Georgia Southern football vs. Ball State on Saturday: Kickoff, how to watch and more

The Georgia Southern Eagles (2-1, 0-0 Sun Belt Conference) play the Ball State Cardinals (1-2, 0-1 MAC) on Saturday in a non-conference matchup two Group of 5 programs. Here's how to watch and listen to the game, the second at home in the Clay Helton era.

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What time do the Georgia Southern Eagles play the Ball State Cardinals?

Kickoff: 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022

Location: Paulson Stadium (capacity 25,000), Statesboro, Georgia

How to watch Georgia Southern vs. Ball State on TV

Danny Waugh (play-by-play), Cole Neely (analyst) and Amy Zimmer (sidelines) will have the call on the ESPN+ streaming service.

Radio for Ball State at Georgia Southern

Danny Reed (play-by-play), Terry Harvin (analyst), Russ Brown (analyst) and Frank Sulkowski (sidelines) have the call on the Georgia Southern Sports Network. The pregame, in-game and postgame shows can be heard in Savannah on WIXV 95.5 FM and on the network's flagship station WPMX 94.9 FM in Statesboro.

Betting: Over/under & point spread

As of Saturday morning, Georgia Southern is a 9.5-point favorite, according to the Tipico Sportsbook. The over/under was 66.5 points and the money line was +270 on Ball State and -340 on GS.

Series history

Georgia Southern and Ball State have never met in football. The schools' men's basketball teams opened the 2021-22 season on Nov. 9, 2021, and the host Eagles won 82-71 at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro.

Game notes

Georgia Southern is 3-1 all-time against current members of the Mid-American Conference. The most recent encounter was the 2018 Camellia Bowl when Tyler Bass (now with the NFL's Buffalo Bills) kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to beat Eastern Michigan 23-21. Georgia Southern is 1-0 against EMU, 1-0 against Bowling Green (2015 GoDaddy Bowl) and 1-1 against Western Michigan.

This is the second home game against a MAC school as WMU came to Paulson in 2015 and the Eagles won 43-17.

Georgia Southern is 30-9 on homecoming in the modern era after falling to Georgia State last year.

Georgia Southern's sixth-year transfer Kyle Vantrease threw for 365 yards and a touchdown and ran for a score against Ball State in 2020 when he was at Buffalo and playing in the MAC Championship Game, which Ball State won 38-28.

This season, Vantrease has 152 passing attempts in three games, which is already tied for the 10th-most in a single season at GS. Lee Chapple set the record of 360 in 2009.

GS has six touchdown passes in three games after having just five all of last year.

The Eagles are one of four teams not to give up a sack thus far this season, coming on 152 passing attempts. Ball State has allowed only one sack through 230 offensive snaps. The Cardinals and Eagles have both allowed just six negative plays, which is only topped by Georgia and TCU nationally.

GS is tied for fifth in FBS in fewest penalties with 10 (for 89 yards). Ball State is 114th with 26 in three games (214 yards).

Ball State head coach Mike Neu, a native of Indianapolis, was inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004. A 1994 graduate, he started 38 of 41 games at quarterback in his four seasons (1990-93). He was honored with the MAC’s Vern Smith Award as the league's most valuable player and the MAC Offensive Player of the Year award as a senior. That year, Neu and the Cardinals went 8-3-1 overall and 7-0-1 in league action to capture the MAC championship.

Neu spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons as the quarterbacks coach for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and their prolific passer, Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees.

Neu has an overall record at Ball State of 29-43 since 2016, including 7-1 in 2020 when the Cardinals finished the year ranked No. 23 in the final AP Top 25 and the final Amway Coaches Poll.

Ball State is coming off a 31-0 shutout vs. Murray State on Sept. 17. The Cardinals recorded a shutout for the first time since defeating Toledo (31-0) on Oct. 4, 2008.

Ball State sophomore running back Carson Steele was named to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List, listing the top 100 freaks in all of college football. Steele, who is 6-foot and 215 pounds, has 7.0% body fat, can back squat 615 pounds, bench press 405 and power clean 305. In addition, he owns a pet alligator, Crocky-J, in his hometown of Greenwood, Indiana.

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They said it

Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton on the schedule:

"We knew the first half of the season four of our first six games were going to be on the road. We talked about that. I thought it was going to be so important to be mentally tough and disciplined and focusing on one game at a time. I know it's a coaching cliché, but you have to pour yourself into the current week. This current week, thank God, we're back at Paulson. It's nice to be right here at home with our fan base and our alumni. We've had a couple of late nights on the road, got back at 6:30 (a.m.) one time (from Nebraska) and 2:30 the next (from Alabama). It's good to be at home with our fans and look forward to the opportunity to play in front of them at Paulson."

Georgia Southern center Logan Langemeier on playing at home on Saturday:

"Paulson is a special place to play. Nebraska was a great environment. UAB was interesting to play at. But playing at Paulson is special. I do hope we have a game where it's packed out, everyone in town is coming. That energy is special energy. It's fearful for some teams when they come in here. Some teams don't see that. So for us, I'd like to see this place rockin' again."

Twitter follows

Follow Georgia Southern beat writer Nathan Dominitz of the Savannah Morning News/savannahnow.com @NathanDominitz for GS updates and Ball State beat writer Robby General of The (Muncie, Indiana) Star Press @rgeneraljr for Cardinals updates.

You can follow the teams' official Twitter accounts at @GSAthletics_FB and @BallStateFB

Podcast

Listen to the new and previous episodes of the "Georgia Southern Extra" podcast at https://omny.fm/shows/georgia-southern-extra/playlists/podcast

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern football team to play Ball State: When is it on TV?