Injury lets other Troy players have a chance

TROY — Brandon Boudreaux was walking to the cafeteria after practice Sunday when a car pulled up beside him and the man driving offered him a ride.

The man inside had a message that was loud and clear for the Troy freshman defensive end.

“He told me that I had to step it up now,” Boudreaux said.

The man in question was Larry Blakeney, the Trojan head football coach. He had good reasoning. Senior Kenny Mainor, a starter, suffered a season-ending knee injury last week against Ohio State.

Cameron Sheffield and Brandon Lang are the starters, but the two and Mainor had been rotating snaps.

“I’m not the smartest guy in the world but I know we can’t play two guys for the rest of the year,” defensive ends coach Randy Butler said.

So when Lang or Sheffield need a breather, one of three guys will get the call Saturday at Oklahoma State — Boudreaux, the Auburn native who grayshirted last fall, sophomore John Mark Patrick or junior Jeremy Hawkins.

“Plans are to play Cameron and Brandon as much as I can, and then it’s just going to be a combination of the next three guys,” Butler said. “Run situation, pass situation, that depends on which one would go in next.”

Boudreaux comes from the same high school as NFL All-Pros and former Trojans Demarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora. According to the media guide, he’s one of the strongest players on the team but his 6-foot-1 stature probably kept him from being recruited by bigger schools.

Spend several minutes with Boudreaux, and one thing sticks out — his confidence.

“I’ve always been that way,” Boudreaux said. “That’s some way you have to be. It can carry you a long way. If you have confidence, you can do a lot of things.”

On the other side, Patrick was a running back in high school who coaches thought would be an outside linebacker.

“I guess they thought I was faster, but I put on some more weight when I got here so they moved me to middle linebacker,” Patrick said.

But after a redshirt year, coaches moved Patrick to defensive end midway through last season after Lang suffered a season-ending knee injury and Mainor was suspended for two games.

Patrick had to learn on the fly, as the midseason move wasn’t conducive to extra player attention since the team was trying to win games. He got more individual attention in the spring.

“He’s learning,” defensive coordinator Jeremy Rowell sad. “It’s still early on. We moved him to give us another guy down there who was athletic enough to help us.”

Blakeney said last Sunday that Boudreaux and Patrick would be the next two guys. He wasn’t sure if Hawkins was ready for game situations yet — but he’ll keep his chin strap on a little tighter starting now.

“Somebody in that group, hopefully all three of them, will grow up in a hurry and be ready to help us when we need it,” Butler said.