Report: Ball State fires head coach Mike Neu

Ball State fired football head coach Mike Neu Saturday, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. He’s been coaching at the school since 2016. On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed the firing.

Nakos reported Neu is meeting with the team Saturday morning to address the news. The Cardinals are coming off a 51-48 overtime loss on Tuesday and aren’t back in action until Saturday, November 23rd against Bowling Green.

“Sources: Ball State has fired coach Mike Neu, as the Cardinals are 3-7 and Neu has gone 40-63 in nine seasons there,” Thamel wrote on Twitter. “Neu won the MAC title in 2020, which was his only winning season there. He led Ball State to a pair of bowl games in his tenure.”

Neu was 3-7 this season and hadn’t had a winning season since 2020. Ball State was 40-63 during Neu’s tenure as head coach.

The Cardinals won the Mid-American Conference in 2020, going 7-1 overall. That year, Neu led them to a No. 23 final ranking in the AP Poll.

The following year, the Cardinals went 6-7, but lost the Camellia Bowl. Neu didn’t win more than five games in a season in any other year as head coach.

Mike Neu fired at Ball State

Neu’s coaching career actually began at Ball State in 1994 as a graduate assistant. Four years later, he would dive into the Arena Football League, coaching QBs with the Nashville Kats.

In 2000, he moved to the AFL’s minor league, the AF2, to coach the Augusta Stallions. He went 13-3 in his lone season.

Neu became the head coach of the Carolina Cobras in the AFL from 2001-02, going 6-9 overall and getting to the playoffs each year. He coached just one game in 2001 though due to a previous coaching change.

After a few years off, Neu returned in 2004 to coach the New Orleans Voodoo. From 2004-08, during the AFL’s original inception before being revived in 2010, he went 33-31 as head coach.

Winning an AFL Southern Division title in 2004, Neu and New Orleans lost to the Colorado Crush in the first round of the playoffs.

Neu finally transitioned back to coaching after three years as a Pro Scout with the New Orleans Saints, taking the QB coach’s job at Tulane. After two seasons, he took the same role with the Saints.

After those two years, he was hired by Ball State in 2016.