Looks like Terry Bowden is back in coaching. I show you this story because Troy inside wide receivers coach Kenny Edenfield was linked to the opening. Edenfield recruited several of this year’s commits to Troy, including JUCO standouts Jason Bruce, Tyler Graves and James Brown, as well as Edgewater, Fla., defensive end Shermane Teart.
Terry Bowden to coach North Alabama
FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Former Auburn football coach Terry Bowden is returning to coaching at Division II North Alabama.
The 52-year-old Bowden, the son of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, brings a 111-53-2 record to North Alabama, which finished the 2008 season 12-2 and reached the semifinals of the Division II playoffs. Bowden replaces Mark Hudspeth, who left to become an assistant coach at Mississippi State.
Bowden, who won his first 20 games at Auburn in 1993-94, has been working as an analyst on Westwood One’s college game of the week.
As far as other coaches leaving, as of right now all are still in place and there’s not any movement that indicates otherwise.
Posted by Drew Champlin on 12/31 at 10:00 PM
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Star defensive tackle recruit Eugene Kinlaw did in fact sign a letter of intent with Troy during the midyear period. Kinlaw was the NJCAA Defensive Player of the Year.
And, there’s a chance he could be here for spring practice. They’re waiting on final grades, etc., to come in.
I’d say chances are 50% he’s practicing in the spring. If he doesn’t make it in time for spring, they’ll redo the process and he’ll sign again in February and get here in the summer.
Regardless, anyone who was worried about losing him to a bigger school, don’t be. The only question now is when he starts practicing.
The other midyear JUCO signees, in case you didn’t see it over the past few days, were OL Ray Carter, OL Tyler Graves, OL James Brown, WR Jason Bruce, DB Demarcus Robertson, DL Riley Flowers and DL Emmanuel Dudley.
Posted by Drew Champlin on 12/31 at 05:15 PM
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Since tomorrow’s game at Western Kentucky is at 1 p.m. tip, I figured it was best to get this on here now. (note: because of this, I’ll post the top Troy moments of 2008 tomorrow morning. I’ve got my ideas, but I’ll welcome last-minute suggestions through e-mail or blog)
Troy (5-8, 1-1 Sun Belt) at Western Kentucky (7-4, 1-0), at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky. Leading scorers: Troy (G Richard Delk - 14.0 ppg, G Brandon Hazzard - 12.0 ppg); WKU (G A.J. Slaughter - 15.4 ppg, G Orlando Mendez-Valdez - 12.1 ppg, G/F Sergio Kerusch - 10.7 ppg) Leading rebounders: Troy (C Tom Jervis - 6.4 rpg); WKU (Sergio Kerusch - 7.4 rpg) Leading assists: Troy (G Mike Vogler - 6.8 apg); WKU (A.J. Slaughter - 3.3 apg)
Both schools lost their last game in the state of Florida, with WKU falling to Florida State 82-69. Mendez-Valdez hit 7-of-9 threes for 25 points. The Hilltoppers did beat Louisville when the Cardinals were ranked No. 3, winning 68-54 behind Slaughter’s 25 points and 17 points and 12 rebounds from forward Steffphon Pettigrew. Troy lost at Jacksonville 86-73 but got a surprise 15 points from forward Mario Telfair off the bench. Vogler’s 6.8 apg leads the Sun Belt by a wide margin. After this, the Trojans play three straight home games.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE: Here’s what WKU beat writer Rob Herbst of the Bowling Green Daily News has to say about how WKU is playing at the moment
The Hilltoppers have been a largely feast-or-famine team. While they’ve picked up an eye-opening win against Louisville and have nice victories against Southern Illinois and Georgia, blowout losses to Murray State and Evansville show the Hilltoppers are beatable. But after opening league play with a win at South Alabama, they’ve shown they’ll likely be a legit league contender again.
It’s a vastly different WKU team than last year’s Sweet 16 team. Former WKU assistant coach Ken McDonald, who was most recently an assistant at Texas under Rick Barnes, has taken over for current South Carolina coach Darrin Horn. And the star power isn’t there as Courtney Lee was a first-round draft pick of the Orlando Magic. But guards A.J. Slaughter and Orlando Mendez-Valdez have been solid and the catalysts to this team. Mendez-Valdez has been especially hot of late - he hit 7-of-9 3-pointers against Florida State on Sunday and has hit 13-of-24 3-pointers over his last three contests.
The Hilltoppers’ biggest vulnerabilities are inside and on the bench. They are very small and will start a lineup of four players no bigger than 6-foot-5 and their bench play has been spotty. WKU isn’t much more than a seven-player team so any major injury could doom the Hilltoppers.
DREW’S PICK: WKU 84, Troy 69
Posted by Drew Champlin on 12/31 at 02:08 PM
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I’m putting together a Top 10 Troy moments of 2008, and need your help figuring out which should be the top moment.
Basically, what will your lasting memory of this football season be? Vote in this poll. I’ll publish the top moments in a blog post later this afternoon.
If you have something else, leave a comment in the poll. That way everyone else can see it quickly too.
Posted by Drew Champlin on 12/31 at 02:35 AM
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I was going to start a daily blog post (it wouldn’t be updated every day, but most days), and call it “Trojan Wrap” but figured some might be offended with the condom jokes, and couldn’t think of a clever name at the moment. If anyone has any catchy names, let me know.
Hoops falls at JU: Troy fell to 0-6 on the road with a loss at Jacksonville. JU is probably on an equal level as Troy, maybe a little bit better this year (despite what records indicate), but it seems like Troy won’t win those games on the road this year. They will at home (see the UNC-Wilmington series). Troy returns to Sun Belt play this week at Western Kentucky Jan. 1 and at home against Florida International Jan. 3. A loss looks likely against WKU, but the Trojans could find success at home Saturday. The consensus around the Sun Belt is that Troy won’t win the league title, but with the way the Trojans shoot the three (or amount they jack up), they’re a team no one wants to play in a single elimination tournament.
Women do well: Troy played a little defense in winning a tournament title at Texas Pan-American, winning 54-39 over the host school. UTPA was 8-5 entering the game, but without any notable victories. Still, road wins are always good. Troy hosts FIU Saturday in a women-men doubleheader.
Coaching talk: I told you a few weeks ago to watch out for the Shayne Wasden to Auburn and Kenny Edenfield to North Alabama rumors. As of this blog post, Wasden and Troy has not been contacted by Auburn, so be weary of those “it’s a done deal” posts on Auburn forums. With AU hiring an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in Gus Malzahn, I wonder if they’ll add Patrick Nix as an offensive assistant, as Nix was canned at AU, and he’s a spread guy. But when I hear on Wasden, I’ll let you know. On Edenfield, he’s obviously in the mix at UNA and that process will get narrowed down after the New Year. There are other candidates involved. I told you a while back that Troy had been contacted for permission to speak to Edenfield, so that’s where we stand now. With this being a dead period in recruiting (one call per week, I believe), a lot of coaches are enjoying a well-deserved rest or vacation.
Recruiting’s huge in January: Two big recruiting weekends for Troy will be the weekends on Jan. 9-11 and Jan. 16-18. Unfortunately, I’ve got a mini-vacation to Destin so recruiting updates that first weekend will be slow (well, that’s unfortunate for you, not so much for me) but it’ll get there. Troy’s loading up on OL and DLs and now the focus shifts to guys who can help out in the secondary and at wide receiver. Here’s a sleeper prospect to watch out for. Devondrick Richardson, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound LB/DE out of Barbour County, a 2A school in tiny Clayton, Ala. He committed to South Alabama a while back but that was before Troy offered. He’s been our Dothan Eagle Player of the Year in basketball (last year) and was a Super 12 pick in football this year, playing running back, linebacker and returning kicks. Not sure if he’ll end up at Troy, but I’d say the Trojans have a good shot. And I’ll say he’ll be very good if he keeps his head on straight. Here’s a story I wrote on Barbour County’s football program during the high school season.
Posted by Drew Champlin on 12/30 at 12:21 AM
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