Troy Notes From Official Site

UNT2012 · October 23, 2008

Trojans Not Interested in Looking Ahead

Courtesy: Ricky Hazel

Release: 10/21/2008

Troy Game Notes

North Texas Notes

Sun Belt Conference Release

Courtesy: Kevin Glackmeyer

Three games into the race for the 2008 Sun Belt Conference title, the Troy Trojans are in exactly the position they want to be in, first place.

But consecutive shared league titles have taught the Trojans not to take a single game for granted if they want to lay claim to an outright league title. That means the Mean Green of North Texas has the full attention of the Trojans going into this Saturday’s game at Fouts Field in Denton.

“We are not going to overlook anyone, especially someone in our conference,” Troy junior linebacker Bear Woods said. “Any conference game, in any conference in the nation, is a big game. They are in our path if we are going to go New Orleans and we have to handle them just like any other team.”

Troy (4-3, 3-0) enters play this week having won consecutive games for the second time this season after holding off a much-improved FIU team 33-23 last Saturday. The Trojans are determined to maintain their focus on the Mean Green (0-7, 0-3) this week despite the on-field struggles North Texas has endured this year.

The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. kickoff on Saturday night. There is no television coverage scheduled, however North Texas will offer web streaming of the event, which will be available through www.TroyTrojans.com. The Troy/ISP Network will handle radio coverage of the game.

“Every team we play, from here on out with the exception of LSU, is a championship game,” Trojans coach Larry Blakeney said. “You can lag around and have to fight from behind by taking someone, who is working hard, lightly or you can continue to work hard and prepare. You have to take all of them seriously, you have to study your plan and execute your plan and that is the way you have a chance to walk off the field as the outright champion.”

North Texas is familiar with winning the Sun Belt title, after owning the championship in each of the first four seasons the league played football. However, since last winning the Sun Belt title in 2004, the Mean Green has finished at, or near, the bottom of the league for the last three seasons.

That does not mean that North Texas is not dangerous, especially on offense. The Mean Green leads the Sun Belt, and ranks 27th in the nation, in passing offense, averaging almost 256 yards per game. The keys to that attack are sophomore quarterback Giovanni Vizza and senior receiver Casey Fitzgerald, who leads all of college football with 9.14 receptions per game.

“Their quarterback, I think, is made out of kryptonite,” Blakeney said. “He runs it and throws it and gets hit, a lot, but he just keeps getting up. Giovanni Vizza is a tough kid. They have a couple of offensive linemen who are really good and can play for anyone. I hope that we can devise a plan to slow them down and keep them from running up a lot of points.”

According to the North Texas stats, Vizza and the other Mean Green quarterbacks have been sacked 35 times this season. During the Trojans’ 45-7 victory last year he was sacked nine times and hit on numerous other occasions. Those facts should have the Troy defense, which ranks seventh in the nation in sacks and second in tackles for loss, salivating.

“We always are, but we just have to play mistake free football,” Woods said. “That has been our biggest problem, and we have to play with fewer mistakes.”

On the other side of the ball, the Trojans played their first game without starting QB Jamie Hampton last week, and the results were good. New starter Levi Brown was efficient and protected the ball, receiver Jerrel Jernigan saw his role expand to include his first pass attempt, which went for a touchdown, and freshman Dantavious Parker made his debut as more of a dual threat in the mode of Hampton and former Troy QB Omar Haugabook.

While most coaches don’t like the idea of playing multiple quarterbacks, Blakeney said he likes anything that helps the Trojans win.

“That is the only way I like it,” Blakeney said. “Anything that produces a loss, I don’t like. Anything that produces a win, I do like. The biggest thing is that we did not turn it over. We shuffled guys around and a lot of people handled the ball. Jerrel handled the ball well in a lot of fast action. I hope that we can continue to do that.

“By and large I thought Levi did a great job in his first start. He didn’t throw an interception and was pretty accurate in getting the ball into the hands of people who could make plays for us. Jerrel certainly was the story of the game with as many yards as he was able to account for. Then we had Dantavious Parker, and his little contributions were big. I was proud of him for taking care of the ball and executing his role in the offense.”

Jernigan, a sophomore from Eufaula, Ala., was named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the win over FIU. Jernigan had 10 rushes for 88 yards, both career highs, five receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown and was 1-of-1 passing for a two-yard touchdown, which comes out to 219 yards of total offense.

You would think that doing all those different things would wear you out, but Jernigan said the coaches kept a close eye on him during the game and made sure he got enough rest.

“Whatever coach asks me to do, I am going to try my best to do,” Jernigan said. “If I get tired, they’ll take me out and give me a break and then put me right back in. I was a little winded Saturday, but Coach (Kenny) Edenfield could see when I get winded and got me out. When I was ready, I went right back in.”

The Trojans’ new starting QB was certainly excited about the way the offense ran.

“I am excited and just looking forward to the rest of the year,” Brown said. “We have a lot of weapons. I’d hate to be a defense having to prepare for all of the different things. All of the positive things that can be said about him (Jernigan), need to be said. It is definitely nice to have a player like him out there.”

The only concern about the offense coming out of the FIU game is the lack of production from the ground game, outside of Jernigan’s runs from the quarterback spot. Sophomore running back DuJuan Harris had just 34 yards, a season low, on 14 attempts in the game.

“We especially have to be better running the ball than we were last week because that was frustrating,” Blakeney said. “We have some work to do. With Danny Franks, our center, out, it creates a problem. Steven Adams is the backup who has gone in critical times and done a good job. We’ll move around and look at some different guys and hope to get Danny back this week.”

Franks suffered a high ankle strain early in the fourth quarter of the game at Florida Atlantic and was scratched just before game time last weekend, snapping his streak of 17 consecutive starts. He’ll continue to work with the training staff this in an effort to get back onto the field for the North Texas game.

Regardless of whether Franks returns, or junior Steven Adams continues at center for a second week, the Trojans know they have to prepare well for an improving North Texas team.

“I think it is really important that we not overlook them,” Brown said. “You see it every year that a team goes into a game against a team they are supposed to beat and lose. It is important that we not overlook them. We have to prepare for them, just like we prepared last week.”

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Edited October 23, 2008 by UNT2012

UNT2012 · October 23, 2008

Listen to this week's Sunbelt coaches conference. No love loss between Dodge and Vito. It is so obvious.

Coach Blakeney says they are beat up some. Jernigan is a special talent. Expect him to touch the ball at QB, WR, and RB at least 20 times.

Deloach must scheme for a lot of different skilled personnel. Tough task.

Blakeney is really high on Vizza, he calls him a "War Daddy." Pretty darn high praise for such a young player. Giovanni has stones, maybe big meatballs.

Probably going to be 30 point dogs before kickoff. I am taking the mean green in a big time upset.

If we can eliminate the huge explosive easy scores, we might just get enough homecoming love, to get it done.

Green Koolaid flowing from the canteen.

Green Crazy · October 23, 2008

Listen to this week's Sunbelt coaches conference. No love loss between Dodge and Vito. It is so obvious.
Coach Blakeney says they are beat up some. Jernigan is a special talent. Expect him to touch the ball at QB, WR, and RB at least 20 times.
Deloach must scheme for a lot of different skilled personnel. Tough task.
Blakeney is really high on Vizza, he calls him a "War Daddy." Pretty darn high praise for such a young player. Giovanni has stones, maybe big meatballs.
Probably going to be 30 point dogs before kickoff. I am taking the mean green in a big time upset.
If we can eliminate the huge explosive easy scores, we might just get enough homecoming love, to get it done.
Green Koolaid flowing from the canteen.

My gut is telling me the same thing...at the worst it's a last minute loss. My head on the other hand has trouble believing it will be less than a three touch down lead by half time.

I'm going with my gut. A little homecoming magic for the Mean Green.

Dodge2007 · October 23, 2008

Blakeney is one helluva coach. He recruits really well and is a good evaluator of talent and toughness.

He is one tough nosed coach and the boys from Alabama and Auburn avoid him like chicken pox. Vito brings up some good points out Blakeney and his recruiting abilites despite being stuck in the middle of SEC country and the fact that their is absolutely nothing to draw kids to that area of the country.

I sure hope Dodge has a way to slow down their big play guys on defense. They killed last season with their defensive scheme.

Deloach has his hands full as well. SPECIAL TEAMS better be special or their speed will make a huge difference.

UNTLifer · October 23, 2008

Listen to this week's Sunbelt coaches conference. No love loss between Dodge and Vito. It is so obvious.

Where is this available? I would like to listen.

UNT2012 · October 23, 2008

Try this

http://www.sunbeltsports.org/newMediaPlaye..._FILE_ID=149321

If not, go to media on sunbelt conference website.

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 24, 2008

I never cease to be amazed how after watching this team play week to week, there are still people that think we can beat a team like Troy. This will be ugly.

Troy 55

UNT 12 (4 field goals)

Mean Green 93-98 · October 24, 2008

I was pleased with our performance in the second half against ULM. Yes, too much damage was done in the first for anything we did to really matter; but it was not really "garbage time" in the sense of Weatherbie calling off the dogs. If we can keep up whatever we had going from that second half into this game, we have a chance. A win will be tough against these guys, but we could definitely keep it a lot closer than the prognosticators are prognosticating. However, if we revert back to playing like we did against Rice, Troy will stomp us even worse than Rice did.

Dodge2007 · October 24, 2008

It will be interesting to see what Dodge comes up with against the number one ranked pass defense in the Belt.

If Dodge can move the ball on these guys, I will give him major kudos. We have to have a lot of success running the ball to keep Troy's blitz in check and stay penalty free. We cannot afford anymore TD drops or any blocked passes at the line turning into int's. Have to stay in front of the chains.

TD getting in third and long will be tough to overcome because Troy will play press coverage and go man and bring the house.

The chess match between Dodge and whoever is the Troy defensive coordinator, will be extremely interesting. Last season Dodge got smoked, I have a feeling Dodge has something to prove this week against this defense.

trud1966 · October 24, 2008

I never cease to be amazed how after watching this team play week to week, there are still people that think we can beat a team like Troy. This will be ugly.
Troy 55
UNT 12 (4 field goals)

I wish I had that much confidence in our kicking game...