Troy Streaks Past Georgia State for Fifth Win of Season

Saturday, October 15

Troy, Ala.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

5-1 , 3-0

Georgia State

1-5 , 1-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Georgia State

Troy

Photo by: Kevin Glackmeyer

Troy Streaks Past Georgia State for Fifth Win of Season

10/15/2016 8:27:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Stats Season Stats Troy Postgame Notes Photo Gallery

By: Adam Prendergast

TROY, Alabama – Troy scored 25-straight points in just under eight minutes to pull away from Georgia State in a 31-21 victory Saturday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference play at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Troy improves to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in league play; it marks the first time since 2010 that the Trojans have opened Sun Belt play with three straight victories. Troy has now started Sun Belt play 3-0 six times since joining the league in 2004; the Trojans have won the Sun Belt title the previous five times.

Georgia State (1-5, 1-2) erased a 6-0 halftime deficit with touchdown passes on its first two drives of the season half to grab a 14-6 advantage.

Following the second of GSU's touchdown drives, Troy marched down the field and had a first-and-goal from the Panther 2-yard line. Following a bizarre sequence of plays where Troy thought it had scored, but were marked short, a Georgia State player appeared to jump offsides and Jordan Chunn found the end zone only to have the play called back for a holding. Ryan Kay booted a 28-yard field goal – his third of the game – to pull Troy to within 14-9.

Troy head coach Neal Brown and special teams coordinator Jon Sumrall dialed up an on-side kick on the ensuing kickoff and the Trojans recovered on the Georgia State 35-yard line.

Brandon Silvers connected with Tevaris McCormick for 34 yards on the first play of the drive and Chunn cashed in two plays later from three yards out following a pair of Troy penalties pushed the ball back.

Silvers finished 20-of-35 for 235 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the game, while Chunn rushed for 91 yards and one touchdown on 32 carries. Deondre Douglas led the Trojans with six catches for 97 yards and a score, while Chunn had four grabs for 34 yards.

Following a three-and-out by the Troy defense, Silvers engineered a three-play drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass to Josh Anderson to extend Troy's lead to 24-14.

Troy's defense has come up with big turnovers all season long and it added three more to the tally tonight with a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery. Demetrius Cain came up with the second pick with 9:21 to play in the game and Silvers found Deondre Douglas for a 29-yard touchdown on the first play of the ensuing drive to ice the game.

Troy's defense also came up big against the run as the Trojans held the Panthers to just 37 yards on 24 carries and kept them out of the end zone. Troy entered the weekend second in the country with just two rushing touchdowns allowed this year

Manning completed 28-of-52 attempts for 381 yards and three scores and the Panthers had a pair of receivers top the 100-yard mark as Todd Boyd finished with 122 yards and Robert Davis added 117 yards.

Quotable
"Great program win today," head coach Neal Brown said. "Huge thanks to our fans and all of the alumni that came back and created a tremendous atmosphere; I thought our kids fed off of that. I knew going into this game it was a tough matchup for us. We study our opponents a lot during the summer and during May when the assistants are out and I knew for a long time this was going to be a tough matchup for us."

Turning Point
Coming off Ryan Kay's third field goal of the game and Georgia State leading 14-9, Troy dialed up an on-side kick that B.J. Smith recovered on the Georgia State 35-yard line. Troy scored a touchdown three plays later for the go-ahead score.

Stat of the Game
Troy intercepted multiple passes for the fifth straight game, which is the most by a Troy team since 2004. The Trojans now have 14 interceptions on the season, which is the most since 2010 when the Trojans also had 14.

Big Picture
Troy moves to 5-1 on the season and the Trojans are just one win shy of bowl eligibility. Troy has been bowl eligible just once in the past five seasons (6-6 in 2013, but did not receive a bowl invitation).

Up Next
Troy travels to in-state rival South Alabama for a nationally televised contest Thursday night on ESPNU. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. between the Trojans and Jaguars.

Neal Brown Quotes

Opening Statement
"Great program win today. Huge thanks to our fans and all of the alumni that came back and created a tremendous atmosphere; I thought our kids fed off of that. I knew going into this game it was a tough matchup for us. We study our opponents a lot during the summer and during May when the assistants are out and I knew for a long time this was going to be a tough matchup for us. Defensively, what they do well is kind of where some of our weaknesses are. They are long, extremely long up front. I think it shows that we are making growth. This is another point of adversity where our kids responded. It goes back to really how we started building this program. About anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong in that third quarter."

On being upset on sideline
"This game is really hard to officiate and those guys do a really good job. If they make a mistake, it's no different than our players or our coaches, they are not trying to make a mistake. But, it felt like that I really needed to light a fire under our team and create some emotion and we did that, they fed off that."

On Troy O-line
"We were beat up a little bit, but we did good enough. We played three freshmen several snaps and a fourth got into the game. When you are playing that many young people, you are going to have some mistakes and we understood that going into the game. (Georgia State) did some thing we didn't handle very well. I thought we protected the passer well. A lot of times in this type of game teams find ways to lose … we found a way to win today."

On Brandon Silvers
"We were definitely out of sync. Part of it is that they are really good at corner. I think they have the best corner(back) pair in our league. Fundamentally, (Silvers) was off today and we've got to get him corrected and we can. He understands, he knows."

On the onside kick
"Jon Sumrall and I talked. We knew coming in that was something that we could get and he's the one that suggested it, so the credit should go to him."

"On the sideline, it felt like it was a huge momentum swing. More than anything – and I think this got lost a little – they (GSU offense) stood over on the sideline and got cold."

Troy Player Quotes
Kicker / Punter Ryan Kay

Was there any added pressure on that kick in the third quarter?
Not really, I was telling the guys that I've never been so disappointed to kick a field goal. We really needed the touchdown there, but it's always good to get some points.

How about kickoff returns and onside kicks? When the offense looked like it was struggling it seemed like you were giving them a short fields.
We probably spend more time on special teams than anyone in the country. It shows. It showed up in a couple of games now, this game and Southern Miss. Special teams have kept us in a lot of games.

How was the mood on the sideline when you guys took the lead?
It was crazy. We had a couple of momentum swings that got us back in the game and it was rocking from there. We kept our foot on the pedal.

Jordan Chunn

How were you all able to find some rhythm in the second half?
Special teams. We kicked it off and did a little squib quick and BJ Smith had a long kick return. That was the spark that got us going.

A few of the homecomings you all have gotten off to a sluggish start. Is there any added pressure with all the festivities?
I feel like if I say no, I'd be lying. There's just so much going into that game. You have people coming for that one game and preparing with all of the things going on through week and trying to stay focused. It's a lot of pressure.

Demetrius Cain

Is it see ball, get ball for the defense and is there any kind of the competition for the most turnovers?
Basically, that's what we go by. We love to get our hands on a lot of balls and a lot of turnovers, which helps the offense. We hold that competition in practice, there are a lot of balls thrown in practice and we try to get our hands on them. We try to motivate other players that are not making those plays to keep their head up. A play will come their way.

What was it like in the locker room at the end of the half?
It was pretty good. The coaches always have to come in and make a few adjustments because everything is not perfect. We had confidence coming into the locker room that we know what we need to do to execute the plays and take it play by play.

What was the morale like after they scored the two quick touchdowns?
We got a little down; obviously you're going to get down if anyone scores on you. But we have a lot of seniors on this defense that do a good job leading. When things go bad, they do a good job of picking the team up. We just followed that motivation and played four quarters.

Did you know the on-side kick was coming and do you think that was the changing point of this game?
As a team we knew the onside kick was coming, we were just waiting on the execution. It bounced our way and we got it. I think that was the changing point for the game because they got in the end zone twice and we had to make something happen and the kick bounced our way.

Georgia State Quotes

Chandon Sullivan (CB):
"With interceptions we disguised our coverage a little bit. Were a heavy press man team, so we went into cover two and I was just able to make a play on the ball. I received a few questionable pass interference calls, but they're judgment calls. They play a lot of man, so that's going happen at the end of the day. If I had to say the downfall of my performance it would definitely be those flags because it hurt my team. Overall, it just feels like as a team we just have to overcome adversity. We took the lead late, but as everybody said, we just fell apart. It's on us to get back to practice and practice harder. It's all about mentality. We didn't do our job at the end of the day. We trained all summer and all season for it, so we can't get tired. We can't use it as an excuse. We just have to execute better down the line. Our next game is a big game. It's our homecoming game, so I'm just going to get prepared and watch more film and do everything I can to stop hurting my team with these flags and continue to be a leader. Just keep everybody's heads up high. We made a run last year and we'll continue to do it this year."

Todd Boyd (WR):
"We did pretty good. Just needed to start off faster in the first half. We started off slow. Came back in the second half and scored a couple of points, but we fell kind of flat. We always practice like we're first receivers all the time, so we just have to keep going getting the young receivers in. We just have to step up and play. We've just got to keep our chemistry right. Everything wasn't perfect. We've just got to keep our heads up and keep rolling."

Trent Miles (HC):
"Congratulations to Troy for winning on their homecoming. They did an outstanding job coming back. They played real hard. I'm real proud of our kids compete. They played hard. We've just got to finish games and when the heat of the moment comes, not to break down on special teams and other situations. Hats off to Troy. We've got good talent at wide receiver and they're coached well by Tim Lappano. They do a great job, but still a loss is a loss. We can build on the fact that we've played two of the best teams in our conference on the road and we've had a chance in the fourth quarter to win both of those games, so with a new quarterback and some things we're still developing there's a lot to build on. As long as our kids keep giving the effort they've been giving, they'll be fine."