Latest / Troy Boyz / Let’s Talk About a Plane Ride

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Let’s Talk About a Plane Ride · Troy Boyz

• THE Recording Studio: We're supposed to have a cold open our offense, isn't it? Am I right? Welcome back to the Troy Boys podcast. Very excited to be here. We are coming to you early on game day here on October 3rd for obvious reasons, and that is to celebrate the return of Crows Chicken Finger Restaurant to Troy, Alabama. God bless Elba Highway and God bless the good people of Troy. And thank you, Crows, for coming back. Looking forward to getting back out there. ⁓ and getting some more crows in my life. I needed that. ⁓ my cardiologist would disagree, but very exciting. ⁓ unfortunately we do need to talk about ⁓ the Utah State game, which is not as exciting as crows. ⁓ but I am not here to do it alone. Let's walk welcome in first the chairman of the surfboard, C Bass. Welcome in, C Bass. Hey Joe, yeah, we lost ⁓ we lost this game in some heartbreaking fashion. There's there's some things we need to learn from this and move forward as we move into conference plate. Let's get at it. Yep, absolutely. ⁓ and we'll also walk welcome in ⁓ the only flying creature that we want to see this week, the Birdman. Welcome in, Birdman. What's up? ⁓ you guys are celebrating the return of Crow's chicken, and I'm just worried about my ancestors and relatives. This is this is not good. ⁓ so yeah, let's let's let's talk about something else. Go Trojans. Yeah. ⁓ let's get into it. ⁓ as much as ⁓ Jired doesn't want us to, let's talk about a plane ride, specifically the one That we took out to Logan, Utah. ⁓ the Trojans did lead 10 to 7 at halftime and then proceeded not to score again. ⁓ so we fell to the previously winless Aggies 21 to 10. ⁓ Troy now 2-2, sitting at 500 out of the non-con schedule. ⁓ and if you thought last week's weeping and gnashing of teeth was bad, ⁓ welcome to the rest of this episode. ⁓ it's gonna be intense. Let's break it down. Bass, go ahead. give it to us quick and dirty. Tell us about this Troy defense that we saw against Utah State. Yeah, after having a really impressive performance against a quality SEC opponent, we only gave up two hundred and thirty yards to Missouri. We go up to Utah State and give up four hundred and thirteen yards. And that's just that's not ⁓ that that's just not good numbers ⁓ in your favor no matter what's ⁓ what what what's going on. If you're giving up over four hundred yards, ⁓ chances are you're not winning that game. Utah State averaged seven yards a play. ⁓ again, not a good number for us. ⁓ Utah State opened up with an explosive touchdown on the first snap of the game, fifty seven yards for them. ⁓ and that's something we've talked about. It's something we've been trying to eliminate at the big explosive plays. And I feel like we did a good job against Missouri handling that. ⁓ and then I feel like we come up against a team that we we may have felt was not A quality opponent either and kind of let up on some things and and obviously they took advantage of that, knowing that our secondary was willing to let that up. bright spots though, Jamarian Keyes picked up his first career interception and led the game with nine tackles. Justin Poe forced a red zone ⁓ fumble, and Donnie Smith recorded his fourth sack of the season. ⁓ and we and and on third down we did pretty pretty stellar. You know, ⁓ Troy held Utah State to ⁓ four out of eleven on third downs. ⁓ so Defense kind of slacked a little bit in my in my eyes compared to what they've typically done here so far this season. ⁓ but I still feel like that they're they're they're pretty elite in in some areas, and I feel like if we just make some adjustments and and move forward, ⁓ I feel like we'll we'll still be fine defensively. Yeah, it's tough, isn't it? I mean it seems like Jared has fielded this team every year, the team where the defense is good enough, ⁓ but we just keep putting them on the field. I mean you almost wonder like If this was if if we were on the Xbox and you had this defense and instead of calling the offense they're calling right now, you just tried to hold on to the ball for as long as you possibly could. If we wouldn't be winning more ball games just because our defense wouldn't be out for their seventh drive, ⁓ in the third quarter. You know, I mean it's it's just it's tough to watch because there is a lot of talent out there, particularly on defense. ⁓ and ⁓ I hate to see talent, especially like Donnie's ⁓ you know, going into these ⁓ these efforts that are are not successful. ⁓ Bird, what do you ⁓ would you what'd you see from the offense of the Trojans against Utah State? Yeah, fellow Trojans, I'm sorry for all those times I said the word elite in terms and references to our offense, especially to you, Mr. Kane, who fellow listener, not been a very elite showing on the wide receiving core recently or really offensively. I don't know what's going on. When you look at the stats, I mean, box score says that we should have won 395 yards, 26 first downs, 80 plays, 34 plus minutes of possession. We just had a real problem with efficiency. We had a lot of turnovers and two miss field goals. ⁓ so Goose Crider had a rough night, finished 25 of 49 for 226 yards, one TD and three interceptions. ⁓ two of those picks came from inside the Utah State 20-yard line. ⁓ so yeah, just a lot of unnecessary turnovers in the ⁓ near in and near the red zone. It's just just just wasn't good. ⁓ and that's really the story of this offense in the game. The interceptions, a botched fourth down snap ⁓ from Jordan ⁓ that fumble in near midfield from Jordan Lovett like ⁓ at four giveaways, I mean anybody's gonna lose a game. It doesn't matter what your stats look like. When you turn over the ball like that, that's ⁓ the other team, if they can capitalize, the game is over. ⁓ but we did have a little bit of a shining spot. Ground game was improved. ⁓ after struggling at Missouri, Troy rushed for 169 yards on thirty-one carries. Gavin Griffin led the way with sixty six yards and Crowder added forty-eight. ⁓ the success on the ground does raise questions why Troy threw the ball forty-nine times. So there may have been some Balance on play ⁓ play calling there. offensive line allowed just one sack after surrendering three last week. ⁓ and then receiver wise, Noreel White had six catches for seventy five yards. Howard Kenson six catches for fifty eight yards and a T D and they both posted career highs. So we had a strong start. But we had a very familiar finish overall and bottom line, the ⁓ run game and pass protection showed progress, but our ball security and ⁓ turnovers were a big itch issue. So if we can generate that that amount of yardage and set ourselves up for opportunities but avoid turnovers, I feel like this could have been the difference of four scores ⁓ for the for the Trojans. And I feel like if moving forward, if our offense can get a handle on that, it won't be hard to win games. ⁓ so we just need to really Focus up on those areas where we need to improve and and figure out what's going on. Man, a a a game where Troy's quarterback throws for forty forty-nine attempts, ⁓ or as Corey Robinson called it back when he was active, a slow night. ⁓ so I mean, we've definitely changed the way that we look at our offense. ⁓ and certainly ⁓ we could use a man like C Rob again out there twirling the magic bean. ⁓ I got a couple of traditions, guys. I'm in my 40s. They're not traditions I enjoy. One of them is waking up feeling like I've been in a car wreck if I sleep on my neck the wrong way. And the other is once a season having Jared Parker make me feel like Henry Winkler and The Waterboy, where I just lean up and go, Does anybody have any ideas? ⁓ and that's certainly the case for special teams. I don't have a lot of good things to tell you guys. ⁓ Ethan Head, you know. Feel bad for the young man. He just had a tough night. He made a forty-five yarder, his first kick ⁓ in the second quarter, really, really good. ⁓ the rest of the night, not such a good story. Missed a twenty-eight yarder, missed a forty-eight yarder in the fourth quarter, but that's obviously getting a little bit into desperation. ⁓ Evan Crenshaw got back ⁓ kind of where he's supposed to be, four punts, 173 yards, along of fifty-two, two inside the twenty. That 52 yarder was his seventh punt of 50 plus yards this season. ⁓ Utah State only had two punt returns for four total yards. The problem is we keep losing the field position battle. A big part of it is we're just we're returning for nothing. ⁓ I shouldn't have said that a few pods ago when I said all I want them to do is not lose the ball. ⁓ JK, guys, total joke. ⁓ we need to do more than one punt return return for zero yards and no kickoff returns. ⁓ but obviously neither team did great at kickoff returns, but ⁓ they just did a little bit better ⁓ and so won that kind of ⁓ you know, that kind of secret yardage or whatever. you know, bottom line, special teams, which is usually such a great area for us every single week, week in and week out. We've had a couple weeks in a row now, ⁓ where it's really let us down in a big way. So hoping to see the Trojans come back Tuesday night ⁓ with a renewed emphasis on special teams. ⁓ and making sure they're part of helping us win the ball game. ⁓ all right, Birdman, you have got the first tough assignment of the early morning here. ⁓ and that is to look at the wreckage of this game ⁓ and dig around and figure out who to highlight in this week's edition of Best in the Nest. Absolutely. Let's show the secondary some love this week, okay? Jamion Keys, first career interception, career high nine tackles, which is a team best, and a pass breakup one week after four tackles at Mizzou. Solid performance in the midst of a, you know, not so great game. ⁓ also honorable mention to Donnie Smith, who rec has now recorded a sack in every game this season. So he got a couple of highlights on the defense. I love to see that. Love to hear that. So ⁓ Jamarion Keys and Donnie Smith, if y'all have a mantle, clear it off because y'all've got something to put on it. Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ congrats to Jimarion. Even though he did come in ⁓ you know, in ⁓ in relief of Joe Lott, ⁓ who I'm a big fan of. ⁓ but Joe Lott is injured. ⁓ aka he has a mission with the suicide squad to go on and was not able to play. ⁓ but ⁓ it was nice to see Jamarion come in and kind of backfill and And play really ⁓ just as explosively as I would have expected Joe to play. ⁓ but we'll be excited to have both those guys back and have some depth. ⁓ before we turn the page completely on last week, ⁓ which happened literally seven hours ago, ⁓ we are going to take a look around the Sunbelt Conference and see if the Sunbelt Conference has indeed continued rising in this week's edition of the Rising Report. All right, before we get started, spoiler alert, ⁓ the league did go five and six in non conference games. ⁓ but we are now ⁓ and fifteen against the power four this season. ⁓ so a very rough as far as ⁓ you know, if you want to get into the we're a baseball conference ⁓ argument, this is a good time to have that argument. ⁓ so let's go through it real quick. ⁓ James Madison won forty six to twenty at Old Dominion. App State lost 41 to 31 at North Carolina State. ⁓ Georgia State, world beaters, beat Northern Illinois 35 to 14. ⁓ Marshall beat Gardner Webb 36 to 35. ⁓ Coastal lost to Liberty 34 to 17. Georgia Southern lost to number 25. Houston 42 to 28. ⁓ Down in the West, La La beat Charlotte 34-7. Arkansas State beat Kennesaw State 17-14. Those boys in Mobile lost to Kentucky 45-21. La Tech or LA Tech, as our friend Bird calls them, had the week off. ⁓ Southern Mist loses to Tulane 24-21. And ULM drops to 0-4, losing to Florida Atlantic, the fighting Howard Schnellenbergers 45-17. All right, gentlemen, of all those results in the Sunbelts. ⁓ in what is shaping up to be not a very spectacular season. ⁓ which results surprised you the most? Bass, go ahead. Yeah, Marshall squeaking by Gardner Webb by a point. Definitely my number one. ⁓ you know, that this was a a near replication of the ULM game last week for them. ⁓ Marshall was a twenty four and a half point favorite ⁓ against an FCS opponent on an extremely early homecoming game. And Gardner Webb led thirty five to twenty seven with nine minutes left in the game and somehow Marshall squeaked it back out there for that win. ⁓ so I Marshall sitting at three and one, probably feeling luckier than they should. I mean Georgia State's also sitting three and one, so take that for what it's worth. ⁓ but Marshall taking it by one at homecoming against an FCS opponent, that's definitely my pick. Yeah. ⁓ that's and and I saw some folks on like the Sunbelt uncensored groups ⁓ that are our more recent ⁓ transfers up from FCS talking about ⁓ that Gardner Webb is a really good ⁓ opponent, which I I'm sure they are, but ⁓ Marshall I'm sure expected to do a lot better than they did. Birdman, which ⁓ results surprised you the most? Absolutely. I'll know last week we talked about Southern Miss ⁓ looking like a team of serious questions after giving up ninety-one points ⁓ across two games. ⁓ but then they went down and played Tulane in New Orleans as a 13 and a half point underdog. ⁓ and the final score was twenty-four to twenty-one. ⁓ Landry Liddy, which is a weird name, ⁓ first start after Ethan Hampton broke his throwing hand. He was three for eight for 10 yards and took three sacks in the first quarter. ⁓ and so and then he went for seven for nine for 104 yards and two TDs in the second quarter and finished overall 18 of 29 with three TDs and no interceptions, which is much better than Goose did this past week. ⁓ Southern Miss And Tulane basically I mean it was just a much closer game than you would have expected. ⁓ there's there's been a lot of controversy surrounding Southern Mist right now, a lot of things the coaches saying, a lot a lot of stuff going on there. So it's surprising that there wasn't more distractions for them to go in and play a game like this. But it's really surprising because this is the same team UConn led forty-one to six, and one week later they had a top group of five program on the ropes on the road with a backup QB. So and Tulane, by the way, has won nine straight one score games, and that's the longest active streak in the country right now. So this is a team that's coming to the vet on Tuesday with a lot of momentum and a lot of positives, even though they lost. So I my question is they're still fair. It's like is this gonna be a team that you know we need to worry about or are we g they gonna let us put forty points on them? ⁓ so yeah, this I don't know how I feel about this. So what what do you guys think about it? I definitely don't think we're gonna put forty points on anybody right now. ⁓ I don't know. I mean Southern you know, Southern Miss obviously ⁓ not the most talented team in our division, but ⁓ yeah, I you know, we we've just gotta be we've gotta prepare like every game is the last game of the season at this point. And and like I watched parts of this game and there towards the end I saw it was tight so I watched the ending. This Southern Miss team is scrappy. Like they they That's all that matters. They they know they're not They know they don't have all the elements necessary and you can see that in the in the way that they play. They they but they are just fighting as much as they can to get what they can out of it. And when they know they're in a position that they could do something, like it it looked like they wanted to win this game. And they weren't just, you know, going through the motions like teams do. ⁓ so I I I'm concerned. ⁓ seeing as how we just played against Utah State and seeing how they played against Tulane, ⁓ it has me concerned for Tuesday. ⁓ definitely, yeah. A lot of lot of reasons for concern there. ⁓ as far as my most ⁓ kind of shocking result, ⁓ I could talk to you about NC State and App State. Obviously, App State ⁓ kept it closer than the experts thought. ⁓ they always play in state ⁓ opponents really, really close. ⁓ so not really that surprised by that. I'll tell you the result ⁓ off the field that surprised me the most ⁓ was the state of Louisiana's. University Board of Trustees ⁓ making public suggestions that all three Sunbelt squads in Louisiana drop down to FCS. ⁓ So LaTeX, ULM, and La La. Now we have all talked about ULM potentially dropping down, ⁓ but really the the trustees were looking much more at La La and La Tech because ULM is not spending any money, which is what we always talk about. So while they are losing money, they're losing less because they're only spending $15 million. ⁓ you know, LaTeX and La La are losing more ⁓ because they are spending more. So even though they're having success, to see that kind of suggestion to me is really shocking. ⁓ obviously, we know what it's like to be in a state with some SEC teams. ⁓ the state government is always going to kind of give ⁓ their favor to those squads. ⁓ but you know to see ⁓ to see that kind of suggestion being made, it does as much as I hate all the other teams in this conference and we talk bad about ⁓ it does make you feel bad for those players. I mean, 'cause it's hard to go out there every day, ⁓ give your all, and then you turn on the news and it's like, well, your effort's not really even that important. ⁓ you know, you we we need you to make more money or or drop down to FCS. So ⁓ you gotta wonder how that's gonna affect all three of those squads. Maybe not ULM. ⁓ how much worse could it get? But certainly La La and La Tech, you gotta start wondering ⁓ you know, if if they're gonna if those players start to think maybe I ought to get out of here if I wanna keep playing FPS ball or ⁓ you know, just lose a little bit of motivation. So very, very sorry to to to see that happening. ⁓ you know, did you guys have any reaction when you saw that the ESPN blip hit your phone? I mean, I think it's just I think it's wild that their govern like their state government has that much influence on athletic programs at their collegiate institutions. Like I I'm still fascinating I'm fascinated by how much pull L like Louisiana State had whenever they were getting Lane Kiffin. I I was fascinated by how much pull their governor and their state legislature had in all of that. And that's to to me, I I feel like that that's the whole point of having an athletics department and and having it like a ⁓ in all of that. Like that that's a that's their job. Let them figure that out. Why are you why are we micromanaging all of this? And if we feel and like like airing it publicly like that is not really the appropriate way to do that. so I I I I just I'm fascinated that it even happened, you know, in public like this. You know, I surely somebody's having conversations about ULM potentially stepping down for obvious reasons that Joe talked about, you know, it's not revenue generating and they're also not spending enough, so they'll probably still be successful at that level where they're at baseline. But you have two other squads that are successful programs in in in various sports. So why are we gonna kick ⁓ Yeah, it it's it's bad ⁓ it's all it's all interesting and fascinating to me. I just I would like to I would like to have more rationale rather than just a simple blurp of we should just do this because we can. Hey, well watch out 'cause ⁓ meanwhile before long if we have another game with three interceptions, she's gonna let Troy re s re sign Gunnar Watson. No, there we go. No, that would that would that would make my day. ⁓ Say something best. You know the rules. I I was I I was raised. If I not nice to say, don't say nothing at all. no, we we never have anything to worry about in as far as being in a similar position as La La or La Tech because ⁓ the state of Alabama has proven ⁓ they have no ability to stick behind even a good decision. ⁓ because shutting down UAB's football program was a good decision. ⁓ and it was it was the right decision. And ⁓ since they've since they've they've caved under pressure, aka seventeen people being upset about it. ⁓ go you know, go look at a game in protective field on a Saturday. ⁓ you can can't you know you can see if your friends are there, ⁓ because you can count out the individual fans. So a roller coaster joke. Yeah, I didn't I was just saying I mean they're what an excellent segue. There is a there is a there is not a rake that ⁓ Alabama will not step on in order to protect football ⁓ and to protect AJ McCarron's career for some reason. Hey, have you been to the Costco in Birmingham? ⁓ yeah, yeah, you get a two pack of tickets and a bag of Doritos for about five bucks. I see it all. Yeah. Good grief. ⁓ all right guys, let's turn the page very quickly ⁓ as we get into this week of games. ⁓ and we need to prepare for Southern Mists. We're gonna open up Sunbelt Play under the lights at the vet ⁓ on Tuesday night. We're honoring everybody. If you've ever felt Troy needed to honor you, get on down to the vet Tuesday, 7 p.m. They'll bring you out there. ⁓ they'll give you a signed football, something like that. ⁓ maybe even a plate of crow's chicken be nice. ⁓ but they are gonna honor the baseball team, which is great. ⁓ they're gonna honor ⁓ several folks. It's gonna be a big time for us to be on ESPN two ⁓ as we go for our sixth straight win over the Golden Eagles. Both teams coming in at 0-0 in the league. ⁓ we are nearly a 10-point favorite despite being 500. Bass, give us some thoughts on Southern Mess as we go into ⁓ this Tuesday night spectacular. Yeah, Southern Mist currently sitting one and three. This is Blake Anderson's first year as head coach. He takes over after being offensive coordinator last season for Charles Huff. Charles Huff flew the coop. which is kind of his MO. Sit there for a year or two and get out. So Blake Anderson's taking over now for the fighting Mustard Buzzards. ⁓ so far this season they have a big win over in state foe Alcorn State. They lost to Auburn in in convincing fashion. They lost at home to UConn, but UConn is actually a pretty decent team this year in football. And I'm not saying they're great or, you know, door beaters, but they're they're pretty all right this year compared to what they've been historically in the past. ⁓ and then we just talked about their heartbreaking really tight loss at ⁓ away at Tulane. ⁓ so this is three straight losses i in a row. So may maybe Blake Anderson can do something to turn it around. We'll see here on Tuesday against the Trojans at home. ⁓ Yeah, the quarterback situation has had to shake up here so far this season. They had the transfer from NIU Hampton. He's already fractured his hand, so he'll be out for a couple of weeks. ⁓ Landrin Liddy is a senior. He started in the two lane game. He was eighteen for twenty nine for two hundred and forty three yards, had three touchdowns and no picks. And Coach Anderson said, Quote, He did a great job, he throws balls well, period. ⁓ and so that that's a concern for us. You know, we talked about it it we're we're willing to let up the long ball. ⁓ so we we really gotta let that ⁓ We really gotta control that. We gotta keep Liddy in check and and force him to throw some short passes or even keep the ball on the ground. That would be the the move for us, ⁓ given what we've seen so far this year on defense. Yeah, for skill position players, Steven Robinson, he's the r lead running back right now for Southern Miss. ⁓ he he's the junior out of Baltimore, Maryland, five nine. he has so far this season seventy two carries for three hundred and nineteen yards, averaging four and a half or so a carry. Pretty decent and secure ball running there. Yeah, for receivers, Mar there, look at that. That's a beautiful sound. Yeah, for receivers, we got Mario Sanders. He's got twenty receptions this season, three hundred and two yards, averaging fifteen point one yards of reception. Again, proof they're not afraid of the long ball. AJ Little, another receiver to watch out for, fifteen reception, hundred and seventy-six yards. For tight ends, they got Broderick Peters. He's only cut ⁓ had four receptions this season, but they were for sixty yards, so averaging fifteen yards of reception there as well. ⁓ Kicking game. The their kicker is a hundred percent. ⁓ Creighton Wilmbanks, ⁓ twelve for twelve ⁓ on on field goals and ⁓ PATs. So ⁓ watch out. All right. Well, hey, it looks like we've got a good game coming into the vet on Tuesday night. ⁓ you know, obviously we know this team very well. ⁓ we've had success against them since they've come into the league, but that does not mean that they are ⁓ a team we can just mail it in against, especially given our performance in Utah. ⁓ we did look for a know your foe this ⁓ this season, unfortunately, Southern Mist not doing so well. So we weren't able to find one. ⁓ if you have a problem, you know, I don't know, send a send a tweet to the Sippy Squad or something and see if they'll be willing next year to to give us somebody. but we do now, ⁓ you know, obviously Bass has given us a great breakdown. and, you know, people are Looking on this Saturday morning before game day gets started, ⁓ to ⁓ put some bets down potentially. ⁓ you know, maybe you you're in need of a little extra cash because a ⁓ a certain club you were in in college has sent you to collections or something like that. ⁓ so we send bass down the river ⁓ to Pascagoula, ⁓ where sports betting is not frowned upon as it is here in Alabama, ⁓ to figure out. How we can go about making moolah in Pascagoula. Yeah, the Trojans right now sitting as a nine and a half point favorite. The over underset at fifty and a half. Troy money line is at minus three sixty. Yeah, the FBI for this game has the Trojans as a sixty-five point six percent chance to win this game. So basically about a a two-thirds chance to win this game. ⁓ so the your Vegas predicted score, the Trojans thirty, Southern Miss 20. All right. So everybody, if you're gonna be out there ⁓ making bets, this obviously is for entertainment purposes only, but ⁓ if you are gonna be out there, ⁓ there's some good advice from the bass. all right, bass, last bit of work for you today. and that is when we allow Trojan Nation to come to the banks of your pond and throw in their best lures to see if they can catch a sea bass in this week's edition of the Tackle Box. ⁓ so bass, we had a question here, but ⁓ I've as I've spent some of this early morning ⁓ trolling around ⁓ troyfans.com, getting to Even some of the more forgotten recesses. ⁓ there's a question. ⁓ this is gonna be fresh for you because it's not what I had written down. ⁓ but this is ⁓ a question that's definitely being discussed in differing ways. ⁓ and that is we've got this game coming up against Southern Mist Tuesday night. ⁓ you obviously have people pretty upset with Goose Crowder throwing three interceptions. You got people pretty upset with offensive coordinator Adam Austin. Who hasn't exactly been the panacea that we may have been promised? And obviously, people still pretty upset with Jared Parker. My question to you is: ⁓ does Troy go into this game as Southern Mist? Thinking we win this game, then we continue with this team as constructed, ⁓ and see what we can do in a in what we think is going to be a pretty weak Western division. Or if we lose this game, is it time to turn. To the second coming of the bazooka from Paducah Jack James, ⁓ and give the young man a chance. Obviously, he is probably not the quarterback Goose is right now, ⁓ but do you go ahead and give him a little baptism by fire, let him have the rest of this season to kind of ⁓ you know, get his battle scars and get ready for next year. What are your thoughts? I mean Goose has not had a had he's had a rough couple games. And but we've seen sparks of ⁓ of success from him in the past. ⁓ yeah, my concern, and we talked about it in the preseason with him, is that we've not really seen him do a full season. That that's been a concern. ⁓ we we've not seen him do a full breadth of season. and so now that he's like truly in the slot, like he is the guy and and and but just things are not going quite so well. I my concern with with making the pivot if this doesn't go well is are we really putting ourselves in the best position to win? because this is a this is a down west division. I don't know, that's kinda that's kind of a weird question. Cause like there there's there's benefits to both sides, I guess, of this coin, in that Goose has the experience and the team understands his system right now, even if it's not working out as well as we thought it should or should be working. I don't know. I don't know. I mean I would say try it, but I don't I don't know that we should commit to a full season of QB two right now. 'Cause I you know y you gotta see it to believe it and I just I don't know yet. Yeah, and it'd be QB three. ⁓ we'd be jumping all the way ⁓ down the roster. ⁓ yeah, that's right. So so obviously that's a ⁓ it would be interesting. you just it's one of those things where now in the group of six, the conference championships have become so so meaningful ⁓ and bowl games have become less meaningful ⁓ that it does even at this point in what will be, you know, after our fifth game of the season, you'll be in a position where you might make some radically different decisions. If you feel like the playing for a conference title is out of the picture, it might be worth it to send Jack up and ⁓ and let he and Corey get started ⁓ kind of building what's gonna be on the field. 'Cause obviously we you know, we're banking on him being the future. ⁓ so you just have Troy fans right now starting to think the future might should start now. ⁓ and and obviously that's the most popular guy. ⁓ yeah, the most popular guy on any campus is the backup quarterback, right? So, ⁓ you know, we get that. But ⁓ be interesting to see what Parker and company do ⁓ and ⁓ we're certainly going to be rooting for success with whatever decision they make. I mean, I just feel like that this all kind of stems to and and y'all can talk about it if you want to too. I feel like it all stems from just th this season has not panned out in the way that everybody felt it would. You know, I I I felt I felt very confident at this point we would be going into to conference play three and one and that Missouri game be tight. And we were in position to do that last week, but the first two games were not pretty at all. And then Missouri, I feel like it showed that this team is capable. You know, i i everything flipped this way. We We were theoretically two plays away in that Missouri game from winning. Right. I mean if if we could turn back time and change two plays, we'd probably win that game. But then we go to Utah State and do what we just did. And and praise the Lord it was on some CBS program that you had to have a subscription for that most people don't. That way it was not in the national spotlight. But you you had your you had your team positioned to be in that conversation, to be a part of the discussions of is this a is this a contending team, yes or no? And we just we We just dropped the biggest ball of the season last week. And I feel like that's what a lot of people are upset about, but they just can't articulate it. Is that this team was supposed to be that team that just was like, We're back. We're we're where we're supposed to be. And it's just it's just not panned out that way. by the way, the line just moved. I I just watched the line move for this Troy game. Troy is now a ten and a half point favorite. Nice. No, you're absolutely right. Jared Parker does not lose a lot of football games. He only loses the ones that he can't lose. ⁓ like anytime a game is of extreme importance and the fan base is just hinging everything around it, he loses that game. ⁓ if it's a game that people are like, Well, this could go either way, he usually wins it. ⁓ so I mean Jared just has a really bad habit of picking terrible games to lose. ⁓ like bowl games against Jacksonville State or ⁓ away games against Utah State. So ⁓ all right, one last bit of work for this week. ⁓ and that is when ⁓ although it is still hot, nobody's told Alabama it's fall yet, ⁓ because it is still hot out here, ⁓ I go to even a hotter place, and that is the corner of the internet called Troyfans.com to bring all of Trojan Nation this week's edition of the TroyFans dot com. Hot take of the week. What's going on? No, seriously, it's October and it's still really hot. I was talking about the Trojans, Trojans, Trojans. Alright. ⁓ so this week I do have a runner-up. Both of these are from Troy fans, obviously. this week's runner-up, if you feel that you've been robbed. ⁓ you kinda have. It's just the winner appeals to me in such a special way. But the runner-up is very good. ⁓ here's the runner-up quote Troy football is a rabid chihuahua on cocaine. What I don't even know what that means. I I mean, we certainly don't have a lot of energy. I I don't see us barking a whole lot. ⁓ but I mean I I enjoy it. I I think the hyperbole is great. ⁓ But you know, that's it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's one of my favorite kinds of posts. So Yeah. The two dollar blish lights weren't there. Like it's like the the Kelly hot dogs were not for sale yet. the winner, however, ⁓ and this is just because I just don't understand. I mean, I we're not like Notre Dame. We don't have casual fans that are following our team and don't really know anything about it. If you are on TroyFans.com, you know Troy football. That's why you're there. You didn't just accidentally, AI didn't bring you over to TroyFans.com. Have you started looking at Troyfans.com? Right. So so when I see somebody come out like this week's winner that acts like they they literally are just brand new. They accidentally be Put it in. They they were they were looking for the movie Troy with Brad Pitt. They did not mean to get to Troy fans. ⁓ because here's this week's winner. Quote, who is our second string quarterback? I mean, winner, allow me not only to congratulate you, but to also ⁓ just ask you to introduce yourself, maybe through a Google, to a young man named Tucker Kilcreese, ⁓ Brantley, Alabama native. He's only been playing at Troy since nineteen fourteen. ⁓ I mean he's been there forever. ⁓ he and Jack Hawkins regular Yeah, he and Jack Hawkins are gonna retire at the exact same time from Troy after the same amount of years of service. ⁓ so please go look into Tucker. ⁓ he would be happy to have you look at his body of work. ⁓ but yeah, congratulations. You were this week's winner, ⁓ and enjoy just being kind of ⁓ naive to the realities of Troy football ⁓ for this season and the past ⁓ twenty. ⁓ all right, guys, we have done it. We've gotten up early on a Saturday morning. ⁓ made some questionable beverage choices, ⁓ and now have gotten Troy ready ⁓ for this game coming up on Tuesday night. ⁓ let's finish by giving Trojan Nation some closing remarks. Bass, go ahead with those closing remarks. Yeah. like, rate, subscribe, review to the Troy Boys podcast, share the Troy Boys podcast. That's how we get the word out. ⁓ And if you if you're gonna be there on Tuesday, be loud, be proud, support these Trojans. We're opening conference play. This is the chance right now that we need to make the statement and work our way to the conference championship game. This is it. We start now. Go Trojans. Absolutely. Yeah. If we're sitting here next week, ⁓ hopefully we don't do this again on Saturday morning, ⁓ but if we're sitting here next week recording and we are three and two, I think you've got a lot happier Troy Boys, even though it's just one game. ⁓ that winning conference and kind of getting ourselves settled and looking forward, ⁓ I think that'll be a big deal. So really hoping Jared Parker and company ⁓ can get that done. ⁓ Birdman, how about you? Give us some closing remarks. Yeah, I I agree with you guys. Like this this is a game that we need to win, not just because like it's gonna define our season, but because we shouldn't be losing to the illegal Eagles down there, the mustard buttons. It's we we just shouldn't. ⁓ but the season's not over. Even if like, you know, I I'm I'm hopeful that even if something does go terribly wrong that we still have a lot of opportunity to make it up the rest of the season. But I can foresee us having a lot more questions if Jared Parker goes into the vet on Tuesday after what, a week and two days of rest and ⁓ opportunity to kind of get back together, ⁓ and figure out some things. I could see some questions coming up. But to be on the positive side, I think we're gonna do it. Troy by fifty, let's ⁓ let's let's just get out there, let's beat the mustard buzzers and let's just move on. And ⁓ continue doing good things this season. Yeah, absolutely. And and Bird to give you a bit of a you know, this is a bright spot for everybody, but the Troy volleyball team just went over to Hattiesburg ⁓ and won won a big ⁓ game, ⁓ three to one against Southern Mist. So ⁓ you know, just proof that even if you beg, borrow, and literally steal, you cannot beat the Trojan Empire. So ⁓ you know, hopefully that's a good sign. ⁓ as we go up against these mustard buzzards on the football field. ⁓ all right, Trojan Nation, thank you so much for joining us. We are looking forward ⁓ to a Tuesday night spectacular ⁓ against our old foes from Hattisburg. ⁓ thank you for joining the Troy Boys. ⁓ please tell everybody you know about what we got going on over here ⁓ so they can join in the Troy Boys family. My name is Trojan Joe. The bird over there is the bird, the fish over there is the bass. ⁓ and as always, go Trojans and God bless ya, Blaze Brat.