Sun Belt Play Mercifully Arrives for Troy After Georgia Loss

From the Troy perspective, the less said about this game, the better. Despite renowned experts predicting Georgia wouldn't cover the 41-point spread, the Bulldogs smashed the Trojans 66-0 Saturday.

It was ugly to the max in all phases: Georgia outgained Troy 547-216. Troy coughed up two turnovers to Georgia's none. Troy backs averaged 1.7 yards per carry. Georgia? 9.4.

The home team recorded the most rushing yards (367) and most points of Mark Richt's long career. For Troy coach Larry Blakeney, it was the worst loss of his even-longer tenure. The best of Troy teams could be excused for falling to Georgia, but not like this. Blakeney's growing list of critics have a fresh tank of gas for the fire.

Okay! Okay! Let's look at the positives:

* The Trojans took home a $900,000 paycheck to use however they like. I would get beat up for that price.

* Time of possession actually was in Troy's favor. They held the ball 32:05 to Georgia's 27:55.

* As in earlier games, the Troy offense started well. Dontreal Pruitt quarterbacked the offense 68 yards to the Georgia 9 on the opening drive, ending with a Ryan Kay missed field goal. Unfortunately, the rest of the game followed.

* A whole lot of players saw action. Nine different Trojans show up in the box score as having at least one rush, and 13 Trojans caught at least one pass. Pruitt and Dallas Tidwell split action at quarterback. Brandon Silvers was out owing to a concussion from the Abilene Christian game. Pruitt won a JUCO national title last year and some Troy fans believe he should be the full-time starter.

* This is completely off subject but a cool stat from the Troy athletic website: Coach Blakeney has 175 career victories in his 24 seasons at Troy; the other 10  head coaches in the Sun Belt have COMBINED for 99 victories at their current school (use the bar winning$ to make up for picking Troy+41 this week).

* Troy doesn't play Georgia again this year.

Conference play beckons

At 0-4, the important thing is to avoid the rear-view mirror: Undefeated in conference baby! Troy can still win the Sun Belt and/or go to a bowl.

And Blakeney isn't delusional about the year so far.

"We got a bunch of conference games left and we are 0-4," he said. "You can try all of your psychology or whatever to get through this but what it boils down to is the leadership on the team and on the coaching staff to see if we can get over something like this."

Next week, Troy faces a 2-1 Louisiana-Monroe who beat Wake Forest opening weekend. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN3.com/WatchESPN.

More on that later in the week. Let's check the message boards:

Mr. Ho Member Fight On! Posts: 96

Sep 18, 2014 at 6:10pm Quote Post by Mr. Ho on Sep 18, 2014 at 6:10pm Sep 18, 2014 at 5:02pm uddtroy said: ... no takers? No takers because nobody cares. We all know the outcome - we have ZERO chance. Georgia might cover the spread in the first half. A sad fall from being a scare on opponents schedules (we gave the last game away in Athens; and blew two games in Baton Rouge), to being a doormat. We are no Stanford. Mr. Ho would ask when does basketball season start, but we will be mediocre there as well.  #FightOn!!!

I have no idea what Laughing Clown Malt Liquor is, but let's hope Mr. Ho shared some with a homeless man after the final whistle. Blakeney said Saturday, "I don't want to forget how it feels to win games." Hey, if things don't change, maybe this drink can help Troy fans forget how it feels to lose them. Not that we condone that sort of thing here at Underdog Dynasty.