Know your coach: Benjy Parker

November 25, 2008

By Drew Champlin

As we continue through our series of Q and As with the assistant coaches, HERE is one with linebackers coach Benjy Parker.

Don’t forget basketball doubleheader tonight at Trojan Arena. Women vs. Jacksonville State at 5:15 p.m., men vs. Georgia State afterwards. I’ll be there.

Update on the bowl situation

November 24, 2008

By Drew Champlin

This should clear up anything that states that the New Orleans Bowl MUST take a 7-win Sun Belt team.

A Sun Belt spokesperson e-mailed me back the following…

...The New Orleans Bowl is obligated to take the Sun Belt Champion, but that team could ask to be placed in another game as long as there is another spot among our partners open and there is another Sun Belt school to fill the New Orleans Bowl. A 6-6 Sun Belt team could play in the New Orleans Bowl if Troy opted to play in one of our other bowls.

Should Troy beat Arkansas State Dec. 6, the Trojans would be the only 7-win team in the conference. Assuming an ASU win over North Texas, ASU will finish up either 6-6 or 7-5. If ASU beats Troy, they go to the New Orleans Bowl.

One of either Middle Tennessee or UL-Lafayette will be 6-6, the other 5-7. They play Dec. 3, a Wednesday.

Either FAU or FIU should be bowl eligible. If FAU beats FIU on Nov. 29, the Owls are 6-6 and the Golden Panthers would have 7 losses.

If FIU beats FIU, that drops FAU to 5-7 and makes FIU 5-6 with a likely win over Western Kentucky Dec. 6 making them 6-6.

Troy adds five baseball signees

By Drew Champlin

Troy added five baseball signees during the fall period.

They are
Shane McCain,  LHP/OF , 6’1 , 185 John Carroll Catholic HS       Fort Pierce, Florida
Turner Lee, LHP ,6’2     170, Mary G. Montgomery HS           Mobile, Alabama
Chase Whitley, IF/RHP , 6’4     210, Southern Union JC         Ranburne, Alabama
Todd McRae , C ,6’2     210 Southern Union JC                   Talladega, Alabama
Joey Delgado ,RHP   6’0     160 Pensacola JC                   Tampa, Florida

I’d say that’s another very good recruiting class from Pierce, Smartt, Crain and Co. A full release can be read here from Troy media relations guru Jason Wright.

To my knowledge, the basketball team didn’t sign anyone in the early period.

 

Bear Woods awarded, DuJuan Harris snubbed

By Drew Champlin

Troy’s Bear Woods was awarded the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week award for his 10-tackle performance in Troy’s 48-3 win over UL-Lafayette. He played a big role in holding Tyrell Fenroy, the Sun Belt’s all-time leading rusher, to just 23 yards.

Troy’s DuJuan Harris got snubbed for Offensive Player of the Week. Middle Tennessee’s Phillip Tanner got it becuase he hit the end zone more - scoring a Sun Belt record six times, though one was on a 92-yard kickoff return (which he rightfully was awarded for Special Teams Player of the Week). He ran for 159 yards on 14 carries against the nation’s worst team in North Texas and scored on runs of 12, 1, 19, 66 and 32 yards.

Harris ran for 234 yards and two scores and also threw a 5-yard touchdown pass against a much better team in a much bigger game, but wasn’t recognized. I’m not really sure I see the logic in that, but all it amounts to is a certificate.

No Monday presser today because of the off week.

They said it: Neal Brown

By Drew Champlin

There may or may not be a press conference today. I won’t be there, because I’ve got desk resposibilities tonight and Arkansas State plays North Texas Saturday, and talking to Neal Brown about ASU sack artist Alex Carrington or Jeremy Rowell about ASU dual-threat and experienced quarterback Corey Leonard does no good today if they get hurt Saturday.

But I do have a few quotes I got from him about Troy’s 48-3 win over UL-Lafayette. The Trojans ran for 391 yards, including a career-high 234 from DuJuan Harris. I’d figure he’s a shoo-in for Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week, but I’m not sure what the rest of the league did.

“The plan was definitely to run for a couple of reasons,“ Brown said. “They do a lot of movement - they move around quite a bit and we felt like we could because we’ve had success with it against them the past couple of years. We wanted to get the ball to DuJuan because he’s played really well the past three weeks.“

“I’m not hung up on throwing it. We just threw it against LSU because we had to do that to win.“

The rest of the run game was solid, as Kennard Burton ran five times for 66 yards, Maurice Greer ran 8 times for 30 yards and Xavier Moreland ran 9 times for 56 yards. The only problems were ball security - Harris lost a fumble after his career-long 67-yard run and almost lost another one. Greer had one ruled as a fumble, but replay overturned that when it showed his knee was on the ground.

“I was really pleased with the running backs in every regard,“ Brown said. “Except for the fact they put the ball on the turf. DuJuan did a great job of making people miss in space and the O-Line did a great job of getting push. John (Schlarman) did a great job coaching them on that last week.“

Levi Brown threw just 16 passes, hitting 7 for 51 yards. In all honesty, that statline probably took him out of any all-conference honors, but he wasn’t too sad about it after the game. Neal Brown was fine with how his quarterback played.

“We were going on what the defense was giving us,“ Neal Brown said. “There were times we’d think they were going to stack the box, but we lined up and they were still in coverage, so we ran it. Levi had one ball dropped and had to throw four out of bounds. He managed the game well and we caught them in some substitution mistakes, and Levi’s the one that gets us going on that.“

I’ll have some Know your Coach segments with Shayne Wasden and Benjy Parker this week and who knows what else. There’s a sport called basketball Troy is playing Tuesday night, and I plan to cover that. The women play at 5:15 and the men right after that against Georgia State.