Its months-long losing streak finally over, Troy is looking to start a winning streak when it plays its Sun Belt Conference opener at home on Saturday.
The Trojans are 1-3 after beating Florida A&M 34-12 last weekend, the program’s first victory under coach Gerad Parker and its first win period since the 2023 Sun Belt championship game. Troy had lost four straight — last year’s Birmingham Bowl and all three games this season.
Troy now turns its attention to Louisiana-Monroe, another team with a first-year head coach. Bryant Vincent’s are Warhawks are 2-1 after getting pummeled by top-ranked Texas 51-3 last weekend.
“I’m very proud for us to put a win in the winning column, which, although there’s many ways to really look at your progress and see how you’re getting better other than the scoreboard, at some point you definitely want that to read right on the scoreboard because there’s no better motivator than winning,” first-year Troy coach Gerad Parker said. “So with that, it’s really good to get our team in a winning mindset and then hopefully ride the weight of momentum of preparation and our process with the same intensities that we have in these first weeks. But now you do it with winning and see how that will push itself forward.”
Troy finally got its first-team offensive unit back for the FAMU game, with Goose Crowder at quarterback and Eli Russ at center. Crowder had been out since the second quarter of the Sept. 7 Memphis game with a shoulder injury, while Russ had missed two games with what he described only as “lower body injuries.”
Crowder had the best game of his short career vs. the Rattlers, completing 17 of 24 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns. Three of those scores went to Devonte Ross, who once again was the best player on the field.
Ross caught 11 passes for a Troy-record 229 yards, including a 98-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. In his last two games, the sophomore from Cartersville, Ga., has totaled 16 receptions for 371 yards and five touchdowns, with 482 all-purpose yards (including a 77-yard punt return for a score against Iowa).
“It’s awesome, especially seeing Devonte break those records and then Goose having a game like he did,” Russ said. “It definitely helps us. It boosts our confidence a lot.
“We’ve had some pretty rough starts here the three games before that. And seeing those guys come out and do their job really boosts our ego, really, and shows how much we’ve been working and how well we’ve been meshing together.”
Defensively, Troy continues to give up plenty of yards — including 343 vs. FAMU and an average of 392.5 for the season — but played well situationally. The Trojans kept the Rattlers out of the end zone, limiting them to four field goals and just 2-for-14 on third down.
Troy has especially struggled vs. the run, allowing an average of 191 yards per game. FAMU managed just 55 yards on the ground (vs. 288 passing), which Parker took as progress.
“It was great to see,” Parker said. “I think we had eight tackles for loss and played across the line of scrimmage a little bit better. There’s plenty to fix, but I do like the way we’re attacking the line of scrimmage more on defense. I think that led to some long yardage situations that forced the field goals when they did drive the ball, that put us in position not to give up a touchdown and certainly only three points in the second half.
“That is great momentum moving forward and what we’re going to continue to take steps in if we want to play championship football. But it was great to see us be disruptive and do what we did in the game.”
ULM won its first two games — including a 32-6 throttling of UAB on Sept. 7 — then had an open date before falling back to earth against top-ranked Texas last week. The Warhawks fell behind by three touchdowns in the first quarter and managed just 111 yards of total offense in a 51-3 loss in Austin.
Nevertheless, Vincent’s first ULM team appears to be vastly improved from the squad that went 2-10 last season under Terry Bowden. The former South Alabama and UAB assistant (who was also Blazers interim coach in 2022) brought in more than 70 new players through traditional recruiting and the transfer portal this fall, including local legend and USC quarterback transfer General Booty.
“You see great leadership,” Parker said. “… I’ve developed a little bit of a relationship with Coach Vincent and understand what he stands for. And you can see his personality come out in the football team he has ready to play this season.
“… So the first thing you see about them is how hard their football team plays and how sound they are in all three phases, which is why they’re playing winning football. So that’s certainly what sticks out to me and my staff.”
Kickoff for Troy-ULM is set for 6 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The game will stream live via ESPN+.
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Publish date : 2024-09-24 03:13:00
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