When Troy suffered an improbable 32-28 defeat at Appalachian State in the third game of the season, few looked at the Trojans as being one of the top Group of Five teams in the nation.
The loss dropped Troy to 1-2 and 0-1 in the Sun Belt and the way the Trojans lost was a true gut punch. Appalachian State scored on a 53-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired.
Many teams may not have recovered from such a devastating loss.
Troy?
All the Trojans did was merely run the table the rest of the way.
Eleven games in a row.
Troy put an exclamation point to its season with an 18-12 win over Conference USA champion UTSA in the Cure Bowl in Orlando. This was considered to be among the better bowl games, especially since UTSA entered the game as the No. 22 ranked team in AP’s Top 25 and Troy was right behind at No. 23.
The win streak began with a 16-7 triumph over a Marshall team that had defeated Notre Dame two weeks prior.
Troy, with one of the country’s best defenses, continued to pile up Ws.
That included a 45-26 win over Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt championship game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. Troy led 31-7 at halftime and 45-13 with under five minutes left in the third quarter.
The Cure Bowl, while a competitive game, wasn’t one with a lot of offensive fireworks. We should have known that this one wouldn’t be aesthetically pleasing following the first quarter in which UTSA led 2-0.
This was a game that included seven turnovers – two interceptions by each team and three lost fumbles by UTSA. In short, it was Troy’s type of game, where the defense dominated. And what made it more impressive is that it came against one of the most explosive offensives in the country. UTSA entered the game averaging 38.7 points per game.
Even with scoring more than 26 points below its average, UTSA still stands 16th among FBS schools in scoring offense, finishing the season with an average of 36.8 ppg.
On the other end of the spectrum, Troy (12-2) currently sits eighth nationally in scoring defense, having allowed 17.14 points per game. It’s no wonder that the Cure Bowl MVP was a defender — Troy senior linebacker KJ Robertson. The 6-1, 225-pound Robertson had nine tackles and a game-turning interception.
UTSA was leading 12-7 and driving for another score, but on a 3rd-and-8 from the Troy 9-yard line, Robertson not only intercepted prolific UTSA quarterback Frank Harris but returned it 61 yards.
Troy tackling machine Carlton Martial, who entered the game with an NCAA-best 563 career tackles, added 14 to that total in the Cure Bowl.
When a team enjoys so much success, it’s always interesting to see what the expectations were before the season. Troy was picked to finish third in the Sun Belt West Division behind favored Louisiana and No. 2 pick South Alabama.
Footnote – Troy had dogfights with both teams, winning 10-6 at South Alabama and 23-17 at Louisiana. The Louisiana win showed a certain comeback spirit since Troy spotted the Cajuns the first 17 points before scoring the final 23.
The same situation, although not quite as dire, took place in the Cure Bowl, where UTSA scored the game’s first 12 points.
Troy has now won five consecutive bowl games and its 12 wins were the most since it became an FBS school in 2001.
Now the question is what is coach Jon Sumrall going to do for an encore?
That was his first year as a head coach at Troy. He had been an assistant at the school for three seasons from 2015-2017. He then served as an assistant at Mississippi for a year and at Kentucky for three seasons. Sumrall brought a needed defensive mentality to Troy. A 2005 graduate of Kentucky, he was a starting middle linebacker as a senior in 2004 and led the Wildcats with 72 tackles.
He took over a Troy program that had three consecutive losing seasons, going 15-20 in that span. Sumrall turned things around, and his defensive mentality paid dividends for a team that few thought would be enjoying such a memorable season, especially after such a heartbreaker in the third game of the season.
