Before every football game this year, The Blue Zone is going to sit down with a football writer from the opposing school’s student newspaper to get the scoop on their team and season.
This week, The Chronicle’s Nick Martin spoke to the Tropolitan's Sports Editor Jill Odom about this weekend’s game between Duke and Troy.
The Chronicle: Last year's game was a 38-31 shootout in Durham, but both teams have changed a lot since then. Duke lost a couple key players in the preseason and you guys lost Corey Robinson. What can we expect to see from this Troy team?
Tropolitan: It's different because they lost Corey Robinson and he had really good chemistry with all of our receivers. Offensively, they're kind of new. Brandon Silvers is the quarterback, he's a freshman and so he kind of struggles.... They're hoping that he'll do better now that he'll be on his home turf.
We lost some people defensively, and so it's a young defensive line but we still have some seniors like Mark Wilson, who I'm expecting will step up.
TC: Can you walk me through a couple of the things that didn't go well for them in the UAB game?
Trop: UAB was just really good and I feel like Troy just kind of underestimated them. Because [the Blazers] got a new coach who brought some quality players from his college and they dynamic between their quarterback and one of their receivers, No. 7, it was just first down, first down, first down. We couldn't even stop them. That was part of the problem. When Silvers was playing, he made lots of good passes, but four times he gets sacked and lost, I think, 27 yards total by the second quarter. Then they pulled him out and put Dontreal Pruitt, another quarterback, in and they didn't give him enough time to start playing. They'd put him in for one play, then take him out, then put him in for another play. It felt very disjointed. I think Silvers is just nervous. He's never done this before, he's a redshirt freshman. But with what we have right now, he's just going to have to step it up.
TC: With the new quarterback in the system, what's the rushing game looking like this year?
Trop: We still have Jordan Chunn, he's a sophomore, and I feel like he's going to bring his A-game to this. We have Chandler Worthy, he's a senior this year. I think our team's thing is going to be just scoring this year because we had Corey Robinson and he was a senior with great chemistry. This time, it's going to be like are we going to be able to put points on the game, period?
TC: This is Troy's first home game. How excited are the guys to get out there and not just open up against any Duke team, but one that's had a lot of national attention in the past year with the two games against Heisman Trophy winners in primetime? Does it carry a little bit of more weight and are they seeking revenge for last year's loss?
Trop: I don't think they're seeking revenge. I just think that they're going to try and go out there and do their best. They're not going to think about the UAB game. It'll be their first home game and they're coming out against a big-name team. ESPN3's going to be covering it. There's going to be lots of fan support in their home environment, which I feel like will help them be a bit more comfortable because it is a different team. Troy's going to try its hardest but I don't know if its going to win.
TC: If you had to predict the final scoreline, what would you put it at?
Trop: I would probably put it at [Duke] 38-27. I feel like Troy is going to score more than they did in the UAB game, but I don't know that the defense is going to be able to stop Duke, because they seem to be struggling, missing tackles a lot.
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