By DOUG ZALESKI
dzaleski@muncie.gannett.com

DeKALB, Ill. — At some point in Ball State’s football game tonight, tailback Eric Williams will line up in the backfield where the quarterback is usually positioned. He’ll take a shotgun snap from center Kreg Hunter, fake a handoff to fellow tailback Cory Sykes on a play that looks like a sweep, and eventually hand the ball to yet another tailback, Quale Lewis, for a misdirection run.

Or Williams might hand the ball to Sykes, who gives it to quarterback Tanner Justice — lined up as a receiver — who throws a pass. Or Williams might dart straight up on the middle on a run after receiving the snap.

Ball State has latched on to football’s current fad formation, the Wildcat offense. The Cardinals averaged 11 yards per play with it when they defeated Eastern Michigan on Oct. 31 for their only victory of the season.

“What it does is takes aggression away and (prevents) linebackers from coming downhill so fast at you,” Ball State coach Stan Parrish said. “We do a lot of cross-motioning and run as much deception with it as we can.”

The Wildcat isn’t new. At its root, it’s a souped-up 21st Century version of the single-wing offense that Sammy Baugh ran in the 1930s and ’40s.

Decades later, in 2005, Gus Malzahn used Wildcat formations to coach Springdale High School to the Arkansas state championship, then installed some of it when he was hired as offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas and later at Tulsa University.

Malzahn’s goal with the formation simply was to get his best players on the field.

The Miami Dolphins have confounded NFL defenses the past two seasons with a version of Malzahn’s package.

The Wildcat has since spilled into the college game, being used as a change-of-pace offense or a formation to help teams present something unique to defenses.

“Nobody thought you could do that stuff in the NFL,” Parrish said. “It creates indecision with the defense, even in the NFL. When linebackers can’t come downhill at you and are forced to sit there and read, it gets reduced to a four- or five-man front game against yours, and your backs are one-on-one.”

Parrish said college defenses have caught up to the spread offense that many teams popularized a few years ago. The Wildcat is based on misdirection and unfolds much faster than the single wing.

Cardinals defensive end Brandon Crawford said defenses can’t “cheat” against the Wildcat. Linemen must have gap integrity at the point of attack, and linebackers can’t stray far from their second-level responsibilities or running backs will romp free into the secondary.

“Everyone has an assignment, a man they have to be accountable for,” Crawford said. “You still want to get pressure, you still want to have gap integrity and stick to your assignment. But one mess-up and …”

Poof — a runner with the sheer speed of Sykes, the explosive burst of Williams or the veteran moxie of Lewis will be off on a 10-yard run or more.

Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill, whose team plays host to Ball State at 6 p.m. today, says most teams in the Mid-American Conference have some version of the Wildcat in their playbook. When a team such as Ball State uses a lot of it (up to 15 plays a game) it requires more preparation by the defense.

“You have to do that because it’s a little bit different,” Kill said. “(Ball State) has had an off week, and I’m sure they’ve added wrinkles to it.”

Williams, a true freshman, said the Wildcat was completely new to him this season. He has picked it up quickly, and Parrish trusts his decision-making skills.

“I think it’s an honor to be running such a package as a freshman and mimicking Ronnie Brown (of the Dolphins) and seeing how they do it,” Williams said. “I love it. I want to continue it.”

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Pounding the ball

Northern Illinois’ offensive philosophy isn’t hard to figure out. The Huskies play with an old-school mentality where the run game is king. They lead the Mid-American Conference in rushing at 229.6 yards per game, 60 more than the next-best running team. The two-pronged ground attack of Chad Spann and Me’co Brown, who operate in a rotation at tailback, average 153 yards per game. Ball State has been good against the run in recent games, giving up an average of 110.0 yards in the past five contests.

2. Quarterback decision
Ball State has prepared for Northern Illinois backup quarterback DeMarcus Grady to continue to run the offense in place of starter Chandler Harnish. Harnish, from Bluffton, Ind., missed the past three games with a knee injury. He returned to practice Monday on a limited basis and his status for today’s game is uncertain. Grady has directed the offense with Harnish out, and he adds another strong rushing element to the Huskies’ attack. Grady ran for 104 yards last week against Eastern Michigan.

3. Zeroed in on Quale
NIU coach Jerry Kill says Ball State’s Quale Lewis is as good as any running back he’s seen in the MAC in his two years in the league. The Ball State running game, led by Lewis, faces a heavy burden in today’s game. The Cardinals must run the ball effectively behind the trifecta of Lewis, Eric Williams and Cory Sykes to have a chance at winning because the passing game behind QB Tanner Justice hasn’t provided consistent results. Complicating Ball State’s task is that the Huskies are the most difficult team to run on in the MAC, holding opponents to 104.2 yards per game.

4. Bring the A game
Ball State probably has to play its best game of the season in order to spring perhaps the biggest upset of the MAC season tonight. Northern Illinois might not jump off the radar as a strong team to some, but there’s a reason it won at Purdue and lost by only eight points at Wisconsin. The Huskies lead the MAC in scoring offense and scoring defense, top the league in turnover margin, are first in rushing, rushing defense and total defense, and second in kickoff returns. In sum, Northern Illinois might be the most fundamentally sound team in the MAC.

5. The skinny
Ball State’s game against Northern Illinois shapes up as a huge mismatch. The Cardinals proved two games ago that there isn’t much difference between themselves and Eastern Michigan (BSU won 29-27), and the Huskies slapped the Eagles 50-6 last week. Ball State has to hope that Northern Illinois is taking a peek ahead on its schedule to games against MAC East title contender Ohio and MAC West leader Central Michigan.

Prediction: Northern Illinois 44, Ball State 10

Contact sports writer Doug Zaleski at 213-5813.