Brown has praise and high hopes for 2018 Trojans
Published 7:14 pm Tuesday, August 14, 2018
- Messenger Photo/Jonah enfinger Troy head coach Neal Brown talks with the team after Saturday’s scrimmage on Media Day. The Trojans open up the season on September 1 against Boise State.
The Troy Trojans held their final full workout of fall camp on Tuesday. With a little more than two weeks remaining until the start of the season, head coach Neal Brown is excited about his team’s potential.
The Trojans will open up the regular season on September 1 against the Boise State Broncos at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Following their first scrimmage of the camp on Saturday, Brown expressed just how much he thinks of his team.
“As typical of most football programs this time of the year, we are really excited,” Brown said. “We have a new football team and a new challenge. We kind of pushed back the last couple of years. We are proud of what we accomplished, but this is a new challenge coming upon us.”
Brown and the Trojans have won 21 games over the last two seasons. They cracked the top-25 for the first time in program history and went 2-0 in two bowl games. The Trojans had all-conference players and a player of the year recipient. Despite all of that, Brown believes this team has the opportunity to be special.
“I probably enjoy coaching this football team more than any I have ever been around,” Brown said. “It’s a group of guys that are hungry and it’s a group of guys that are really close and tightknit chemistry wise.”
The Trojans will open up against the Broncos for the second consecutive year. The Trojans lost to the Broncos last year 24-13. The offense and special teams struggled to get much of anything going in the season’s opening act. From that point on, Troy rattled off four wins in a row including a 24-21 win over No. 22 LSU.
This time around, Brown hopes to see his team start the year off with another program-defining win and ride that momentum to another successful season.
“We are going to have a really good football team,” Brown said. “When that is going to be, I’m not really sure. Will we be a good football team when Boise comes to town? I don’t know; time will tell. At some point during the season we are going to have a really good football team.”
The Trojans have been on the field for nearly two weeks and, although the Trojans have had their good days and bad days, Brown has enjoyed the process.
“I am enjoying the process of watching these young guys get better and compete,” Brown said.
The Trojans enter the season with just 12 scholarship seniors. Of the 12 players, only six of the players were recruited to come to Troy. The others were either grad transfers or walk-ons that later earned scholarships.
The Trojans also have many sophomores and juniors with experience. Many of the players, especially on defense, were cycled into the games last season.
“It’s a group that has played a lot of football,” Brown said. “We just don’t have a whole lot in the senior class. I like the makeup of our team and I am excited about seeing how we are going to grow, especially over the next two weeks.”