The narrow strip of chaos known as the line of scrimmage has long been Ethan Crowe’s comfort zone on football fields.
After starting for three years on the offensive line at Center Grove, the 6-foot-5, 305-pound redshirt freshman appears destined to eventually do the same at Ball State.
Crowe, a center, is currently second on the Cardinals’ depth chart behind Anthony Todd, a sixth-year senior who started all eight games last season as BSU stormed to a Mid-American Conference championship and 34-13 throttling of San Jose State in the Arizona Bowl.
“I was a little surprised (Todd) came back because of the toll football takes on your body, but I don’t blame him,” Crowe said. “We’re going to have an amazing team.”
On paper, it would appear that is a strong possibility, despite a daunting early portion of the schedule that includes games at Penn State and Wyoming. The Cardinals, who were ranked 23rd in the country at the conclusion of last season, return 20 of 22 starters.
Despite being redshirted, Crowe played in three games in 2020, taking the field briefly in a 38-31 defeat of Eastern Michigan for what were his first snaps as a college football player. He also took part in the MAC title defeat of Buffalo at Ford Field in Detroit and the aforementioned bowl victory.
“Being second string, they brought me along on all the trips,” Crowe said. “It definitely helped a lot to be able to experience what college football is like. My favorite trip was the bowl game in Arizona. The energy we had at the time, it was awesome.”
A lineman all the way back to his bantam days, Crowe focused on being a center starting in middle school. Excelling at what is arguably his sport’s least glamorous and most overlooked position never ceases appealing to him.
“I feel like I was built to be a center. You’re able to say you’re in charge of the offensive line. You have to be really smart and you have to be really mean,” said Crowe, a business administration major who carried a 3.2 grade-point average while at Center Grove.
“Those things have to go together because you have to be able to read defenses, but also be mean right off the snap.”
The three-letter saying within the Ball State football program is DOB, which stands for Detroit or Bust. The bar established by the 2020 Cardinals and the fact so many players return makes for exciting times in Muncie as BSU kicks off the season Sept. 2 against Western Illinois.
Whether starting or filling in for Todd in a reserve role, Crowe wants nothing less than to be back at Ford Field for the MAC championship game in December.
“All of us want to get back to that,” he said.
