On a roster full of new faces, Ball State football returns a lot of production from its linebackers.
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.
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 linebackers.
Ball State football has experience at inside linebacker
Ball State’s linebacker group is its most experienced, highlighted by three fifth-year seniors. Joey Stemler, Jack Beebe and Jackson Wiegold all arrived to Muncie in the fall of 2021 as high school recruits and have been together ever since.
“It’s really just nice knowing each other,” Beebe said. “We know everything about each other. It seems like we’re with each other all the time, so it’s just nice to be able to trust your friends off the field and on the field.”
All of them should play a role in their second season of Knowles’ defensive system, but Stemler returns the most playing experience and was a primary starter last year, compiling 56 tackles and tying for the team lead in interceptions with two. He is expected to take over for Keionte Newson as the team’s signal caller and vocal leader in the middle and is ready to absorb that responsibility.
“I’m just very blessed to be in that position,” Stemler said. “Keionte really helped me out with that, so now my big focus is on calling the defense, getting everybody lined up and making sure that they know what they’re doing as well as I know what I’m doing. If there’s a problem, it really does fall on me, because if they didn’t get the call or the check, it’s on me.”
The continuity in the linebacker room is furthered by the return of Caden “Smoke” Johnson. The redshirt junior briefly entered the transfer portal in the offseason but ultimately returned to Ball State, giving the Cardinals even more experience at the position. The brotherhood among the linebackers was a big motivator for Johnson’s return.
“The main reason was because I knew that I had guys that really wanted me to come back to help out,” Johnson said. “The best thing for me and for the team is to come back and help out, make us win a MAC championship this year.”
Ball State also added a linebacker to the mix in Alfred Chea, a redshirt senior out of UConn who will spend his final collegiate season as a Cardinal. Chea was initially announced as a sniper when he committed to Ball State but has been playing linebacker throughout the spring and fall camps. With Chea joining the four returners, Ball State’s linebacker room goes five deep with players who have four or more seasons of college football experience.
“They’re very coachable,” defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Jeff Knowles said. “Those guys have been playing college football for a few years, and they pick stuff up quickly. We can be multiple with them, which I don’t know if that’s always been the case, so that’s a good thing for us. I feel like any assignment we throw at our front seven, assignment-wise, that they can handle it right now.”
Outside linebackers bring juice to the pass rush
Ball State has five players rostered who are listed as outside linebackers, but they spend most of their time working with the defensive line. This is because the RUSH position that they will typically play has responsibilities that align more with the defensive ends rather than the off-ball linebackers.
At this RUSH position, redshirt junior Justin Thomas could be in for a big bounce-back year. Last offseason, he transferred to Ball State from the University of Indianapolis, where he compiled 19.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks over the course of two seasons. Thomas was expected to be one of the Cardinals’ top pass rushers in 2024 but sustained a knee injury in the preseason that kept him out all year.
Now, he enters 2025 fully recovered and ready to make his mark on the defense.
“I’m hungry for sure,” Thomas said. “I was disappointed having to watch the games on the couch last year, but being ready for Week One is something that I’m so blessed and grateful for, just ready to go out there with the guys.”
Ball State has plenty of options to rotate at the RUSH position. Sophomore Sam Feeney should continue to make an impact following a breakout freshman season that saw him compile three sacks, a forced fumble and a blocked kick in eight games. The Cardinals also added redshirt junior Micah Wing, a former three-star out of high school who spent last season with Dodge City Community College. Redshirt junior DeJuan Echoles Jr. and redshirt freshman Layton Starks both return from last season and should provide further depth to the team’s pass rush corps.
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@muncie.gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.