Garden City CC lineman picks Troy

November 23, 2008

By Drew Champlin

Troy landed a commitment from Garden City (Kan.) Community College offensive lineman Ray Carter this weekend.

Carter, a 6-foot-4, 300-pounder, played guard and tackle at Garden City but said he projected at right tackle for Troy. He was recruited to Troy by Jeremy Rowell and his player host was right tackle Dion Small. He took in Troy’s 48-3 win over UL-Lafayette Saturday.

“It was a nice visit,“ Carter said. “They treated a boy well. I liked the game, it was definitely something good to look at. Troy runs the same offense we run at Garden City, so it would be an easy fit.“

Carter, a Philadelphia, Pa., native, signed with Temple out of high school, but grades forced him to go to Garden City.

“Troy’s small, but it’s way better than Garden City to me,“ Carter said. “It’s more like a city to me.“

However, Carter is still looking around, he said, and may take a visit to Western Michigan, which is 9-2 this season in the Mid-American Conference.

“I would say I’m 90 percent,“ Carter said.

If Carter does follow through with his commitment to Troy, he’ll enroll in January for spring practice. Troy has just two tackles on scholarship returning in Nic Riley and Kyle Wilborn.

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Of note, there were two other non-committed players visiting Troy this weekend. OL Jamar Bass did not commit to Troy this weekend and OL Tyler Graves‘ visit won’t be over until Monday. They are still high on Troy’s list, though.

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OFFENSIVE COMMITMENTS

Jay Stansberry, OT, Bremen, Ga.
Nate Newland, OT, Hutchinson, Kan. CC
Ray Carter, OT, Garden City CC
Jimbo Arnold, OG, Belle Glade, Fla. (2008 GRAYSHIRT)
Felton Payton, WR, Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (2008 GRAYSHIRT)
Gavin Ellis, WR/TE, Cullman, Ala. (2008 GRAYSHIRT)
Corey Robinson, QB, Lone Oak, Ky., (2008 GRAYSHIRT)

DEFENSIVE COMMITMENTS

Eugene Kinlaw, DT, Hutchinson, Kan. CC
Immanuel Dudley, DT, Northeast Miss., CC
Montavious Williams, DT, Cairo, Ga.
Jonathan Massaquoi, DE, Butler County CC
Riley Flowers, DT, Jones County Miss. CC
Shermane Teart, DE, Orlando, Fla.
Demarcus Robertson, CB, Garden City, CC (2008 RESIGN)
Michael Ricks, DB, NE Mississippi (2008 RESIGN)
Johnny Thompson, LB, Valley, Ala. (2008 GRAYSHIRT)

**Bear in mind that these commitments are verbal and are non-binding until National Signing Day, the first Wednesday in February.
**I took off DB Josh Brown, who has told other sources that he is a “soft commitment” to Iowa because they told him they would let him play quarterback. Right now, he’s what you would call “waffling” between the two schools.“

Postgame links

By Drew Champlin

Ken Rogers and I double-covered this game, which featured big enough holes by Troy’s offensive line that Mr. Ho could have run for at least a buck 50.

Here’s the links to our coverage.

DOTHAN EAGLE: Troy crushes UL-Lafayette - game story, focusing on the run attac
DOTHAN EAGLE: Troy notebook: Blakeney to be inducted to state hall - notebook, some other stuff in there too
DOTHAN EAGLE: Troy shows its character - Ken Rogers’ column

I’ll post links from the Louisiana papers in the morning when they’re up.

 

FROM OVER IN LOUSIANA

DAILY ADVERTISER: CRUSHED: Cajuns’ title hopes fall by the wayside
DAILY ADVERTISER: Men of Troy simply overpower UL
DAILY ADVERTISER: Cajuns unable to survive rash of injuries

THE ADVOCATE: Troy rushes past banged up UL-Lafayette

Blakeney will be inducted into Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

November 22, 2008

By Drew Champlin

The official announcement will come tomorrow, but Troy head coach Larry Blakeney will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. It was announced on the scoreboard at the end of the game.

“I’ve been very lucky and blessed,“ Blakeney said. “This is sort of the pinnacle of a man’s career in the business to be recognized like that. I’m very humbled and honored.“

He’ll be inducted with the 2009 class on May 30.

Troy-ULL game posts

By Drew Champlin

TROY 41, ULL 3 - Harris with a 35-yard TD run, now 41-3. Not so boring after all,

TROY 34, ULL 3 - Trojans get a 40-yard FG from Glusman. DuJuan Harris has a career-high 191 yards. Kind of a boring game, to be honest.

TROY 31, ULL 3 - Trojans might not attempt another pass the rest of the night. Kennard Burton scores on a 20-yard run. 4:44 left in third

TROY 24, ULL 3 - A little trickeration. DuJuan Harris takes the handoff and throws a 5-yard TD pass to Mykeal Terry. 10:39 left in the third quarter.

HALFTIME - Troy up 17-3, Harris has 9 carries for 129 yards. ULL owns time of possession about 2 to 1, though Troy’s blocked FG for a TD helps that out. Desormeaux for ULL has 92 yards on 13 carries. Levi Brown has thrown just 11 times, hitting 5 for 29 yards.

TROY 17, ULL 3 - Sam Glusman hits a 42-yard field goal. 4:21 left in the first half

After the replay overturned the ball - DuJuan Harris returned to the game, so he’s fine

5:30 left in first half - Maurice Greer originally fumbled the ball, well that’s how it was ruled, but replay has overturned that. That’s big for the Trojans, who are moving the ball well. Greer and Xavier Moreland were rotating in for Harris, who is still on the sideline. I think Harris is fine, as he looks to be active on the sideline huddles. I guess he’ll return later, but we’ll see.

TROY 14, ULL 3 - Drew Edmiston gets the Cajuns on the board with a 29-yard field goal.

10:08 left in the second quarter - DuJuan Harris was tended to because of his right knee. It didn’t look good on the replay, but he walked off under his own power. If anyone hears something on the radio, please leave a comment. He was on the training table, but very briefly and it looks like he’s walking it off. Hopefully, it’s nothing.

TROY 14-0 - Big play to start the 2nd quarter. Cameron Sheffield blocks a field goal and Jorrick Calvin returns it 65 yards for a touchdown.

END 1 - Troy 7, ULL 0 - Troy should be up 14-0, but on Harris’ 67-yard run, he was stripped and lost the ball at the 4. Brandon Lang was called for a face mask penalty (probably should have been horsecollar instead) and ULL drove to the 26, where it looks like they’re about to try a 43-yard FG. Steve McClendon got the big sack there.

Harris has 6 carries for 124 yards. ULL’s Mike Desormeaux 7 for 52. Levi Brown is 4-of-6 for 18 yards. ULL has held the ball for 10:31 to Troy’s 4:29. That was a big issue in the ULM game.

TROY 7, ULL 0 - DuJuan Harris scores on a 9-yard run. He’s running wild early, with 5 carries for 53 yards. Crowd looks about like it normally does, but the student section is almost full ... for now.

Don’t believe I will be doing chat tonight, even though I have some fast internet. I trust all you guys are at the game, though 50 minutes before the game it looks like it’s going to take a miracle for this place to fill up, maybe even getting 20,000.

I can’t see the side of the stadium where the press box is—well I can’t see the lower level. If I find out any news, I’ll post it here and send out twitter scoring updates.

Well, Arkansas State beat FAU 28-14. That means Troy can’t clinch a New Orleans Bowl berth with a win tonight. ULL can, though, because it would own tiebreakers over Troy and ASU with wins, and FAU now has three league losses.

Crowd’s still not looking good. I’ll post updates here later.

Chat today

By Drew Champlin

Don’t forget chat today at 11 a.m. CST. I’ll post a blog link shortly before and sent out a twitter update when it’s open.

EDIT - Sorry guys, chatroll was having issues through the last part. Had to end about 10-15 minutes early but if you’ve got a question that went unanswered, leave a comment below and I’ll get to it

THANKS to all who showed up