The Trojans return from their bye week fresh and ready to go to take on Georgia State for homecoming this Saturday.

“It was a productive bye week, especially after three long road trips in the first five games,” said Troy head coach Neal Brown. “We practiced three times last week and really took advantage of the off time. The coaches also got some time off which was much needed. We went recruiting on Thursday and Friday, and got some good work done there.”

The Trojans (4-1, 2-0) also sharpened up areas of their games that needed work.

“We have been a balanced team so far this year,” Brown said. “Coming off the Idaho game we turned the ball over three times, which is uncharacteristic for us. So we worked on a lot of ball security last week.”

After winning the last three games, Brown said he expects the Trojans to continue to build on what works. “The plays that we are doing right now as far as being five games into it, we will decorate them a bit, but we aren’t going to change our base schemes,” he said. “The biggest part of the bye week is getting our guys refreshed. We were beat up at a few key positions, so we used that time to refresh our body and mind.”

The offense averaged 41 points per game in the wins over Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State and Idaho. But those have been physical wins.

“There have been some physical football games without question. I think the travel has been a wear as much as anything. We were on a roll a little bit so you always hesitate to want a bye week when you are winning some games,” Brown said. “It was important though for us to get our bodies back.”

And Brown hopes the Trojans get a much-needed win on homecoming.

“Homecoming was a real disappointment for us last year,” Brown said. “We lost to Idaho 19-16 on homecoming. That is something that we will continue to bring up to our guys. We brought it up when we played Idaho, and we will bring it up again because it’s homecoming.”

Georgia State will prove a tough opponent.

“They beat us soundly last year,” Brown said. “They wore us out. It was 31-21, but I never felt that the game was that close. It was 31-7 in the fourth quarter. I thought they beat us in all three phases.”

Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.