List of Ball State Cardinals head football coaches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
| 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 2025 college football season.[4]
| No. | Name | Term | Season(s) | GC | OW | OL | OT | O% | CW | CL | CT | C% | PW | PL | CCs | NCs | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul "Billy" Williams | 1924–1925 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 13 | 0 | .188 | |||||||||
| 2 | Norman G. Wann | 1926–1927 | 2 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | .733 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 3 | Paul B. Parker | 1928–1929 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | .571 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 4 | Lawrence McPhee | 1930–1934 | 5 | 39 | 15 | 23 | 1 | .397 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 5 | John Magnabosco | 1935–1942 1944–1952 | 16 | 128 | 68 | 46 | 14 | .586 | 35 | 20 | 6 | .634 | — | — | 1 | — | |
| N/A | No Team | 1943 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 6 | George Serdula | 1953–1955 | 3 | 24 | 14 | 9 | 1 | .604 | 8 | 9 | 0 | .470 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | Jim Freeman | 1956–1961 | 6 | 48 | 18 | 28 | 2 | .396 | 13 | 22 | 1 | .375 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8 | Ray Louthen | 1962–1967 | 6 | 53 | 37 | 13 | 3 | .726 | 26 | 8 | 2 | .750 | — | — | 4 | — | — |
| 9 | Wave Myers | 1968–1970 | 3 | 29 | 15 | 14 | 0 | .517 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 10 | Dave McClain | 1971–1977 | 7 | 74 | 46 | 25 | 3 | .642 | 13 | 4 | 0 | .764 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 11 | Dwight Wallace | 1978–1984 | 7 | 77 | 40 | 37 | 0 | .519 | 30 | 27 | 0 | .526 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 12 | Paul Schudel | 1985–1994 | 10 | 112 | 60 | 48 | 4 | .554 | 48 | 33 | 3 | .589 | 0 | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| 13 | Bill Lynch | 1995–2002 | 8 | 90 | 37 | 53 | 0 | .411 | 30 | 34 | 0 | .468 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 14 | Brady Hoke | 2003–2008 | 6 | 69 | 30 | 39 | 0 | .435 | 27 | 20 | 0 | .574 | 0 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 15 | Stan Parrish | 2008–2010 | 3 | 24 | 6 | 18 | 0 | .250 | 5 | 11 | 0 | .312 | 0 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 16 | Pete Lembo | 2011–2015 | 5 | 62 | 33 | 29 | 0 | .532 | 23 | 17 | 0 | .575 | 0 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 17 | Mike Neu | 2016–2024 | 9 | 103 | 40 | 63 | 0 | .388 | 25 | 43 | 0 | .368 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Int | Colin Johnson[A 5] | 2024 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — |
| 18 | Mike Uremovich | 2025–present | 1 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | .333 | 3 | 5 | 0 | .375 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — |
Notes
- 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.
- 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