Super Bowl Update

TROY – One of Troy’s hidden treasures throughout its run of five straight Sun Belt Conference championships was its ability to run the ball.

Last year, that aspect went way out the window, along with its season. Troy ranked 117 th nationally, rushing for just 88.7 yards per game. It was a steep decline from the previous four seasons, when the Trojans averaged 164 yards per game.

“Even though we were thought of as a spread pass team, we won a lot of the run game battles,” said John Schlarman, Troy’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator. “As a line, we were disappointed in that and as coaches, we were disappointed in that. In this offseason, we’ve gone back to establishing that mentality that, even in the years where we won those championships, if you look at the statistics, we won the run game battle.”

Schlarman pointed to a few things that needed to improve by the offensive line for the run game to get back to where it was, but the main aspect was consistency. It didn’t help last year that Troy ended up losing three players during the season to injuries (Jacob Creech, Kyle Wilborn, Jimmie Arnold) and the only two positions where players started all 12 games were at left tackle (James Brown) and center (Zach Swindall).

Troy played two freshmen for most of the season on the right side in Zach Johnson and Terrence Jones. 

While there were growing pains last year, the two are now grizzled veterans with a bright future.

“We have to be more consistent on assignments and more consistent on technique,” Schlarman said. “We absolutely placed a lot of emphasis on that for this season and hopefully it shows. It’s not that we have to come up with some new formula, but we have to be more consistent and we weren’t last year. In years past, we were, and that’s the big difference.”

Troy’s offensive line will start three seniors – Jarred Fleming, Cody Woodiel and Kyle Wilborn, from left tackle to center, and Johnson and Jones. Fleming started games last year at right tackle and left guard and Woodiel played sparingly last year as a tight end, beefing up this season.

Two top backups are also upperclassmen in junior Jimmie Arnold (one start last year) and senior Andrew Phillips. Sophomore Chris Hawkins and redshirt freshman Dalton Bennett also round out the rotation.

Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield said that the Trojans are “going to improve on” the run game. He added that Troy has been able to pound the ball in the fourth quarter in the past more often because the Trojans were winning. Last year, Troy held a lead in part of the fourth quarter in only two if its nine losses.

“When you get down and turn the ball over, you have to get away from (the run game) that a lot sooner than you want to and that was the case last year,” Edenfield said. “You want to be able to dictate when you run and throw the ball.”

Troy head coach Larry Blakeney also agreed that the Trojans should be better in the run game. Troy returns seniors Shawn Southward and D.J. Taylor, though Taylor is out for Saturday’s 11 a.m. season opener at UAB, and several young players are vying for carries.

The addition of junior college transfer quarterback Deon Anthony also gives Troy a threat. Corey Robinson is the undisputed starter, but Anthony could see somewhere around 10 snaps a game in the ‘Wildcat’ formation.

“He’s a Wildcat guy that will throw and that gives him a chance to come in there in Wildcat situations and have them deciding if they’re going to load the box and stop him or cover the receivers and give them a chance to stop him,” Blakeney said.

A grueling offseason program helped the offensive linemen add strength. If they can use that and stay consistent with technique and assignments, the Trojans should be much better offensively this season.

“We’ve gotten a few schemes where we’ll be a little more hard-headed,” Blakeney said. “It won’t always be pretty, but we’ve got some things that will help us in the run game. We’ve got to get the ball to the right people in the right places.”