Texas bound Trojans
Published 10:19 pm Monday, October 20, 2008
After a decisive 33-23 victory over the FIU Golden Panthers Saturday, the Troy Trojans now set their sights on winless North Texas.
The Mean Green (0-7, 0-3 Sun Belt) are statistically one of the worst teams in the country, but Troy head coach Larry Blakeney will not treat this game different than any other game on the schedule. Blakeney’s reason for not overlooking North Texas is simple.
“That would be dumb and we put it to the team that it would be stupid for us to overlook any opponent,” Blakeney said. “Every game left on our schedule with the exception of LSU is a championship game for us.”
Troy (4-2, 3-0) sits atop the Sun Belt Standings with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Blakeney said there is only one way to make sure they stay at the top.
“In any conference it is hard to win it outright, but the only way to make sure is to win every game,” he said. “Studying the other teams, making a plan and executing that plan is the way to walk off as the outright champs.”
The Trojans played their first game without starting quarterback Jamie Hampton, but Levi Brown, Jerrel Jernigan and Dantavious Parker all took snaps behind center in the game and all three contributed to the win.
Blakeney said the Trojans would have to change some things if they want the rotation to continue to produce points.
“We had a three-quarterback deal with the possibility of playing four,” Blakeney said. “Some people would say because of that we don’t have even one, but we will keep rolling with it. But we are going to have to do something with each of them that is not their role. We have to expand their roles so they are not doing the same thing when they come in the game each week. We don’t want them to be one-dimensional.”
Linebacker Bear Woods is just happy to see the offense clicking on all cylinders.
“Any time you get quick points that is good and scoring early got the defense relaxed (against FIU) early,” Woods said.
Kickoff is set for Saturday at 6 p.m. from Denton, Texas.