Troy University Athletics
Top Five Moments of 2016 from "Voice of the Trojans" Barry McKnight - No. 1
8/14/2017 7:49:00 AM | Football
Editor's note - We will countdown Barry McKnight's Top Five Moments of 2016 all this week.
The offseason – if there is such a concept any more in big-time college football – is drawing to a close, and my guys on the radio network and I are about to start buckling down in our preparations for the 2017 Troy football season. At Sun Belt Media Days in the last week of July in New Orleans, Neal Brown pointed out a critical early issue for this team will be to "turn the page" on last year. With that in mind, I'll look back for the final time on the moments from 2016 that meant a little something extra for me.
I don't need to recount the momentous, game-changing moments from the stars of the team; the Trojan Nation remembers them well and, if you don't, they've been catalogued very nicely here - Top 10 Plays of 2016. My account will be of the plays and players that might either have been overlooked in their impact and importance on a particular game, or have a backstory that you might enjoy. My Top Five Moments are not ranked; they're presented chronologically, so here we go!
No. 1 Rashad Dillard/Andre Flakes at Southern Miss
To my way of thinking, Rashad Dillard was one of the great Troy stories of the past 10 years: lightly-recruited out of high school because he's a couple inches shorter than prototypical defensive end size, he came to Troy out of junior college and had to redshirt immediately because he got hurt. He leaves the program as the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year because he simply committed to the ideal that no one was going to block him and was prepared to pay the price to be an unblockable player.
Andre Flakes, meanwhile, is the type of player that every successful program needs: a talented, upbeat guy who's just a football player; he'll play anywhere, do anything to help the team, and he's done that his whole career.
In the second quarter of the rainstorm that was the Southern Miss game in Hattiesburg, with Troy up 17-10 and USM backed up at their own 19, quarterback Nick Mullens rolled right to the hash marks on third-and-6 and found only one man on the hashes with him: Rashad Dillard.
Mullens lofted a pass over Dillard, or tried to, anyway. Rashad, with that wonderful football IQ, anticipated what was going to happen, leaped at the perfect time and intercepted it.
I rode the elevator with him the next week and asked him what he saw in that sequence because, literally, he was the only man defending in that quadrant. He told me, "I read his eyes. He wasn't even seeing me, and I just knew I'd have a chance to make a play."
Two plays later, Brandon Silvers found Andre Flakes – who, in his Troy career, has been a running back, a defensive back and is now a Spear, but, at the time, was a slot receiver – in a soft spot on a middle route from 11 yards out. Flakes splashed in for the score and Troy had conjured up a 24-10 lead that helped the Trojans to a seminal win in rebuilding the wall.
The offseason – if there is such a concept any more in big-time college football – is drawing to a close, and my guys on the radio network and I are about to start buckling down in our preparations for the 2017 Troy football season. At Sun Belt Media Days in the last week of July in New Orleans, Neal Brown pointed out a critical early issue for this team will be to "turn the page" on last year. With that in mind, I'll look back for the final time on the moments from 2016 that meant a little something extra for me.
I don't need to recount the momentous, game-changing moments from the stars of the team; the Trojan Nation remembers them well and, if you don't, they've been catalogued very nicely here - Top 10 Plays of 2016. My account will be of the plays and players that might either have been overlooked in their impact and importance on a particular game, or have a backstory that you might enjoy. My Top Five Moments are not ranked; they're presented chronologically, so here we go!
No. 1 Rashad Dillard/Andre Flakes at Southern Miss
To my way of thinking, Rashad Dillard was one of the great Troy stories of the past 10 years: lightly-recruited out of high school because he's a couple inches shorter than prototypical defensive end size, he came to Troy out of junior college and had to redshirt immediately because he got hurt. He leaves the program as the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year because he simply committed to the ideal that no one was going to block him and was prepared to pay the price to be an unblockable player.
Andre Flakes, meanwhile, is the type of player that every successful program needs: a talented, upbeat guy who's just a football player; he'll play anywhere, do anything to help the team, and he's done that his whole career.
In the second quarter of the rainstorm that was the Southern Miss game in Hattiesburg, with Troy up 17-10 and USM backed up at their own 19, quarterback Nick Mullens rolled right to the hash marks on third-and-6 and found only one man on the hashes with him: Rashad Dillard.
Mullens lofted a pass over Dillard, or tried to, anyway. Rashad, with that wonderful football IQ, anticipated what was going to happen, leaped at the perfect time and intercepted it.
I rode the elevator with him the next week and asked him what he saw in that sequence because, literally, he was the only man defending in that quadrant. He told me, "I read his eyes. He wasn't even seeing me, and I just knew I'd have a chance to make a play."
Two plays later, Brandon Silvers found Andre Flakes – who, in his Troy career, has been a running back, a defensive back and is now a Spear, but, at the time, was a slot receiver – in a soft spot on a middle route from 11 yards out. Flakes splashed in for the score and Troy had conjured up a 24-10 lead that helped the Trojans to a seminal win in rebuilding the wall.
Players Mentioned
Troy vs. Oakwood (Full Highlights)
Wednesday, December 10
Player Postgame Press Conference (Lana Koricanac, Emani Jenkins) - Oakwood
Wednesday, December 10
Chanda Rigby Postgame Press Conference - Oakwood
Wednesday, December 10
Troy vs. LaGrange (Full Highlights)
Sunday, December 07