Ragin' Dave's Troy Preview
NOTES:
• REGGIE TODD WR SUSPENDED
• KIMANI VIDAL RB LEFT GAME WITH HEAD INJURY
• LUKE WITTEMORE WR LEFT GAME WITH INJURED KNEE
• CARLTON MARTIAL LB MISSED MOST OF 2ND HALF OF USA GAME WITH KNEE CONTUSION
• DEANDRE BUTLER OL MISSED ENTIRE USA GAME WITH INJURY
TROY PREVIEW
Another middle of the road to better than average SBC team. Some good and some bad for this years Troy team. Let’s look at the schedule first. They currently stand at 5-4 this year, they started the year by crushing Southern 55-3 at home and lost a really close game at home to a pretty good Liberty 21-13. They then went on the road and beat a bad Southern Miss team and then lost to ULM on the road. They then played a good game vs South Carolina on the road and should have beat them. They then defeated Georgia Southern at home, Texas State on the road then then played Coastal Carolina well in a loss and then finally defeated USA at home 31-24 this past weekend. This team has been up and down all season, they have some good wins coupled with some questionable losses. But one thing that we know is they have weapons both on offense and defense that can hurt you. This is not going to be an easy win; we are going to have to make sure that we take advantages of our strength’s vs their weaknesses on every down.
QB—Best guess, is we don’t know. We came into the season with a question at QB for Troy between Taylor Powell, transfer from Missouri and Gunnar Watson, who was the starter from last year and now they are 9 games in and have seen both QB’s play allot. Watson seems to have the advantage as of now as the starter and has played in 5 games this year of the 9 but was injured last Saturday and is questionable to play this weekend and Taylor Powell has played in 7 games already this season and was the QB for their win over USA after Watson was injured. Either way they are both capable QB’s. On the year Powell has completed 66% of his passes on 189 attempts with 7 TD’s and 6 INT’s. Meanwhile Watson has completed 69% of his passes on 114 attempts with 6 TD’s and 0 INT’s. Neither scares you with their running ability, Watson has 13 carries on the season for 19 yards (before accounting for sacks) and Powell has 19 attempts for 16 yards (before accounting for sacks). Neither is in the positive in total yards as Watson averages -2.2 yards per carry and Powell averages -5 yards per carry. To be honest Watson looks better on paper, but Powell when healthy has been their guy. We shall see what happens as we get closer to Saturday on who the starter is.
RB—Another question mark for Troy. Kimani Vidal is their main RB, but he left the USA game as well with an injury about halfway through the game. If he can not go, it will be B.J Smith a veteran for the Trojans. Vidal, a freshman, has been good this year. Vidal has averaged 5.1 yards per carry and 5 TD’s on 121 attempts for a total of 620 yards. He is averaging 77.5 yards per game this year and is a very versatile back as he has caught 14 out of the backfield for 85 yards. B.J. Smith a senior, has played in 8 of the 9 games this year and has 71 carries for 314 yards and 3 TD’s. He averages 4.4 yards per carry. They also get some production from Jamontez Woods, who could see more time if Vidal is not 100%. Woods has 45 carries for 229 yards and 6 TD’s. Bottom line is that even if Vidal is not 100% healthy, they are deep enough at RB that they will still be good.
WR/TE—1 guy and he is really, really good. Tez Johnson is his name and don’t forget it. Johnson is a freshman that stands 5’10’, 160 lbs. He is not a big guy, but he is really hard to guard. He has 53 catches on the season for 552 yards and 3 TD’s. He is by far and away their biggest threat at receiver. They did have another one in Reggie Todd, a senior, that had 23 catches through 7 games for 291 yards who was special, but Todd has been suspended indefinitely after an arrest that. I will tell you that he is still listed on their roster and was on the sideline last Saturday but was not dressed out. Todd was expected to be their #1 guy and was having a pretty good season before he was suspended. I do not expect his to be suited up this weekend, but you never know. A few other guys to keep an eye on are Luke Whittemore who has 22 catches on the season for 357 yards and has stepped up in Todd’s absence as well as Jabre Barber who has 26 catches on the season. At TE, they do get some pretty good production out of Deyunkea Lewis who has 10 catches on the season but 3 of those have been TD’s. So, in the Redzone they are not afraid to throw it to Lewis.
OL—Up front the best two guys they have are Dylan Bradshaw a senior at Center and Austin Stidham a JR at LT. Both were predicted by Phil Steele to be 2nd team ALL SBC performers. Jake Andrews plays at RG, Deandre Butler normally plays LG, but he was out for the USA game with an injury and was replaced by Kannon Biggs a redshirt freshman and finally Grant Betts at RT. They are pretty young on the OL outside of Stidham and Bradshaw (if Butler does not play), Butler is a Junior Transfer from Jacksonville State. The other guys that will play are either freshman and/or sophomores. They are also not super big on the OL, they have a couple of 300+ guys, but most are in the 290 range.
OFFENSE—Troy has not been an explosive offensive team this year, only averaging 26 points per game. They are only averaging 353 yards per game on offense with 118 of those on the ground and 235 through the air even through they have 16 TDs on the ground vs 13 through the air. But they try to be balanced as they have run the ball 284 times and thrown it 305. Ironically, they are only averaging 3.8 yards per play on the ground. They have 12 turnovers on the season, 6 fumbles lost and 6 INT’s.
DL—Troy plays a hybrid 4-2-5 on defense. Up front at DE will be John Hines Jr and Javon Solomon and, in the middle, will be Will Choloh and Elgin Griffin. Solomon leads this group with 43 tackles 15 TFL and 10 Sacks followed by Choloh with 27 tackles and 7 TFL with 3.5 of those being sacks. He is followed by Hines JR 26 tackles 5.5 TFL and no sacks. Griffin has 15 tackles with 3 TFL and 2 sacks. This team plays in the backfield allot. Overall, they have 78 TFL and 34 Sacks, many of these coming from the group up front. The other guy up front to watch for is Richard Jibunor, he has 28 tackles with 9 TFL’s and 8 Sacks off the bench. They are good up front and in the middle.
LB—The #1 guy to watch for is their leading tackler and probably the best LB in the conference not named D’Marco Jackson from App State. Carlton Martial is a tackling machine. He leads the team with 92 tackles 9 TFL and only 1 sack, but he is always around the ball. To give you an example of how good this guy is he is 46 tackles ahead of anyone else on the team and 10 more tackles this season than D’Marco Jackson. He averages 10.3 tackles a game. He is really good. Also, they have KJ Robertson who is 2nd on the team in tackles with 46 with 3 TFL and .5 a sack. So, while they do not get allot of sacks from the LB’s, they do make allot of plays. And considering their DL has so many TFL and Sacks you can understand how these guys are so active. Jayden McDonald is probably their best LB off the bench.
DB—At CB, we will see Elijah Culp and Reddy Steward. Culp is a transfer from Austin Peay and Steward is probably the best CB they have. Both Culp and Steward have very similar numbers with 22 tackles on the season. They have combined for 7 pass breakups and 2 int’s. The only difference is Culp has 4 PBU’s and Steward has 3. Their safeties are Kyle Nixon and Dell Pettus. The hybrid guy is TJ Harris, and he is pretty good. Harris plays a position they call Spear and is 6’1 190 lbs. He has 45 tackles on the season 6.5 TFL and 3.5 Sacks. He also has 2 INT’s. So, he plays all over the field.
DEFENSE—Troy is only giving up 22 points per game, which is good, because they only score 26. But they are stingy everywhere. They are giving up only 317 yards per game on defense with 114 of those on the ground and 202 through the air. Teams have only scored 23 TD’s vs them with only 20 of them on their defense. They are really good on 3rd downs. They only allow 35% of teams to get 1st downs on 3rd down, their bigger issue is that teams are 14-19 on 4th down.
ST—Their punter is Luke Magliozzi, who has 47 punts for a 42 yard per punt average. He has a long of 65 and 7 over 50 yards, so he can be a weapon. Their FG guy is Brooks Buce, but he has only attempted 5 kicks and has made all of them, but none over 39 yards. Buce handles most of the Kickoffs as well, although Kyle Coale has kicked 13 as well. Buce has 16 of his 32 for TB’s. The previously mentioned Tez Johnson is their punt return guy, he is super athletic, with 7 punt returns for 54 yards and a long of 16. On Kickoffs Markels Colvin is their main guys, he has 9 for 172 yards but only a 19-yard average and a long of 25. So, they are not much of a threat on kick or punt returns, although Johnson is always a threat to break one.
Coaching—Chip Lindsey is their head coach and has been there now for his 3rd year. Lindsey has an overall record of 15-17 but has never won more than 5 games. He was 5-7 in year 1, 5-6 last year and 5-4 this year. Lindsey was a highly successful HS coach in Georgia before moving to the college ranks. He started in 2010 as the Troy QB Coach, but has coached at Auburn, Southern Miss, and Arizona State as an assistant. A familiar name on their coaching staff is Strength and Conditioning Coach Rusty Whitt. Whitt spent 6 seasons at UL as SC Coach before moving to Texas Tech and now at Troy.
This will not be an easy game; their Defense is good, and their offense has weapons at the skill positions. Cajuns are going to have to try to get positive yards and not get in 2nd and 3rd and long situations. That is when Troy will come after you. We need to elimitate the penalties and avoid sacks and tackles for loss. I still think the Cajuns will win this one, but this is going to be a battle from beginning to end.
Geaux Cajuns!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Ragin' Dave's Troy Preview
Originally Posted by CajunGrad16
