Some bowl quotes

December 01, 2008

By Drew Champlin

Looks like I’m able to get on the blog now, but here are some quotes from Troy head coach Larry Blakeney on the bowl situation. Trust me, the players did say they were focused on Arkansas State, and I believe them. But you as fans want to know where Troy’s going bowling.

“There’s no understanding to be had. If we win this week, we’re going to New Orleans, period. Those are the bowl rules,“ Blakeney said. “I’ve been out there with eight wins and no bowl, but I can tell you if we win, we’re going to New Orleans.“

If they win, it’ll be New Orleans. Troy would be the only 7-win (8-4 with a win) team in the league. Arkansas State, FAU and the ULL-MTSU winner (they play Wednesday) will be 6-6. A loss likely sends them to Birmingham.

SBC commish Wright Waters said a while back that Troy could opt out and go to Birmingham’s Papajohns.com Bowl, but that was contingent on Troy being the champion and another team finishing with 7 wins. That won’t happen now. You can read about THAT HERE and what Waters said on the SBC teleconference, which I can’t ever listen to because I’m driving to Troy.

I think he said it out of turn when ULL was playing so well, thinking they would get to 7 wins. It wasn’t a bad assumption, but FAU beat the Cajuns and then Troy did.

Should Troy lose, the Trojans most likely end up in Birmingham. Waters said “There are still a lot of moving parts to this thing.“

I still wonder why Troy couldn’t just say “to heck with New Orleans” even if they won and had something better lined up.

This would be a good time for me to promote the TWITTER service. If you sign up for twitter, go to twitter.com/dothaneagletroy (or click the link below my mug), you’ll have a chance to sign up for e-mail or cell phone updates by going to SETTINGS then DEVICES. That way, you can get instant info sent to you. Sometimes I text out information if I’m not near a computer.

Monday links

By Drew Champlin

Troy played LSU in Baton Rouge again yesterday. This time, Troy wasn’t nearly as close to getting a win. To the Trojans’ defense, that’s the best team they will play this year and it’s not close. But in the years I’ve been covering them, I’ve never seen them play a “money opponent” close except in 2005 against Mississippi State, when they lost a 15-point lead in the final five minutes. Xavier and Georgia Tech come to mind.

Tuesday’s opponent, Dayton, is also a money game.

From the Jonesboro Sun, read about Arkansas State’s win at North Texas.

Back to bowl talk, I saw Troy’s name mentioned with the Texas Bowl in a recent story and e-mailed Zac Emmons, the media contact for that bowl. Didn’t get a real concrete answer, since they are just feeling out teams since they won’t get a Big 12 team. I think the Conference USA team there will likely be Rice. I also don’t see Troy ending up there, but stranger things have happened.

“To answer your question, our primary goal is to work with our conference partners to secure the best possible matchup for the Texas Bowl.  At this point, it looks unlikely that the Big 12 will be able to provide a team, so we are exploring every option.  We have had discussions with a number of schools and conference commissioners from around the country,“ he said. One of which must have been Troy.

I’ll be back later this afternoon if there’s anything interesting to share.