Mike Neu
Followed Pete Lembo. Mike Neu held Ball State at Regional Program IV for 9 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
4–4 against his rivals. Just 1–7 against Chuck Martin.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
8th-best Ball State tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Pete Lembo (2011–2015) · succeeded by Mike Uremovich (2025–2026).
| Season | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||||
| Record | 4–8 | 2–10 | 4–8 | 5–7 | 7–1 | 6–7 | 5–7 | 4–8 | 3–7 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | W bowl | L bowl | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #113 | #90 | #118 | #124 | #122 | #94 | #96 | #107 | #112 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||||||
| Pass rate | 45.7 | 44.9 | 51.5 | 41.0 | 40.7 | 49.8 | 53.6 | 39.2 | 54.3 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||||
| OC | Joey Lynch | Joey Lynch | Joey Lynch | Joey Lynch | Kevin Lynch | Kevin Lynch | Kevin Lynch | Jared Elliott / Kevin Lynch | Jared Elliott | |
| DC | Tim Daoust | David Elson | David Elson | David Elson / Tyler Stockton | Tyler Stockton | Tyler Stockton | Tyler Stockton | Tyler Stockton | Jeff Knowles | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||||
| Offense | 40 | 7 | 43 | 80 | 74 | 20 | 15 | 30 | 27 | |
| Defense | 22 | 2 | 20 | 23 | 48 | 38 | 57 | 80 | 6 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 40.5 | 41.4 | 46.8 | 36.2 | 39.7 | 47.1 | 44.3 | 34.4 | 51.6 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 32.5 | 36.6 | 40.0 | 24.2 | 44.7 | 53.5 | 43.6 | 35.9 | 48.8 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 40.5 | 32.4 | 26.8 | 30.4 | 37.9 | 23.3 | 31.7 | 27.8 | 36.4 | |
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
A typical class-year mix of incoming transfers.
2 NFL Draft picks: Danny Pinter (2020), Nic Jones (2023)