Tuesday links

October 16, 2007

By Drew Champlin

From my end, the usual Monday notebook.

From the Denton Record-Chronicle, a UNT notebook, led by DL Montey Stevenson’s top performance.

I’m on with John and Barry at 8:40 a.m. CST on AM-970 out of Birmingham, if you see this and you’re in that area.

Check the blog later this morning for a basketball update and my projected starting lineup (you know, since I haven’t seen a minute of practice). Also on tap is a little teaser for tomorrow’s feature, which will be on a former walk-on.

Some Monday stuff

October 15, 2007

By Drew Champlin

It’s been a busy Monday, as with the press conference I have also gone to PIke Liberal Arts, the local private school, to do an interview with Jerel Foster, a running back who ran for an AISA record 420 yards and eight touchdowns last week. He’s a junior, smallish in size at 5-foot-6, 150 pounds, but that’s probably the size DuJuan Harris was a couple of years ago and he’s got a chance to be a good one.

Will have BASKETBALL and BASEBALL updates too over the next couple of days so stay tuned.

There’s no doubt Troy coaches and players got their eyes opened when North Texas beat UL-Monroe 31-21 last week. The Mean Green was once the pride of the Sun Belt, and many feel that new coach Todd Dodge will have them back there pretty soon after a couple of down years. True freshman quarterback Giovanni Vizza has started the last two games and the offense has gotten even better.

Not much “news” Gerald Tate (knee) still has to be cleared to play Saturday; if not, Patrick Cherry will back up Andrew Davis at the H. Shawn Todd (neck) should play.

I ran into DE Brandon Lang on the elevator and we talked about his rehab. He’s still got the mindset of coming back Nov. 20 against Middle Tennessee. He’s running now, even sprinting. Can you really believe he tore his ACL on Sept. 14? Most guys are done for the year, but he didn’t do any more damage to his knee other than the ACL.

The guy who voted for Troy…

By Drew Champlin

...is Adam Van Brimmer, who covers Georgia Tech and other sports for the newspapers in the Morris chain in Georgia (Savannah, Augusta, etc.)

He was kind enough to respond to my e-mail and explain his vote.

“I struggled with the last four spots in the poll this week. And since Troy has won four in a row, looked good on national TV beating OSU and its two losses were on the road to SEC teams, I voted for them over Georgia (biggest win is Alabama and should have lost to Vandy on Saturday), FSU (loser to Wake and not worthy anyway) and Texas (most overrated team in the nation this season). I’d rather go with a two-loss mid-major on a roll than a two-loss major conference team that looks good one week, bad the next and hasn’t beaten anybody.“

Give him credit - a lot of voters have too much pride for that, though Troy would be in the polls with a victory over either Arkansas or Florida.

This AP voters list has a link to who everyone on the AP poll votes for.

Monday links

By Drew Champlin

We’re back.

I wrote on Troy linebacker Josh Maxwell looking to put a scary incident behind him.

From the Denton Record-Chronicle, UNT beat writer Brett Vito writes how the Mean Green’s defense was pretty mean in its win Saturday.

From their game coverage Saturday, it looks like UNT quarterback Giovanni Vizza, a true freshman, is the real deal. I think they should have gone with him earlier, because Daniel Meager, the original starter, isn’t very good. In my coverage this week, some of it will focus on UNT’s offense and a true freshman QB in Vizza coming to the Gallery.

Also, check out Vito’s Mean Green blog.

Here’s the game story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sunday. Some North Texas stuff is in their college football blog.

Don’t let this be your last trip to the blog today. Forward it on to your Trojan friends.

Any questions or comments, feel free to leave here or contact me at

In case you haven’t heard,

October 14, 2007

By Drew Champlin

Troy (4-2) got a vote in this week’s Associated Press poll, even after a bye week.

Once I figure out who the voter is, I’ll post a link to his poll and see if I can get a comment for the blog.