Sun Belt Media Days start; Troy picked first

The Sun Belt coaches have spoken, and to no one’s surprise, Troy was picked to win the league title this year.

The Trojans won the outright title last year and shared a championship the two years before. Troy got five of nine first place votes and finished with 72 votes, just ahead of second-place Arkansas State, who had 69.

The rest of the preseason poll went in this order: Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee, Florida International, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe, North Texas and Western Kentucky.

FAU, FIU, ULL and ULM each received first-place votes.

Troy had the most representation on the all-conference team with eight players. Running back DuJuan Harris, wide receiver Jerrel Jernigan, center Danny Franks, defensive ends Cameron Sheffield and Brandon Lang, linebackers Boris Lee and Bear Woods and cornerback Jorrick Calvin were honored.

The Sun Belt made the announcement two hours prior to the start of its two-day Media Days. The conference saved itself, league institutions and media members around $30,000 by holding it through video and audio conferencing.

Six teams took their turns talking to media members. Middle Tennessee, Troy and Western Kentucky will take their turns today.

“I kinda like this,” said ULL head coach Rickey Bustle, who had some trouble connecting to the setup. “I’m not all into this high-tech stuff, but I can sit here and talk.”

Sun Belt associate commissioner John McElwain said 54 users registered for Monday’s event, which is more than the average number of physical attendees at previous media days events in New Orleans.

UL-Lafayette’s offensive line should be good: The Cajuns return five starters, including all-conference picks Chris Fisher and Brad Bustle. The race to replace quarterback Michael Desormeaux is between sophomores Brad McGuire and Chris Masson. Senior Undrea Sails has the upper hand on replacing Sun Belt all-time leading rusher Tyrell Fenroy.

Dodge heeds old advice: North Texas head coach Todd Dodge’s son, Riley, a redshirt freshman, will be the starting quarterback. Todd coached Riley growing up before coming to UNT from Southlake-Carroll High School. The early stages weren’t so great, but a coaching friend who coached his sons gave him some great advice.

“He said when you coach your son, don’t ever rob him of the two most important people in his life, and the two most important people in most football players’ lives are their father and their position coach,” Dodge said. “It really hit home with me and I started living like that.”

Riley Dodge originally committed to Texas before signing with North Texas.

ULM is confident: Despite being picked seventh, ULM head coach Charlie Weatherbie has high hopes, bolstered by returning 18 starters and switching to a 3-3-5 defense. Junior Trey Revell will be in his first year as starting quarterback. Revell led ULM’s come-from-behind victory over Troy, but the defense has players buzzing.

“It’s more of a pin your ears back, get back there and play type of defense,” defensive back James Truxillo said.

FAU quarterback adjusts to change: FAU quarterback Rusty Smith, the Preseason Co-offensive Player of the Year, adjusted to a new offensive coordinator when Jeff Brohm replaced Gary Nord, who went to Purdue.

“I realized Coach Brohm can teach me things Coach Nord couldn’t because Coach Nord really never played in the NFL or played quarterback,” Smith said. “That’s two things Coach Brohm brings to the table. In practice, he’ll come over to me after a play and say, ‘I see what you saw there and why you threw there, but maybe if you do this, you’ll get this result instead of what you got.’”