Keilan Smith holds the NT · Depth spot in Ball State Cardinals’s defensive tackle room. Where he sits among the room’s front-line roles:

Keilan Smith is a 6'2", 326-pound nose tackle who transferred to Ball State from Cincinnati. The Pickerington, Ohio native attended Pickerington Central High School, where he earned third-team offensive lineman honors on the Division I All-Ohio Team and played both ways. Smith spent three seasons with the Bearcats, seeing no game action as a true freshman in 2023 or redshirt freshman in 2024. He made his college debut in the 2025 AutoZone Liberty Bowl against Navy with his first tackle.

Cincinnatithrough 2025

Ball State2026 — present