Football games are won and lost in the trenches, and Ball State football anticipates strength in that department this season.
Ball State will kick off its season on Saturday, Aug. 30, with an in-state road game at Purdue. Ball State is coming off a 3-9 season and haven’t qualified for a bowl game since 2021, but new head coach Mike Uremovich will look to lead a quick turnaround.
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With the season less than two weeks away, we’re breaking down the Cardinals’ roster position by position. Here’s our breakdown of the Ball State football defensive line.
More: Ball State football position preview: Open race to determine starting offensive linemen
More: Ball State football position preview: Who will take over for Tanner Koziol at tight end?
Defensive line could be Ball State football’s biggest strength
Ball State’s defensive line is a talented unit that has looked dominant at times throughout fall camp. It has been strong against the run and consistently gets after the quarterbacks to force sacks, scrambles or incompletions. The Cardinals’ struggled in run defense (175.3 rushing yards per game allowed, 100th in FBS) and only got 13 of its 20 sacks out of the unit last season, but this year should be a different story.
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“I said it coming out of spring, and I still feel that way — the defensive line is the most improved unit we have since we’ve gotten here,” Uremovich said.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles highlighted the depth of the unit as its biggest strength and indicated that the Cardinals would rotate a lot of players along the defensive front this season.
“The first thing that comes to mind is just the depth,” Knowles said. “We’re going to play a lot of guys there, so you want them fresh, and that helps with the energy output that we expect from that position too. They’re going to be rested, but we want them to play their butts off.”
Defensive tackles return key leaders and experience
The Cardinals have two team leaders at the defensive tackle position in redshirt senior Drew Hughes and redshirt sophomore Darin Conley. Hughes is a veteran of the roster who enters his fifth season in Muncie after starting 11 games last season. Conley, meanwhile, broke out as one of the team’s top options on the defensive line in the second half of 2024 and has stepped into a leadership role in the new era, representing the team at MAC Football Kickoff media day in Detroit. The communication between those two will be a strength on the interior this season.
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“I know Darin Conley and I, we play at a pretty high level just because we’re pretty familiar with the way we both play,” Hughes said. “We’re both able to reciprocate communication, especially when things are going faster.”
Ball State defensive tackle Drew Hughes during the Ball State football Spring Showcase at Scheumann Stadium on Saturday, April 12, 2025.
Defensive line coach Adam Siwicki was also complimentary of the unit’s improved communication. Even with experienced signal callers behind them at linebacker, Siwicki has made sure his unit is not just relying on them to get everything in place.
“I put a lot on them in terms of, yes, the backers have to tell us some things, but I want us to understand why we’re doing it,” Siwicki said. “I want us to communicate. They shouldn’t have to rely on the linebacker for those communication aspects. I cater to their learning styles: some guys are visual learners, some guys have to go out there and do it, some guys have to see it, some guys have to write it. We appeal to all of those learning styles, I make sure I hear to everybody’s way of learning, and they’ve done a great job executing so far.”
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Ball State returned two more redshirt seniors, Scott Hudson and Hunter Sanderson, to the defensive interior, but the Cardinals still added a few more bodies in the spring portal. Wake Forest redshirt freshman Ameir Glenn has drawn praise from both Knowles and Hughes and could work his way into the rotation quickly, while Reese Hill, another redshirt freshman who transferred out of Purdue, provides more young upside.
Ball State also added a more experienced player in Khristian Zachary, a redshirt senior who has made a few college stops. He saw playing time as a true freshman and sophomore at Liberty before transferring to Alabama A&M, then he joined Ball State in the spring after backing off a winter portal commitment to Texas Southern. At 6-foot-3, 314 pounds, Zachary has the frame of a run-stopping nose guard but has some sneaky athleticism as a pass rusher.
“He’s big and strong enough to play inside and play the run, but he actually has some athleticism in third down-type situations and getting after the quarterback,” Knowles said.
Defensive ends show promise out of the portal
On the edge, Bryant transfer Nathan Voorhis is expected to lead the way after an impressive offseason. He was the star of Ball State’s spring showcase and has wreaked havoc on Kiael Kelly and the Cardinals’ quarterbacks throughout fall camp. Voorhis believes the speed and intensity of the unit will serve them well as the season gets underway.
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“I just want to see guys flying around,” Voorhis said. “Making big hits, making big plays. There’s still some stuff we’ve got to clean up, for sure, but guys high-effort, high-motor, running around making plays, that’s what I want.”
The Cardinals brought in two more defensive ends from the portal: junior Ashton Nawrocki, one of three former Butler players who followed Uremovich, and redshirt freshman George Okorie, a Nigerian-born player who spent the spring at Vanderbilt and has high-upside athletic traits for a pass rusher. They will join returning redshirt sophomore Ben Marsh in the defensive end rotation.
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@muncie.gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Ball State football position preview: Meet the DL for the 2025 season
