A player who began the 2014 season as Ball State’s starting quarterback will begin the 2015 season at a different football program entirely.
Monday, Ball State announced that Ozzie Mann has decided to transfer from the university and pursue other opportunities. Where those other opportunities may be for the Indiana native is uncertain, although, if he ends up at another FBS program, he’ll be forced to sit out the 2015 season.
The fact that Mann lost out in this spring’s quarterback competition -- Jack Miles, who took the starting job from Mann last year, took most of the first-team reps -- seems to be the impetus for his decision.
“We want to thank Ozzie for his hard work and for representing our program in a first class manner,” head coach Pete Lembo said in a statement. “Depth chart decisions are never easy, but they need to be made. Ozzie has our full support and we will do whatever we can to help him with this next step in his career.”
Mann started six of the seven games in which he played last season, including the opener against Colgate. For the season, he completed 116-of-197 passes for 1,281 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions.
A two-star member of the Cardinals’ 2012 recruiting class, Mann played in six games in 2013 after redshirting as a true freshman.