Ball State Athletics announced Nov. 16 head football coach Mike Neu was dismissed after nine seasons with the Cardinals.
Neu is tied for fourth-most wins as a head coach (40). This is the fourth-straight losing season with Neu at the helm.
University President Geoffrey Mearns said Neu represented the athletics department and university with “character and integrity.” Mearns also said he was grateful to Neu’s commitment to student-athletes both during their time at Ball State and after the end of their football careers at the university.
The change in leadership and the timing of the decision this week allows for student-athletes in the transfer portal to “exercise their options” when it comes to looking at transferring from or to Ball State, Mearns said. Coaches are historically evaluated at the end of a season, but Neu was let go with two games remaining in the season.
Mearns commented that the university is looking for a coach who keeps emphasis on the word “student” in student-athlete.
“For the second time in three years, across all sports programs at our university, we won the MAC prize for highest GPA across all sport programs in the 12 institutions,” Mearns said. “[This is] a reflection at a time, as I say, when there’s increasing professionalization of college sports.”
Ball State will begin the coaching search “right away,” according to Ball State Director of Athletics Jeff Mitchell. He believes the timing allows the program to prepare for recruitment and to make moves in the transfer portal.
“It’s certainly something that wasn’t thought about lightly,” Mitchell said. “But I think taking into account when signing day is and when the NCAA portal opens, looking at the carousel with other college teams having made leadership transitions and having positions open currently, that it just made a lot of sense to do it, and I realized that there’s some disruption to it.”
Replacing Neu for the rest of the year will be offensive line coach and Ball State alum Colin Johnson.
“I wish coach Neu and his family all the best in the future,” Mearns said. “… We want somebody [like Neu] who embodies the values of the institution … I want sombody who understands that that’s a critical part of our mission, wjo understands the changing nature of college sports and certainly [NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision], where we compete a the highest level.”
Mearns also said the next head coach will need to put in the effort to recruit students out of high school and encourage current student-athletes to stay. He said the next coach should be “flexible and creative” in terms of recruiting student-athletes via the transfer portal.
“It’s a much more difficult job than it was 25 years ago,” Mearns said.
Johnson will make his Ball State head coaching debut when the Cardinals host Bowling Green Nov. 23 at 2 p.m.
Contact Kate Farr via email at [email protected]. Contact Zach Carter via email at [email protected] or on X @ZachCarter85.
