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List of Ball State Cardinals head football coaches

The Ball State Cardinals football program is a college football team that represents Ball State University in the Mid-American Conference a part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. In nearly a century of play in college football over four affiliations (Indiana Collegiate Conference, Independent, Conference of Midwestern Universities, and the MAC), the Cardinals have had sixteen head coaches.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 college football season.[4]

No. Name Term GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL CCs NCs Awards
1 Paul "Billy" Williams 1924–1925 16 3 13 0 .188
2 Norman G. Wann 1926–1927 15 10 3 2 .733
3 Paul B. Parker 1928–1929 7 3 2 2 .571
4 Lawrence McPhee 1930–1934 39 15 23 1 .397
5 John Magnabosco 1935–1942
1944–1952
128 68 46 14 .586 35 20 6 .634 1
N/A No Team 1943 0 0 0 0
6 George Serdula 1953–1955 24 14 9 1 .604 8 9 0 .470
7 Jim Freeman 1956–1961 48 18 28 2 .396 13 22 1 .375
8 Ray Louthen 1962–1967 53 37 13 3 .726 26 8 2 .750 4
9 Wave Myers 1968–1970 29 15 14 0 .517
10 Dave McClain 1971–1977 74 46 25 3 .642 13 4 0 .764 1
11 Dwight Wallace 1978–1984 77 40 37 0 .519 30 27 0 .526 1
12 Paul Schudel 1985–1994 112 60 48 4 .554 48 33 3 .589 0 2 2
13 Bill Lynch 1995–2002 90 37 53 0 .411 30 34 0 .468 0 1 1
14 Brady Hoke 2003–2008 69 30 39 0 .435 27 20 0 .574 0 1
15 Stan Parrish 2008–2010 24 6 18 0 .250 5 11 0 .312 0 1
16 Pete Lembo 2011–2015 62 33 29 0 .532 23 17 0 .575 0 2
17 Mike Neu 2016–2024 103 40 63 0 .388 25 43 0 .368 1 1 1
Int Colin Johnson[A 5] 2024–present 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Notes

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[1]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[2]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[3]
  5. ^ Johnson served as the interim head coach for the final two games of the 2024 season after Mike Neu was fired from the head coach position

References

  1. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  3. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  4. ^ Football Year By Year Records. ballstatesports.com.