State Football Preview: Troy

The season is approaching quickly so let’s take a look at the schedule and breakdown each game and give some background on our opponents. Change can be welcome in certain situations and that may be what Troy needs to revive their program, as they have first year head coach Neal Brown taking over this season. This will be the first time a new head coach has roamed the sidelines in quite some time, because previous coach Larry Blakeney was the coach for the past 25 years.

A season ago the Trojans finished an awful 3-9 overall and was a cellar dweller in the Sun Belt. There were a few bright spots as freshman quarterback Brandon Silvers proved to be accurate as he completed 70.5 percent of his passes (2nd NCAA).  One caveat is that Troy only passed 43.7 percent of the time. New coach Neal Brown, who has stated that his desire is to lead the nation in plays per game, is looking to shake things up. Brown was most recently the Offensive Coordinator at Kentucky prior to accepting the job at Troy in November.

Troy excelled in the short passing game but was awful on long passes. On the season they only accounted for 79 passing plays of 10 or more yards! Silver may be accurate in the short game but leaves a lot to be desired attacking down the field. Another question that must be answered is how will the Trojans fare in a pass happy scheme after they were so ground dominate last season? A new scheme is certainly going to cause issues early in the season, especially in the first game.

One area that the Pack will have to give extra attention to is Troy’s experienced secondary. Senior starting Safety Montres Kitchens led the Trojans in INT’s with 6. Rounding out the secondary is senior CB Tray Hall and junior safety JaQuandrian Lewis. Jacoby must pay attention to his eyes and not lock onto receivers, because the Trojans have a couple of ball hawks lurking in the secondary.

There is no reason why we shouldn’t impose our will on them in the ground game and with our pass rush. Conditioning will be all-important if the Trojans employ an uptempo attack, especially in the summer heat. One thing that has impressed me about Doeren’s teams is their fitness level. Look for State to start the season at 1-0 with little trouble.