Story Links 2025 Season Tickets MUNCIE, Ind. – Mike Uremovich has announced the addition of nine coaches to the Ball State football coaching staff. Among the nine, two are holdovers from the previous coaching staff. Jeff Knowles remains as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the Cardinals, and Shaq Vann stays as the wide receivers […]
MUNCIE, Ind. – Mike Uremovich has announced the addition of nine coaches to the Ball State football coaching staff.
Among the nine, two are holdovers from the previous coaching staff. Jeff Knowles remains as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the Cardinals, and Shaq Vann stays as the wide receivers coach. Both completed their first season at Ball State in 2024. Knowles is a former teammate and coaching colleague of Uremovich, all the way back to their playing days together at Providence Catholic High School in Illinois.
Like Knowles, each of the remaining seven hires steps into the Ball State program with previous ties to Uremovich. Six coached under Uremovich recently at Butler University, and the seventh, Ray Smith, coached the defense while Uremovich was head coach at St. Francis University in Joliet, Illinois.
Knowles and Smith, in fact, both were with Uremovich at St. Francis. With Knowles leading the defense at Ball State, Smith arrives as the defensive pass game coordinator and cornerbacks coach. Smith is a former all-league defensive back at Northern Illinois and brings 18 seasons of coaching experience to the Cardinals. He spent the 2024 season at Kennesaw State, following seven years at Southeast Missouri State.
Coordinating the Cardinals’ run defense is Adam Siwicki who will also serve as the defensive line coach. Siwicki served in the same capacity the past three years at Butler, in addition to being named defensive coordinator for a Bulldogs’ team last season that ranked fourth in the country with just 16.3 points allowed per game. Like Uremovich, Knowles and Smith, he also has ties to both St. Francis and Northern Illinois.
Rounding out the defensive staff additions is Rory Mannering, a Central Indiana native who was the assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Butler last year. He starred locally at Hanover College where he was a Division III all-region pick at free safety. He will coach safeties for the Cardinals.
Offensively, Alex Barr comes to Ball State after three years as the offensive line coach at Butler. He was the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator the past two seasons. An offensive lineman as a player under Uremovich’s tutelage at NC State, Barr began his coaching career as an intern and grad assistant under his former coach at Northern Illinois. He will be the Cardinals’ offensive line coach in 2025.
Ball State’s new tight ends coach is Sean Chase, who coached tight ends and running backs during a two-year stay at Butler. Like Barr, he began his coaching career while a student and graduate assistant at NIU – with Uremovich the assistant head coach.
Ray Holmes is the Cardinals’ inside receivers coach, following a three-year stint directing the receiving unit at Butler. Counting student positions at Northern Illinois and Temple, Ball State is the fourth program in which Holmes has coached under Uremovich.
Also announced is strength and conditioning coach T.J. Greenstone, who spent seven years at Butler guiding programs for the Bulldogs’ football and men’s soccer teams. A former defensive tackle at Vanderbilt, Greenstone is a U.S. champion weightlifter whose coaching resume includes stops at Southern Mississippi, Tennessee State and Evansville.
Under the leadership of new head coach Mike Uremovich, season tickets for the 2025 Ball State football season are on sale now at an exclusive presale price. To take advantage of new and exclusive presale rates, renew or buy new season tickets by Dec. 20, 2024. Learn more at BallStateSports.com/2025Football.
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