Troy offensive coordinator has better night than mentor

TROY — It had become so boring, the packed Troy student section started the wave.

Then, boom!

The fireworks the fans expected to see between home-standing Troy and Middle Tennessee began to ignite.

With under a minute to play in the first half, Troy quarterback Levi Brown sat back in the pocket and saw Chip Reeves streaking down the left sidelines wide, wide open.

The perfectly delivered pass landed in the arms of Reeves in stride, and he galloped from the 20 the rest of the way into the end zone for a 52-yard touchdown with 20 seconds remaining on the first half clock.

Troy 14, Middle Tennessee 0.

Game on.

Time to see if Tony Franklin’s high-flying Blue Raider offense would respond and go wild in the second half.

Time to see if Neal Brown’s offense could keep on trucking.

Pupil beats mentor in this one — hands down — to the tune of 31-7 with a major assist from the Troy defense.

Franklin, the former Troy and Auburn offensive coordinator, had been working magic this season as the new offensive guru of Middle Tennessee.

He couldn’t pull anything out of the hat against Troy’s revved up defense.

The game was over for all practical purposes after Middle Tennessee drove 86 yards midway through the third quarter only to be demoralized when Troy’s defense held on a fourth-and-goal play from the 2.

The Blue Raiders scored in the final minute of the third quarter to make it a 24-7 game, but any thoughts of a rally were quickly dashed as Troy scored in the first minute of the fourth quarter on a 28-yard run by back-up QB Dantavious Parker out of the wildcat formation.

The speedy Parker scored two touchdowns on the night, and is quickly becoming a weapon to compliment the strong throwing arm of starting quarterback Levi Brown. Parker ran for 83 yards on six carries in leading a Troy running game which compiled an impressive 264 yards.

Troy and Middle Tennessee went into the game as the top two offenses in the Sun Belt Conference, and touting the two best quarterbacks statistics-wise in Dwight Dasher and Brown.

Dasher threw for 245 yards and a touchdown, but he did little when it really counted. Brown threw for 191 yards and a TD, but it was the Trojans’ ground game that was the story on this night.

Neal Brown, who was hired here by Franklin as a wide receivers coach, had the Trojans clicking while Franklin’s bunch staggered most of the game. Troy had 455 yards of offense, while MTSU had 354.

It marked another impressive performance for Troy with the bright lights of ESPN2 rolling. The team normally plays with a little something extra on the national stage.

Two years ago, also on a Tuesday night against Middle Tennessee here on national TV, Troy absolutely wiped out the Blue Raiders 45-7.

It wasn’t the same kind of beat down this time, but it was more impressive considering Middle Tennessee entered the game 3-1, which included wins against Maryland and Memphis.

Troy (3-2) has taken a gigantic step towards another league championship.

The Trojans did so by winning their fourth straight against Middle Tennessee, one of the programs Troy tried to pattern itself after once going Division I in football.

It says a lot about how far this football program has progressed.

And everyone in the country had a chance to watch it.