Brandon silvers and Jordan Chunn have played important roles for Troy all season long and after an 8-1 start, it’s beginning to pay off.

Silvers and Chunn accounted for 408 yards in Troy’s 28-24 win over Appalachian State on Saturday.

After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Mountaineers stormed back to take the lead and control of the game, before Silvers ran and threw the Trojans back in the game.

“Anytime that you have a good football team, your best players have to be guys that have some leadership about them,” said Troy head coach Neal Brown. “Brandon has grown the most in that role just because people have gained respect for him.”

Silvers has averaged 274 yards passing over the last four games, but it was a play he made with his legs on Saturday that had people impressed. With the Trojans trailing late in the third quarter, The Trojans optioned Silvers to the left. He kept the ball and ran it in for a 51-yard touchdown to give the Trojans the lead.

“I don’t ever get that far away from anybody,” Silvers said. “I just cut up and I was glad I didn’t get hawked down. I was looking up at the big screen to see where they were. I tucked the ball high and I put my knees up to make sure I didn’t get stopped before the end zone.”

It was the ball security that had offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield the most excited.

“He covered up the ball and made sure nobody punched it out. He didn’t want to get caught, but he was dang sure that he didn’t want that ball to come out. I thought it was really smart. It was great ball security; he really hugged it up really good. I was proud of him.”

After finishing last year with 2,378 passing yards with 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions, the junior is playing with confidence, something that was evident in Troy’s final drive on Saturday.

“He has been doing that all year really. He has grown that aspect of his game and he has matured a lot. He is taking that coaching from those guys, coach Brown, Reagan and all of those guys have done a good job at getting him to focus on some things.

Chunn became Troy’s ninth 1,000 yard rusher on Saturday when he totaled 129 yards on 31 carries and had two touchdowns.

“I think Jordan is a stud,” Brown said. “He was a little banged up coming out of the game last week. He pushed through practice, which is important.  I sell our guys on the fact that you have to practice to be able to play the game. He pushed himself through practice and we took care of him.”

Chunn continued a trend over the last few weeks that has seen him rush for triple digits every other game.

“I can’t dwell on that,” Chunn said. “It’s either a good game or a bad game; it’s just how it is. Sometimes the passing game is going pretty good.”

Chunn has rushed for 446 over the last four games to help him get over the 1,000 mark and Chunn believes he couldn’t have done it without the play of his offensive line.

“I can’t thank our offensive line enough,” Chunn said. “Those guys got me to this point.”

Both Silvers and Chunn hope to get the Trojans close to a conference championship with a win over Arkansas State on Thursday evening. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.