Ball-So-Hard University's Next Pig?
I’m out of your league, baby.
- PND, musician
Last year, inquisitive minds asked who would be taking over the Ball State backfield in the wake of the 5’7 inch-tall wunderkind, Marquez Cooper, who defected to San Diego State. We tuned into beat writer reports, obsessing over every detail we could find to try to project the next Ball State aka Ball So Hard University RB1.
Eventually, we received an answer via the transfer of EKU RB Braedon Sloan. In fact, if I do say so myself, I believe this publication led the charge in banging the drum for the former Colonel, who was off to a great year before injury afflicted him. Unfortunately, the old staff has since moved on, as has Sloan.
But whenever there’s turnover, there’s opportunity—opportunity to find value at a discount price. Indeed, this is the game of CFF in a nutshell. The new staff is intriguing, but not a group that compels me in any particular direction. Their history at RB is a bit of a mixed bag, but shows enough promising signs to warrant interest in the Ball State backfield once again this offseason.
Mike Uremovich is the man who was named head coach in late 2024, replacing Mike Neu. He had previously been the head coach at FCS program Butler from 2022-2024. His OC, a man named Craig Harmon, spent the last four seasons coaching high school ball in Chicago.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with coaching high school ball, but you’d expect an FBS coordinator to have spent at least some time post-pandy coaching in college. The reason he was hired was most likely due to his time spent with Uremovich at Temple and NIU as his QBs coach.
Now, looking at the current personnel of this program, there are a few interesting names; chief among them to me being Kennesaw State transfer Qua Ashley. The 5’10 runner out of Georgia impressed me with his receiving ability last fall, playing as the RB2 behind Michael Benefield. We’ll get more into this later; for now, let’s take a closer look at the system.
Coaching & System
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 10.91 (half ppr)
Mike Uremovich’s Coaching Career:
Dec. 4, 2024 – Ball State; Head Coach
2022-24 – Butler; Head Coach
2019-21 – Temple; Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator
2016-18 – Northern Illinois; Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator
I suppose the logical place to start would be with the Butler stats. It’ll no doubt disappoint the readers to know that two QBs led Butler in rushing last season, with the top RB receiving only 60(!) carries.
However, the 2023 season offers a glimpse of hope for the degenerate sickos out there. RB Jyran Mitchell led the program with 201 carries, 1297 yards and 13 scores.
What’s more, Uremovich was the OC at Temple who oversaw Ray Davis’ (formerly Re’Mahn Davis) development early on in his career. Davis averaged 17.33 touches per game in 2019, surpassing 1000 yards total and scoring 10 TDs in 12 games. He also averaged 22.5 touches per game (19.5 carries) in the shortened 2020 COVID season.
Uremovich’s 2018 NIU offence facilitated a 1000 yard rusher via Tre Harbison, who rushed 206 times for 1034 yards and five scores.
So those are the highlights. The more pessimistic view would be to say that Uremovich has only had a 1000-yard rusher in two of his last six full seasons, and three RBs who surpassed 1000 total yards.
Though it’s fair to say that Davis likely would have surpassed one or both of those marks in 2020, which would have made Uremovich’s seven year history more tantalizing at four out of seven players achieving 1000 total yards and seeing 200+ total touches.
His OC has been with him at every stop during his collegiate coaching career over the last decade save for Butler, so there isn’t really anything new to report on there.
From Uremovich’s time at Temple, his offences were completely balanced averaging a near 50/50 split in play calling. Going back to his 2018 NIU offence, out of the three seasons of FBS play calling data we have on him, two of those teams averaged over 70 plays per game (73 in 2019, 71 in 2018).
His 2021 Temple team took a nosedive in pace averaging 60 plays per game. It should also be noted that the 2018 NIU team’s play calling split was a departure from what Uremovich did at Temple—averaging nearly 60% run plays.
So, Uremovich’s preferences are a bit enigmatic based off the small sample size.
Qua Ashley (5’10, 195)
2024 RUSHING STATS: 122-409-1 (9.7 PPG)
On to the man of the hour. The first thing I’ll say is that I like the cut of this kid’s jib. He’s another Georgia boy finding his way into the mysterious lands of the Mid-American Conference. They love the Peach State up there, let me tell you.
Ashley was an unrated recruit out of Dublin, GA in the class of 2022. Information on his high school career is admittedly quite limited and I’m too lazy to go much further than looking at 247 Sports. He didn’t play at all as a freshman in college, and then appeared in six games as a redshirt freshman in 2023, mostly working on special teams; his offensive production was unremarkable.
That being said, his first full year of action in 2024 is illuminating. Dare I say he has some Re’Mahn Davis to his game with his receiving ability? And yes, that’s right, I’m using Ray Davis’ old school govy name to establish more legitimacy.
Ashley saw 41 targets in 12 games last year, catching 28 of these for 255 yards and a score. He also returned 17 kicks for another 505 yards and two scores. In terms of his actual rushing ability, he averaged a concerning 3.1 yards per carry with a total of 122 carries, 409 yards and a score. It’s actually kind of remarkable to think that he finished the year with over 1000 yards gained across offence and special teams.
Unfortunately for Ashley (or maybe more so for us), special teams yardage very rarely counts for points in the majority of CFF leagues, and if it does it is not counted the same as rushing and receiving yardage.
Nonetheless, Ashley has shown some serious juice in the open field. As mentioned, he was not the featured workhorse in the offence at Kennesaw State. He was the RB2 in 2024 as a redshirt sophomore. More importantly, he now plays at a lower level of competition (but not by much) relative to a year ago.
KSU played in Conference USA in 2024, which again gives some concern regarding Ashley’s 3.1 YPC at that level. The MAC is still likely worse talent wise, but it is by no means a huge gap.
Now, I hope that I have your full attention when I say that below might be the hardest single photo of the entire 2024 campaign, and it deserves to be a meme of some kind within the CFF community:
Are you telling me that a player with a photo like this in his repertoire isn’t going to at least average over 10 PPG in full PPR formats next season? I’ll admit I’ll be surprised—very surprised. Though, the CFF world surprises me nearly every week, so that’s not saying much.
I like to think Qua talked some shit as he ran past #4 above, something along the lines of “I’m out of your league, baby”… Maybe I’m letting my imagination get away from me.
Qua Ashley being a thing in CFF is undoubtedly a long shot. This article wouldn’t be the first mention of him if he weren’t. Thus, he’s a player that few will dare to take a chance on, and rightfully so. We don’t even know if he’ll be the starter, or if the staff will run a full committee. Or maybe the team will be so poor in a transition year that it doesn’t even matter what the offence looks like?
Still, I view Ashley as an interesting, fun, dart throw type of CFF asset worthy of being a watchlist candidate in most regular formats and a late round selection in a 30-round bestball.
By the way, does that pose in the first photo by the opening quote remind you of anyone?? ◾
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Sample 2018-2024, excluding 2020.