Our 3rd Down Chirp crew cameras take you inside the Ball State Football locker room following BSU’s 48-36 win Sept. 3. VMI.

3rd Down Chirp: Earn It Today will premiere in September documenting the Cardinals on and off the field with access never before granted.

Ball State and VMI combined to put on a prolific show of offensive football that ended with the Cardinals claiming a 48-36 victory in front of 10,473 fans in their season-opener in Scheumann Stadium. The win was Ball State’s sixth in a row in a home opener.

Anybody expecting to be entertained likely had no complaints as the teams combined to pile up 1,114 yards of offense, breaking the stadium record of 1,072 set in 2012 in the Cardinals’ game vs. Northern Illinois.

“These games are like three and a half hours in purgatory if you’re in my position,” Lembo said. “We were expecting a high scoring game going in … we also anticipated we were going to get the kitchen sink thrown at us, which we certainly did.

“We saw a fake punt, a fake field goal, two onside kicks and certainly some chances they took going for it on fourth down.”