The Troy Trojans rushed for 383 yards in their season-opening 57-17 win over Austin Peay on Saturday.

“It was a great night for college football,” said Troy head coach Neal Brown. “We have missed it.”

In all the Trojans racked up 706 yards, which is good enough for third most in program history. Jordan Chunn made his return to the field and rushed for 161 yards on 13 carries and scored one touchdown.

“He had the game of football taken away from him,” Brown said. “Sometimes that’s a positive long term. He has come back with a work ethic that is a complete 180.”

Chunn missed all but one game last season after he sustained an upper-body injury in week two against Charleston Southern.

Junior quarterback Brandon Silvers finished the game completing 20-of-27 for 229 yards and two touchdowns.

“He really managed the game well,” Brown said. “He didn’t make a bad decision until the second quarter, and that is a big change from last year. I thought he threw the ball down field better than he has his whole career.”

Silvers credited the run game with helping his passing performance.

“If the run game is good the passing game is going to be good,” Silvers said. “They had holes early. We started running it, and they started coming down and that is where we could hit our big shots.”

The Trojans connected on big plays through out the night. Four of the touchdowns came on plays of over 40 yards.

“I knew we need to have more explosive plays,” Brown said. “We spent a lot of time preparing schematically in the spring and in the winter. We emphasized those, and it was good to see.”

The Trojans turned the Governors over on downs to begin the game and Chunn followed with a 48-yard touchdown scamper on the first play from scrimmage.

“I went through that play all day in my head,” Chunn said. “I visualized it and it busted the way I was thinking about it.”

The Trojans defense held forced the Governors to punt on the next drive. The Trojans took the ball 75 yards on 10 plays and picked up a touchdown when Emmanuel Thompson hauled in a three-yard touchdown pass from Silvers.

Governor quarterback Tommy Hays entered the game in the second quarter and let Austin Peay to 12 unanswered points for a 1-point lead.

Freshman Sawyer Smith came is a quarterback for Troy, connecting with Hiram Velez on a 47-yard touchdown pass that allowed Troy to retake the lead at 20-14.

“It was a play that we have been running all week,” Smith said. “I had a package heading into the game of about five plays. He got a good break and I got good blocking from the offensive line. I let it go and it worked out perfect for us.”

Smith finished the game completing all seven of his passes for 86 yards.

The Trojans picked up another touchdown when Brandon Silvers rushed it in from one yard out and Ryan Kay nailed a 43-yard field goal as time expired giving Troy 30-14 lead at halftime.

Troy picked up right where they left off early in the second half. Silvers threw his second touchdown pass of the night when he connected with Ismail Saleem from 49-yards out to extend the lead to 37-14.

Troy closed out the contest with touchdowns by Josh Anderson, Andre Flakes and Kaleb Barker.

Ismail led the way for the Trojans in receiving with 106 yards on four catches. Along with his touchdown, Anderson rushed for 68 yards on two carries. Newcomer Kris Weatherspoon in his first game in Division I game led the team in tackles with seven.

“We knew Austin Peay was going to be well coached, “Brown said. “We had a good feeling about what we were going to see. I am not sure we know where we are. I am proud of them…I am not sure we are going to know where we are at until after week three.”

The Trojans will return to action next Saturday when travel to “Death Valley” to take on the Clemson Tigers. Kick off is set for 11:30 a.m.