The Husker Extra staff breaks down the Ball State football team before this week's matchup.

Ball State averagesPoints

Offense: 28.3

Defense: 20.3

Yards

Offense: 445.3

Defense: 381.0

RushOffense: 185.0

Defense: 268.7

Pass

Offense: 260.3

Defense: 112.3

Time of possession

Offense: 30:11

Defense: 29:49

Base formations

Offense: Two-tight, one-back multiple

Defense: 3-4

Keep an eye on ’em:

Dante Love, WR Jr. 5-10 176 pounds

Remember Wake Forest’s Kenny Moore? Love’s not as big, but he’s a similar type of playmaker who’s averaging 169 all-purpose yards per game. Nate Davis’ favorite target also has eight rushes for 77 yards and even attempted a pass off a reverse.

Darius Hill, TE Jr. 6-6 233 pounds

From the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, Mo., Hill might be the Cardinals’ top pro prospect. Last year, he tied the Ball State single-season record with 10 TD receptions. He caught his second of the season at Navy last week.

Chris Miller, P Jr. 6-2 205 pounds

If you have the issue of Playboy that previews this college football season, you might’ve seen Miller. The magazine named him an All-American. He’s averaging 46.8 yards per punt and has put five of 13 inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

Quarterbacks

Cincinnati-area native Nate Davis was probably a more-accomplished high school basketball player, scoring  more than 1,800 points in his career. But 6-foot-2 shooting guards aren’t real common in Division I, and so he opted for football. Lucky for Ball State. Last year, he started seven games, and by season’s end had tied the school’s single-season record of 18 TD passes. Last week at Navy, he followed up a career-high 306-yard game at Eastern Michigan with a 277-yard, 3-touchdown effort. One of 32 candidates for the Manning Award, Davis has the kind of arm strength that makes you ask: How did he make that throw?

3 balls

Running backsSophomore MiQuale Lewis is coming off the first 100-yard rushing effort of his career, as he scorched Navy for 167 yards. Lewis, who missed the final six games of last season with a shoulder injury, is averaging 108.3 yards, and is a nice receiving option. He’s No. 3 on the team with eight catches. He took a swing pass for a 77-yard gain against Eastern Michigan. True freshman Frank Edmonds, a coveted recruit from Cleveland who rushed for more than 3,500 yards and had more than 500 receiving yards in his high school career, is averaging nearly nine carries and 43 yards per game.

2 balls

Wide receivers

The Cardinals have six players who are averaging at least 12.5 yards per catch. Five of those are wide receivers (we’ll count tight end Darius Hill among them, since he runs like a wideout). Hill was among those recognized by Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel as the “Best Player You’ve Never Head Of” last season, when he caught 42 passes  for 741 yards. Dante Love (52 catches for 735 yards in 2006) has four TDs in the first three games this year. Love’s a former quarterback with multiple skills. Dan Dunford, another ex-QB, is in his first year as a starting WR and has five catches for a team-best 16.2 per grab.

3 balls

Offensive line

The Cardinals have no senior starters across the interior front, but pretty good experience. Junior center Dan Gerberry has started all 26 games in his career. Sophomore John Purdy, a 320-pounder who started eight games at right guard last year, has moved to left tackle because of an injury to Andrew Ramsey, who’d started the past 14 games. Ball State’s had three different starters at right guard, the latest being junior Kyle Cornwell, who started the first four of 2006 and then missed the rest of the season. True freshman Michael Switzer is the left guard. Junior Robert Brewster has started 15 straight games at right tackle.

2 balls

Defensive line

Nebraska might be tempted to throw some option into its attack, as last week Navy put up 521 rushing yards on Ball State. Depth must be a concern, because only four of the six players listed on the two-deep list have made tackles. The feel-good story belongs to end Brandon Crawford, a 31-year-old former Marine who blocked Navy’s 32-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the fourth quarter to force overtime. He also has forced a fumble and has 12 tackles this season. Redshirt freshman Troy Davis has started at both tackle spots, but is now the nose tackle. Fifth-year senior Jacob Jordon is the other starting tackle.

1 ball

Linebackers

Outside of Cortlan Booker, a 6-2, 245-pound hybrid end/linebacker, this group is somewhat smallish and relies heavily on the starters. Fifth-year senior Mike Dorulla (6-0, 216) had just 60 tackles in his first three seasons, but has 27 in the first three games this year. Bryant Haines (6-5, 230) missed four games last season because of injury, but now leads the Cardinals with 33 tackles. Booker was second-team All-Mid-American Conference last season and leads the team with four tackles for loss and two sacks. Kenny Meeks (6-2, 234) also has a sack, but gives way to Alex Knipp in nickel coverage.

2 balls

Defensive backs

Despite giving up an average of just 112 yards passing, Ball State needs free safety Eddie Burk to get healthy. He missed the last two games and the Cardinals have tried two different players to replace him. Marcus McClure, a seven-game starter last year, figures to be in the lineup again. The top player in this group is cornerback Trey Lewis, who’s started 25 of 26 games and had a team-best 10 pass breakups in 2007. Expect Nebraska to test 5-7 corner B.J. Hill, a running back his first two seasons. Hill does have two interceptions. Strong safety Chris Allen has played in all 37 games of his career.

2 balls

Special teams

Jack Hogue hit a chip-shot 24-yard field goal to win last week’s game at Navy. He’s just 5-for-9 on the season, though, and wouldn’t have gotten his last chance had Ball State not blocked two three-point tries by the Midshipmen. Still, the Cardinals would likely be unbeaten had they elected to send Hogue in for an attempt just before halftime of their opener against Miami, Ohio. Instead, they threw an incompletion on fourth-and-4 from the Miami 6, and ended up losing 14-13. No doubt, Chris Miller will be the best punter NU will see this year, but opponents have averaged 20 yards when his kicks have been returned.

3 balls

Scouting report

Ball State was fortunate to come out with a victory last week, as Navy missed a pair of field goals and also fumbled away the ball on its overtime possession, practically handing the Cardinals the 34-31 win.

“The protection was OK on the last field goal. They didn’t get much penetration on either one,” Navy coach Paul Johnson said. “On the first one, they ran all the way around the wings to block it. You shouldn’t be able to do that and still block the kick.

“… In overtime, we couldn’t have asked for them to line up any better with the (offensive) play we called. I think we might have scored if he (Shun White) got the ball. But we fumbled it (on a pitch from quarterback Jarod Bryant) and they went down and scored. We let the game go on too long. They deserved to win.”

The previous week, Ball State went to Eastern Michigan and posted a 38-16 victory.

“I think they were moving the pocket well and they were taking what we were giving them,” Eastern Michigan coach Jeff Genyk told the Eastern Echo. “Nate Davis made a lot of plays. He threw off his back foot a lot, he threw one side-armed pass, he made a lot of plays with guys very near hitting him or sacking him.”