Welcome to the kitchen, Hornets. Mateo Villaseñor here, apron on, knife sharp, and a cutting board full of Sacramento Valley produce. Every week I narrate the game like a cooking show, because football, like food, is about preparation, timing and heat. Some weeks the soufflé rises. Some weeks it falls. This week, we went into the oven and came out a little crispy. But we're cooking again on Saturday. In Muncie, Indiana. Plate it up.
Part 1: The Kitchen Got Hot
Ohio beat Sacramento State 48-7 on Saturday night at Hornet Stadium, in front of 17,661 people. We're 1-6, 0-4 in the MAC. AP says that's five losses in a row. I'm not going to garnish that. You can't garnish a 48-7.
Here's the honest recipe card. Ohio had 30 first downs. It ran for 265 yards. Duncan Brune scored two rushing touchdowns, Irving Brown ran for 87 on eight carries, and Nick Poulos hit Preston Bowman for a 67-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the third quarter that made it 34-0. We committed 12 penalties for 130 yards. That's like throwing extra salt into every pot on the stove.
Now for the good bites, because a chef always tastes for the good. Brian Salazar Jr. came in and went 4 for 5 for 71 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown pass to Kenyon Shabazz early in the fourth quarter. That's a beautiful sear. Isaiah Ene ran for 59 yards on seven carries, 8.4 a pop. Cincere Rhaney broke a 40-yarder. Boogsie Silvera made eight tackles and broke up a pass. He leads the team with 50 tackles this season, and he's the kind of player who cleans the whole kitchen after service.
And here's the bigger menu. This is Sacramento State's first season in the FBS. The Hornets joined the MAC as a football-only member on July 1, according to Sac State Athletics. The school said this preseason that only six starters came back from last year's team, and 73 new players arrived. New head coach Alonzo Carter is in his first year. That is a brand-new kitchen staff, learning a brand-new menu, in a brand-new restaurant, in front of a national audience. We're learning to cook on a bigger stove.
We also beat Mississippi Valley State 52-0 in September, and we played Eastern Michigan to 28-17 in our first FBS game ever. The ingredients are there.
Part 2: Cooking in Muncie
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN+, Sac State visits Ball State at Scheumann Stadium.
First, the compliment, because good chefs respect the other kitchen. Ball State just won a wild one. On Saturday, Keldric Luster threw a two-point conversion pass to Alex Scherle in overtime to beat Bowling Green 32-31, per AP. It was the Cardinals' first road win in nearly two years. Luster ran for 125 yards and threw for 195, and TJ Horton has 392 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season. That's a quarterback who can cook. And the ending was a whole cooking competition. Bowling Green returned a Luster fumble 35 yards for a touchdown to go up 24-17 with 1:01 left, and AP says Luster then led a seven-play, 78-yard drive and found Eli Hohlt for a 20-yard touchdown on the final play of regulation. Then came overtime, and the two-point try. I respect a team that bakes under pressure.
Now let's look in the Cardinals' pantry, using ESPN's season numbers.
Ball State allows 37.9 points a game. It allows 445.3 yards a game. It gives up 201.6 rushing yards a game. Friends, that defense is an open buffet with the sneeze guard removed. Ohio State scored 56 on them. Liberty scored 51. Northwestern scored 45. Toledo scored 39. Even Kent State, which averages 12 points a game according to AP, scored 26 on Ball State.
And I see the recipe for us. We just watched Ene average 8.4 yards a carry and Rhaney break a 40-yarder. Against a run defense giving up more than 200 a game, I'd like to see the Hornets keep the ball on the ground and let it simmer. Matt Coleman has 36 catches for 473 yards and four touchdowns, and he's our main course in the passing game. Jackson Sharman has 1,070 passing yards. Season the drives with Coleman, then let the backs do the slow roast.
There's also history in the oven. According to Wikipedia, Ball State has appeared in nine bowl games and is 1-8 in them. It was one of eight FBS programs that had never won a sanctioned bowl game until the 2020 Arizona Bowl. Meanwhile, Sacramento State won Big Sky titles in 2019, 2021 and 2022, per Sac State Athletics, and made four FCS playoff appearances during that run. We know how to win a big dinner. We just changed restaurants.
Our home kitchen, Hornet Stadium, seats 21,195, per Wikipedia, and it was busy on Saturday night even with a tough score. Hornets fans show up hungry.
And I'll say this as kindly as a chef can. The Cardinals are 2-5 too. One of their two wins came by one point in overtime against a 2-5 team. Neither of us is the top restaurant in town. One of us is new. The other has been open for a long time.
Tales From Two Towns
Sacramento. My city is the capital of California, at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, with 524,943 people, per Wikipedia. Visit Sacramento calls it America's Farm-to-Fork Capital, with 1.5 million acres of farms and ranches growing more than 160 crops and more than 40 farmers markets around the region. Sacramento was the western terminus of the Pony Express, and construction of the first transcontinental railroad started here in 1863. We've got Sutter's Fort, Old Sacramento State Historic Park, the California State Railroad Museum and the Crocker Art Museum. And Sac State sits on a picturesque campus along the American River. A chef could not ask for a better pantry.
Muncie. Muncie is a nice city of 65,195 on the White River in Indiana. Wikipedia says Muncie got national attention because sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd chose it in the 1920s as the place to study what life was like in a small American city, and they called it "Middletown." Middletown, friends. Out of the whole country, Muncie was the town picked to stand in for typical. Sacramento has the Pony Express and the state Capitol. Muncie got a research paper about being typical.
Muncie is also where the Ball brothers built their glass factory in 1888, which is lovely, and it's the Ball in Ball State. The Ball Brothers made glass jars. Sacramento grows what goes in the jars. I think we know who's the main ingredient and who's the container.
And yes, I know Jim Davis, the man behind Garfield, studied at Ball State, per Wikipedia. Garfield is a fine cat who loves lasagna. But he has never once eaten a farm-to-fork tomato. That's the difference between Muncie and Sacramento.
Chef's Notes
1. Clean up the penalties. 130 yards is too much salt. 2. Feed the running game. Ball State gives up 201.6 rushing yards a game. 3. Stay patient. A first-year FBS program is a slow braise, not a microwave.
Plate it up, Hornets.
My call: Ball State Cardinals 32, Sacramento State Hornets 22.