total defense.

Ray Smith: Defensive pass game coordinator and cornerbacks coach

Smith comes to Ball State from Kennesaw State, following his seven seasons at Southeast Missouri. He has 19 years of experience coaching defensive secondaries.

Smith was also a first-team All-MAC Defensive back at NIU.

While at Southeast Missouri, Smith spent his final three seasons as the defensive pass game coordinator. In 2022 the Redhawks used 10 different players to tally 11 interceptions. He also coached All-American Lawrence Johnson. His coaching aided the Southeast Missouri defense in 2018 that led the nation in turnover margin, turnovers gained and interceptions.

Alex Barr: Offensive line coach

Barr has the unique vantage point of playing for Uremovich and coaching with him. Barr was a three-year offensive line starter under Uremovich at NC State.

Barr then joined up with Uremovich at Butler in 2022 after a few seasons coaching at his alma matter.

Barr led Butler’s offensive line to 214.4 rushing yards per game and amounted to 407.8 yards per game in 2024. The offensive line consistently helped the Bulldogs be ranked at the top of the Pioneer Football League (PFL) in offensive categories.

Madison Bunch: Running backs coach

Bunch comes to Ball State from Southeast Missouri, where he was the running backs coach in 2024.

Bunch spent the 2023 season as an offensive analyst and running backs assistant for Rutgers University. He also spent a year back at Southeast Missouri in 2022 as a recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach. The 2022 Redhawks won the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

He began his coaching career in 2018 as a wide receivers coach at Hendrix College. He spent 2019-2020 at Arkansas Tech and 2021 at North Alabama.

Sean Chase: Tight ends coach

Sean Chase will take over previous tight ends coach Jared Elliott. Chase coached with Uremovich at Butler in 2023 and 2024 as the tight ends and running backs coach. He also served as the program's run game coordinator during that time.

Chase’s rushing offense was ranked 11th in 2023 in FCS with 202 yards per game and eighth in 2024 with 214 yards per game.

Chase has worked himself up from being a student equipment manager at NIU to years later being named an associate head coach at Culver-Stockton in 2022.

Ray Holmes: Inside receivers coach

Ball State marks the fourth program where Holmes has coached under Uremovich. He started his coaching career at NIU where he spent four years working as a student assistant.

Previous to Ball State, Holmes joined Butler in 2022 as a wide receivers coach where he was then promoted to pass game coordinator in 2023.

Holmes coached Bulldog wide receivers Ethan Loss and Luke Wooten to be a top-20 receiving duo in the PFL in 2024.

Rory Mannering: Safeties coach

Mannering joined Uremovich at Butler in 2024 and made the jump to Ball State with the head coach.

Mannering has been a defensive coordinator at DePaue and Denison. He was Butler’s assistant head coach while also coaching the linebackers.

DePauw went 31-6 with Mannering as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and won three North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.

Jalen Moss: Snipers coach

Moss spent three years under Uremovich at Butler and now is in charge of a mixed unit that combines roles of linebackers and safeties, ergo Snipers.

Moss played football at Fishers High School and ended his playing career at Indiana State.

Moss coached cornerbacks at Butler and helped lead the Bulldogs defense to top-ranked results in the PFL in 2023 and 2024.

His cornerbacks at Butler picked off eight passes in 2022, nine in 2023 and 14 in 2024.

Shaq Vann: Wide receivers coach

Vann is alongside Knowles and Mayomi Olootu as the only coach to be retained from the 2024 season. He guided receivers Malcolm Gillie and Cam Pickett to all-conference recognition.

Vann was a former running back at Eastern Michigan who was a graduate assistant for the 2023 national championship runner-up, Washington. He coached receivers and scout team while overseeing signaling on game days for the Huskies.

Nick Fiacable: Special teams coordinator

Fiacable spent the 2024 season at UConn as a special teams analyst. The Huskies' 8-4 record in 2024 put them into the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against North Carolina University.

Fiacable has spent time at Indiana University as a recruiting assistant and student offensive assistant from 2018-202. He coached at Wabash as the running backs coach from 2020-21.

He then moved to Slippery Rock University before landing at his current spot at UConn.

Mayomi Olootu: Assistant secondary coach

Olootu was elevated to assistant secondary coach after serving as a graduate assistant for the defense in 2024.

Olootu first came to Muncie after serving as a defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach at McKinney High School in Texas. In his three sessions, 12 high school defensive backs went on to play Division 1 football.

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

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