Taking the Crew to the Zou

This is Gunner Watson, two-time Sunbelt Champion, and you're now listening to the Troy Boyz podcast. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Troy Boyz podcast. It is Trojan Joe. Thank you for joining us. And we're here to break down what happened against the Alabama State Hornets and get ready for our trip to Mizzou. But I'm not here to do it alone. Let me welcome in first the Trojan who tells me of his hometown that each little snail there knows how to whale their sea bass. Welcome in sea bass. Hey Joe, glad to be back. I had to take a week off. I had the suds. But I found my way to some cleaner, fresher waters. And here we are ready to talk about a big Alabama state wind, two and oh, in the beginning of the season, really glad that we're in this position looking forward to going to Missouri. Yeah, buddy. Yes, that standard of that lagoon over there on Troy's campus. I know it looks pretty, but there's still a lot of secrets in that lagoon. Okay, a lot of suds going around. Next up, let me welcome in the avian creature who enjoys flying in merry weather. Bird man, welcome in bird man. What's going on guys? Super pumped to be here. I had a man, you know, I'm always on these avian adventures. So I'm really glad to see the turbulence has has cooled down a little bit and we're in good sunshine and 60 degrees right now. So happy to be here. Absolutely. You got to love it. Let me tell you about a day when it was not 60 degrees. At the Alabama state game, the Troodians win an in-state battle a little closer than the experts predicted 34 to 17. The stadium was absolutely packed. I was down in the vet and it was really nice at a great energy. A lot of Alabama state fans, their band was there. So it was just really pretty hyped up, but it was hot. I mean, a 3 p.m. kickoff in early September is tough in Alabama. So people were definitely, I mean, if everybody had ever sat down in their seats at the same time, you would have seen probably one of the most packed trolley football games of all time, but people just spent a lot of time kind of being under the concourse and keeping themselves hydrated, either with water or some boat sodas. So let's break down what happened on the field, not a half time, but why the game was going on bass. Talk to us a little bit about that Troy defense against the Hornets. Yeah. The defense was pretty solid against Alabama state and I think the score kind of undersells how well they actually played. Alabama state only managed to put up 221 total yards on 58 plays. That's an average of 3.8 yards of play, which is pretty good. That's the, that's the fewest that Troy has allowed under Jared Parker's tenure. So I feel like the defense is really moving in the right direction, picked up three total sacks. Kind of Jones, picked up one and a half. Donnie Smith with one and Rickym Davis with the other half, 55 total tackles, eight tackles for loss. I really want that tackle for loss number to be a little bit higher. Kind of exerts some more pressure in the back field. I'd appreciate that. By 17 points, we gave up like I said earlier, was kind of misleading and I'm sure Bert will talk more about it whenever he gets into the offense. But 10 of those points came on consecutive third quarter drives, where our offense just failed to convert on 4th downs. I'm here for the aggressive play. I'm not against it. We're kind of in a situation in that game where we could try some things and not really be penalized heavily for it. The first one was a touchdown at Alabama State started at the Troy 34. And then they had a field goal where Troy failed to convert a fake punt. So they picked up on the Troy 30. So really short situation there. And they managed to capitalize on that and pick up 10 points there really quickly. So like I said, 10 other 17 came out of just some, some offense problems and special teams problems there on 4th down conversions. But Troy defended the, particularly the run extremely well. The problem has got to be that we let up one too many tackles here and there. You know, I, that Alabama State had that one big explosive 50 yard touchdown run. Right. Like that kind of stuff. We've got to kind of eliminate, especially when we go up against a team like Missouri coming up this week. There's too many missed opportunities there for some, for some tackles to be finished and, and potentially have more tackles for loss and for some sacks. I do want to say that I think that the defense did a really good job of getting off of the field and ever they were given opportunities to do so. Alabama State was only 4 for 14 on 3rd down and 0 for 2 on 4th down. So really good work there. Very proud of this defense and they're showing. And like I said, that score is not really indicative of how well they actually did their defensive unit as a whole was very cohesive with minus and just small blunders. Yeah, and I'll tell you in the stadium, I'm not sure what y'all saw kind of watching the broadcast, but the Troy faithful were very unhappy. And this includes me, which it's going to be a shock for anyone who knows me. I was unhappy with the refs. Okay. I know that never happens. But it was, there was a lot of holding on our defensive linemen, especially Donnie Smith, that I think really prevented our defense from playing to the level that they could have. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean. I think we've been very positive about Alabama State in the lead up to this. Alabama State doesn't have a player that can block Donnie Smith legally for four quarters. Yeah. They don't have that guy. And so the fact that you saw Donnie constantly almost getting to Andrew body, almost getting to the run carrier. And just like, you know, literally trying to rip himself out of his jersey to get there. And the ref calls nothing. That to me was very frustrating. It was very frustrating for Troy fans in the stadium. And now that is state fans were then getting frustrated because they felt like Troy fans were kind of taking away credit for their good effort. And that wasn't what, I don't think they asked for those calls to not be made. I think that's just what the refs had decided to do. But I really think the defense could have looked a lot better had the refs called the game a little bit more fearily. Yeah. And to talk about officiating like it, look, look at it, the numbers. It is pretty skewed. You know, I don't like the number of penalties we had this game. I would like for us to play cleaner all the time. You know, I'd like, it's, I know it's impossible to get zero penalties. Like it's just, yeah, that's a fluke if that happens. But, you know, I think 12 is excessive. I think that that's something that needs to be addressed, especially when you go up against a team like Missouri, where you are going to have officials that are just not going to let little things like that slot, especially against, you know, a non-conference team like, you know, I mean, like they're not going to let things like that slide to potentially give us an opportunity there. And we can go down this rabbit hole if we want to. I don't think we should today. But I think officiating as a whole nationally, there's a lot of talk about it right now. There's a lot of hubbub about it. And I feel like in time, it's going to change. I think that eventually this, this conference level of officiating is going to go away. I think we're going to go to a national model eventually. And then because like a game to game crew to crew, like the important thing that they're looking for is different every single time. And so the stuff that gets caught is the stuff that they think is important in the moment or like the league office is telling them is important in the moment. And that changes game to game. And so when you got all these non-conference games, you know, what they're looking for is different than what you're used to at home sometimes. And I feel like that that's a problem. I think that's, I think that's going to buy us going into this Missouri game is that this SEC crew is going to officiate much differently than we're used to. And that's typically been a problem when we play an SEC opponent. It's penalties. We normally get rocked up on penalties. So hopefully we can clean up a little bit and be a little more disciplined and try to minimize that going into next week as well. Yeah, we've definitely got these special teams, which I'll talk about in a little while. I mean, special teams is when you're the underdog. That's a place where you have an opportunity. And we messed up a lot of special teams plays through just dumb penalties when we were out there. So we've got to clean some of that up. And Coach Parker definitely talked about that. And so I think that's something that the surgeons are probably hearing a lot right now as they go around the field house and go through practice is keeping those dumb penalties to a minimum. Birdman, talk to us a little bit about this Troy Trojan offense that you saw against the hornets. Yeah, Joe. Man, offense had some really impressive numbers and really some explosive moments against album state. But I also think here was a little bit of a tale of two halves. I feel like the first half we came in pretty strong. Second half we kind of got a little bit of exposure on some things that we're definitely going to need to clean up against Missouri. Mostly the penalties. I think we had 120 yards worth of penalties on the offense. And we also three of 14 on third down and three of five on fourth down. So while we were moving the ball like we still our efficiency was not super great. but overall we finished with 427 total yards, including 226 rushing, 201 passing while averaging roughly 6.2 yards per play. And we control a possession for 32, a little almost 33 minutes. And we didn't turn the football over and we scored on all three of our reds on opportunities. So not great, but great also too. Like a lot more than I saw last week against Sam Houston. So I was impressed with that. It's definitely seen some progress there. I will say the running game two was probably our biggest star. We rushed 39 times or 226 yards an average of 5.8 yards per attempt. Can we say that the rushing game might be back for us? I don't know what we're doing here, but it was the fourth highest rushing total of the Jared Parker era. And it marked the second straight game in which Troy outrushed his opponent. So we are 26 and those since 2015 when rushing for more than 200 yards. So yeah, so great numbers are looking good. There were definitely some things we got to clean up and Maryweather. I think he's working out to be a fantastic RB1. I hope they continue to put him in that spot. I think our run game also is probably a testament to the offensive line and blocking right now. We're getting a strong grade there as well. I feel like we are definitely improving in that area. And just just the overall explosion and the red zone game was definitely what made a difference for us in this. Even though we've got some things we need to clean up when it comes down to converting those downs, I would give this offense a solid B. I was pretty happy with what we got. And I was happy to see us, you know, get a couple of scores ahead of this team and keep it that way through the rest of the game. In terms of special teams, you know, usually this is kind of a very easy report to give. I tell you Evan, Chris Shaw is awesome. And then I just kind of log off. Special teams are much more mixed kickoff coverage and punting were both really good. The failed fake punt, the multiple penalties on pun situations, and the missed fourth quarter field goal definitely were not highlights. Probably like a C performance. Ethan head who is really turning into a solid kicker for us. He was two of three hit one from 24, hit one from 47. And of course, had our only points of the second half. The kickoff unit was really, really good. Head kicked off seven times or 428 yards, average 61.1 yards per kickoff. And they returned four of those kickoffs for only 59 yards. That's about 15 yards per return. So that's really, really good kickoff coverage. Evan Grinchel, of course, punted well, three puns, 138 yards, 58 yard long. So good numbers from him. The failed fake punt was definitely the biggest special teams mistake. Not only at this game, but at the whole season so far. I really don't understand what we were doing. We were at 31-14 in the third quarter, fourth and four at our own 30. You know, Grinchel tries to throw to Joe Lot. We found out one thing Evan Grinchel does not do well, and that is throw the ball, because it was not very good. That gave out him to take the ball and put them in position to score. You know, so you can go back and forth about the call from Jared Parker versus the execution. I don't think the call was very good. And I definitely don't think that the execution was very good. The punt return game, not great, in a real white return two puns for a total of five yards. So not very good at all. Jase Petty did have one good kick return. So long at 31 yards, they did kind of set us up. The penalties really were the most troubling part. We had multiple penalties associated with punt situations. And it really sometimes actually gave out of a state a first down from when we had held them to first down and made them punt. You know, I do, I am still encouraged by special teams. Ethan Head is looking really, really good. Evan Grinchel, everyone's going to be shocked to hear this. He's a really, really good punter. And the kickoff coverage was really good. Out of a state has athletes back there ready to return and we held them to under 15 yards on their return on average. So very important, you know, kind of building blocks. I'd give us, yeah, like I see when it comes to special teams. But again, didn't lose us the game, didn't win us the game. And so as long as special teams kind of stays out of the way, that's what you're hoping for, other than the fake punt, that's really what we were able to do. All right, for another big look into this game, we're going to ask the Birdman to scratch around in his nest and tell us who really shown against Alabama state in this week's edition of Best in the Nest. Thank you, Joe. I am so excited for this week's Best in the Nest because I just, I don't know where we would be without him now. I know it's early in the season, but what kind of weather would be in the forecast without Jahim, Maryweather, 13 carries, 127 yards with a long of 69 and three touchdowns. That was insane performance. I was really happy to see the ground and pound back. So Jahim, Maryweather, if you're listening to this, clear off your mantle because you just got your very first best in the nest. Joe, of course he's listening and that was an excellent effort. And I think he is really beginning to make a name for himself as perhaps the guy at the front of that roster of running backs, but we've got a lot of talent there. So I'm looking forward to seeing it develop. Before we turn the page on last week, let's take a look around the Sunbelt Conference and see if that weird lady on the stage and the commercial is still pleased with herself as we look to see if the Sunbelt Conference has continued rising in this week's edition of The Rising Report. All right guys, so big week obviously still playing out of conference games. So a lot of games go through. I'll go very quickly. At State beats East Carolina, 27 to 24. Virginia Tech beats Old Dominion, 44 to 21. James Madison beats Wagner, 87 to 3. UAB gross beats ULM also gross, 26 to 20. Marshall beats Middle Tennessee, 28 to 26. Tulane beats those guys from Mobile, 28 to 24. Arkansas State beat West Georgia, 52 to 7. Georgia State beat Kennesaw State, 31 to 17. Look at you Panthers. Coastal Carolina beat Fordham, 45 to 7. Clemson beat Georgia Southern, 22 to 7. Number 8th ranked LSU beat Louisiana Tech, 45 to 14. Auburn in a Delayprone game beats Southern Mets, 43 to 8. And number 14th ranked USC beat Lala, 49 to 30 in a little late night action out there on the West Coast. All right guys, which of these results surprised you the most when you look at the sunbelt? Go ahead, Bass. Before we begin, I just want to start with the honorable mention because I know another of us are going to say it. Louisiana Tech. Welcome to the Sunbelt Conference. Oh my gosh. You know, we had lots of choice words for you. And I still do, but impressive first half stand against the fight and lane kickoff. That was that was exciting man. I was I had that on my secondary TV, you know, for fun because I was I was just waiting killing Tom before the next game came on. I was like, sure, why not? Let's watch this and I couldn't turn it off. Yeah. That's like, that's the better game. I literally texted Joel and I was like, is this happening? Is this the same team that put 80 points up last week? Like, what is happening? I mean, man, that was that was the that was the better game for sure. But I'm going to I'm going to give it to App State taking care of East Carolina in a really tight game. East Carolina fighting to come back and just couldn't get over the hump at home. App State taking home a very important win against an American conference opponent East Carolina, hitting miss. You know, they used to be really good and they got really not good. Now they're slowly kind of coming back kind of like App State, but that that to me shows against a nice in state opponent that you can take care of business and the sun belt is truly the better conference. So App State taking care of East Carolina is the game that I was impressed by. Excellent. All right. Birdman, what about you? What what what game surprised you? Yeah, absolutely. I feel like we can't call this Detroit Boys podcast episode if we don't bring up J. M. U at least once. I want to highlight their game because like, I don't think it was a shock. I don't think anybody was like, Oh, Wagner's going to beat J. M. U. But I didn't know J. M. U was gonna, you know, demolish them in that way. I mean, and also like there's been a trend over these last two weeks. It's like these teams are either beating them by five or more touchdowns or there or they're not. It's like super close and like there's no in between happening there. And they were favored by four 35 and a half points, but like 87 to three is insane. Like I don't even I don't even have Wagner got in the red zone. It just blew my mind. So I don't know if they were like exercising some demons or something because they're really still upset about, you know, getting into a playoff that they shouldn't have been in in the first place. But yeah, I just wanted to highlight that because I hate those guys. And I hope that that's not a sign for how well they're going to do the rest of the season. So yeah. I think we do remember that no one even knows where Wagner is. Okay. I mean, that's, you know, at some point, you've just got to go, all right, congratulations. You beat, you know, Alabama A and T school for the deaf and blind point. At what point do you say, okay, we got it? Like is 87 is 87. Yeah, like correct. I mean, is that just that last week, you know, like they shouldn't have, they shouldn't have won to list. Um, I mean, like, you know, it's, it's very on brand for James Madison to just, you know, absolutely dogwalks. Somebody like Wagner and couldn't have just been satisfied with the 50 point win 87 is what we needed to put up. Like did they put in any of their second and third string? Like, I don't know because I like watch James Madison for fun. So I didn't watch it. Yeah. I'll tell you what they did put in was a new banner in the stadium to celebrate the big win. Um, look at that. That's who they are. So they like to keep their to see their toesies warm and they like to put up banners. And what point did they run out of streamer or did they just get recycling? Did they just pick up people's use streamer and roll it back up? I mean, they really should feel bad for Wagner because basically they did to Wagner would organ to them. So I mean, you know, you know, you know, you know, you wouldn't be in that position. Um, dear and air guys. So, you know, try to show a little grace, little grace and mercy. Go a long way. Um, all right. Since bass went ahead and took the app state ECU game, uh, I'm gonna back. I'm gonna, I'm gonna say sorry. I did not see any notes here. I was staring at the graphic. I read no notes. And I just went off the cuff on you're all good, man. You're all perfect. Um, I'm going to take a Georgia State and Kennesaw State 31 17 for the kitty cats over there in Atlanta. Um, this was a legitimate upset. And it wasn't particularly close. Georgia State entered the game as a nine and a half point underdog. Uh, the Panthers went on the road one by 14. Um, so that represent represents about a 23 and a half point swing from the bedding spread. And this is an important game. Kennesaw State is Metro Atlanta, uh, beautiful cities like Douglasville, uh, right in between these two teams. So, uh, you know, I, I think it's very good. Georgia State had 483 total yards. Kennesaw State 332. Um, Georgia State had the ball for 38 minutes. Uh, they ran for over 200 yards, 230. Um, so really an impressive game. Um, you know, Georgia State entered the season where they always do relatively low, uh, in assessments of the conference. Uh, but you know, beating this Kennesaw State team, which is a team that a lot of people have said, here's the school that's going to take advantage of the footprint in a way that Georgia State has not been able to, uh, I think that means a lot. So, uh, a big shout out to the Panthers, uh, and I just hope they, uh, you know, maybe in celebration, throw their train horn away or something like that because I, I could do without that. All right. Now that we have looked around the conference, it is time to turn the page. Get ready for next week. Uh, up next, we travel to Cuomo, Columbia, Missouri to visit the number 20 tigers of Mizzou for a 6 p.m. kickoff on the SEC network under the bright lights. Uh, Mizzou and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey are 2 and 0 on the young season. Uh, bass. Can you, uh, can you give us some thoughts about Mizzou? Yeah. Sure. Um, Missouri is a legitimate team, a serious top 25 contender. They just like we are coming into this game with a 2 and 0 record. Um, and, and they have been able to manage, uh, both their opponents, they've had Arkansas Pine Bluff, you know, their cupcake opener, the season, the soft launch. Um, and then they played, uh, rival Kansas in the border war. Um, and they took care of that 38 to 21. Um, and they, and they really, they really showed some composure, uh, because Kansas was on one for that game. I was going to talk about this. Oh, yeah. We're doing it. I don't know. People saw the video. They put out, um, you know, I'm all about a rivalry. I love a rivalry. Uh, but what I think I love about it in the South is that you don't need a lot of reason. Uh, you know, you just hate the other school because they're the other school, uh, Kansas decided to come out and do just a whole history lesson about why they hated Missouri. Uh, and I mean, that's, yeah. I mean, that to me seems like a lot of shenanigans to get some 19 year olds to hate another group of 19 year olds. I know you needed to do that. Well, I think, I think you're getting it wrong. It's not for any of the 19 year olds to hate the other 19 year olds. It's for the 50 year olds to hate the 19 year olds. I don't know. To me, I'm going to stay from all of this. There's nothing positive. I can say about this. So I'm just going to be quiet. Um, if you want to go find the video yourself and just read all the undertones that are being presented here on the Troy Boyz podcast, please do that. Um, like, okay, back to Missouri. Um, they're, they're, their biggest highlight right now is definitely their quarterback Austin Simmons. He's the Ole Miss transfer. Now Lane Kiffin's gone. He's got to go somewhere else. Um, and through two games, Simmons is currently sitting at 36 out of 48, that 75% completion. That's impressive. That's a great odd number. Um, 544 yards, seven touchdowns. No interceptions thrown so far. Um, he was spectacular against Pine Bluff, but who wouldn't be, um, and Missouri has a legitimate receiving weapons as well. Donovan, I'm not going to pronounce his last name already has, uh, serve Donovan. Um, already has 237 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Kaden Lee has 200 yards as well and a couple of scores as well. Um, the running game is led by Jamel Roberts. He's already come alive. This season 125 yards on 28 carries. Obviously passing is what they're leaning on right now, but they do have a run game that is a weapon for them as well. Uh, at 64, there's 125 yards did come on a one touchdown run, which we talked about against Alabama State is something that was something we needed to address on defense. We cannot let explosive runs dictate what's going to happen on the scoreboard. We've got to be able to control Jamel Roberts. Um, defensively Missouri's defense is probably going to be a little concerning for us. Um, they have allowed 453 total yards in two games. Total. That's not per game. That's the whole season so far. That's averaging 227 yards in game. That's impressive. Um, against Kansas, Missouri led up 255 yards, which is pretty closer to their average right now, 3.8 yards of play, which is basically what we just did to Alabama State. Um, Missouri has also held Kansas last week to 80 net total yards of rushing on 36 attempts. So bird was talking about our run game being a good weapon for us on offense. They're going to really stifle that for us. So we've got to be able to have options for us. Goose has got to be ready to go and put the ball in the air safely. Um, statistically, Troy should pay attention in this game. We did do well against Alabama State. Numbers are in our favor. Um, but I feel like that they have have more breadth and depth there. They are more tested having gone against a more, um, established Kansas team this past week. So they have a little more, um, work cut out for them that they've already put in the compared to us. Um, where Missouri looks vulnerable though, is Missouri put up a lot of penalties last week against Kansas. They had 10 penalties for 76 yards. They're prone to making small mistakes. Um, you know, they lost a fumble. Uh, they, they have problems in field goal protection. Uh, Kansas blocks two of Missouri's field goal attempts last week. So if that's something for us on special teams like Joe was talking about, if we could really capitalize in this game and put them in situations where three points is not an easy three points for them anymore. Um, that, that'll give us opportunities for Troy to be able to create negative plays and force Missouri to make some mistakes. We can take care of this game. It will be an uphill battle. I am not, not shying away from that one. This is going to be a tough game for us. This is going to be the hardest game we play this year. This is, this is our most well put together opponent. Um, but there are cracks. And we've got to take advantage of those. We've got to clean up. We've got to have a more stout offensive attack, particularly in the air, special teams have really got a buckle down. But if we do those things, I feel like we do have a chance. But, um, if we don't do these things, Saturday is going to be a long day for us. Absolutely. Uh, for another deep look into this game, let's talk to a front new friend of the podcast who doesn't think we stand a chance. Uh, and that is Ryan. He's a super fan for Missouri. Uh, and he is representing the Tigers. For this week's edition of Know Your Folk. - Well Ryan, thanks so much for coming on and being our Know Your Folk guest today representing the Missouri Tigers. Obviously Troy and Missouri have a little bit of history. Y'all came down to Troy Alabama and it's a great memory for Troy fans. Probably not one Missouri fans like to think about all that much. But y'all said it brought us back to Como and beaten us central several times. So I think we're about even at this point. But Ryan, how did you become a fan of Missouri football? - Missouri football, man. Me and some buddies went out on a limb in 2007 and bought some season tickets. And it happened to be the great year of Chase Daniel. - Okay. So what a time that was to be a first time season ticket holder. - Yeah, you picked a good year to start for sure. - Yeah, yeah. - Well, obviously it's been a little while, you know, back to that famous game I was talking about. Y'all were a big 12 school. Now all these years later at SEC school and things have changed different level of competition. What do you think of what you're seeing from your squad so far, this young season? - Well, early shine say that that's a very potent offense. Austin Thimmins looks like the real deal in quarterback there. Of course, everybody probably knows about the running back room with a mod hearty who hasn't played yet. I don't think he's gonna play this week, but to me all Robert, he's a heck of a run back as well. But I think what might be the most surprising thing is a wide receiver room. - So Louis Vuitté and Caden Lee, they might work themselves in the talk of top receiving duo in the country. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, y'all, you're doing very well and obviously that also disappoints Troy Fans because on offense, you've got Chip Lindsay calling plays who was our head coach for a few years and did not do so well down in the wire grass but is doing much better up there. What are you seeing on defense? You talked a lot about offense. Are you happy with the defense you're seeing so far? - Well, I'm leaving some room on the defense right now. That might be good news for you guys. We've got 10 new guys out there. But they're holding their own so far. You know, there's been some garbage timescores. It's a little concerned about some tackling issues though, for sure. - Yeah, and I think everybody's seeing that early in the season, all these transfers. I mean, it's got to have to learn each other's names, you know? And it's hard to play as a team when you're all kind of coming from a million different places. So these coaches certainly have a lot of work ahead of them each season now. So on to Saturday, Troy, Missouri. They're going to, which is always weird for me to say 'cause I lived in Missouri for a while and I lived very close to a town named Troy, Missouri. So I'm not talking about that city. But the Troy, Missouri game, going to be in Columbia. What is your prediction? How do you think that game's going to turn out? - Well, I hate to tell you this, but I don't think you can handle our offense, you know? And the SEC, the lines are just that much bigger. And I'm going to have to say, was it about 35? - Okay. - All right, I like the confidence. Troy fans certainly, hoping we can keep it a little closer. I know some Troy fans are headed up to Columbia and they're going to be rooting on our guys. And either way, certainly going to get some financial resources that'll help the small school like ours and also get some great coverage on TV as we've been moved to the SEC networks so people will get to see us place. That's always good. My final question for those Troy fans heading up to Columbia, if you had to give them one recommendation to have a place to go eat while they're in Columbia, where should they go? What's a favorite place that you love to go up there? - If you want to experience a game day tradition, just go to Harpose. - Okay, so I saw a pizza and you get some drinks as well. - Okay, I love that. Troy fans certainly will be all about that. So hopefully they will take advantage. At Ryan, my friend has been so good to talk to you. I wish you the best of luck for the rest of the season starting on Sunday, okay? I hope everything goes great Sunday in January on, but I look forward to seeing the game on Saturday. Thanks so much for joining us. - Thank you, sir, good luck. - Hey, big thanks to Ryan. Thanks for coming on, representing the Tigers. I'm sure you were out somewhere right now eating a fried pork tenderloin sandwich or some toasted ravioli. Boys, I don't know if you've ever had toasted ravioli. It's a huge thing. - It is delicious, oh my God. I would like it if I, it's, I mean, it's ravioli. - Yeah, it's fron, ravioli. - Yeah, you dip it in the sauce. - You take the chef, you already out of the can, you rinse it off, you've read it, you've read it, you fry it. And then you dip it in the stuff you strained out of the, the can. - It's delicious. - It's so nice. - That's pretty good. - It's what would have happened if God had put Italians in Alabama instead of Italy. - That's what happened. - I mean, we would have rolled it in white sauce too, but (laughing) - Smoke it and drop it. - But no, that ravioli is delicious. And so Ryan, thanks again for coming on, representing the Tigers. And we wish you all the best starting on Sunday. All right, now that you've heard a lot about this game, several people obviously probably thinking to themselves, I need to get a little action going. See if I can make some money. But me, Maul, still our governor, still holding strong. She says, "Not in her backyard." And so we put the bass into the lagoon. And somehow he makes it through the Troy sewage system down all the way to Pascagula to figure out what's going on out there with the wise guys and the desert in this week's edition of, what's the word from Pascagula? (electronic beeping) So see, Bass, what are you seeing, man? - Yeah, Missouri is just a heavy favorite in this game. Some lines right now read 26 and a half. Some lines read 27 and a half. So however you want to put your money in, if you're going to do that a bit appropriately. Money line for this game has Troy at plus 1600 over under at 50 and a half. So the Vegas predicted score is Missouri 38, the Trojans 12. - That's a tough one. We all predicted Troy to lose this game in the season review podcast. This is actually the only game I predicted Troy to lose. And so, we all kind of were down a little bit. There's part of me that has a feeling that this spread is going to be a little bit too much and maybe Troy is going to be able to stick a little bit closer, but unfortunately, I do still foresee us walking out of Columbia with a loss. So I just hope that we are able to take kind of some learning away from it and that sort of thing as we play, obviously a much better team and a much bigger team. So, but we'll see. - All right, so we are ready for this game. Now it's time for basses. Last little bit of hard work on the show. And that is when we let Trojan Nation come up to the banks of the pond where the bass lives and throw in their lures and rubber worms and all of that sort of thing to try to catch a bass in this week's edition of The Tacklebox. All right, bass man. Two wins, two games in a row, two wins, same reaction from the fans. Glad we won, but we have to look better. I asked you this before in a previous episode so this will seem like a repeat to some, but now that we're here, we see where we are. Some would say a less than impressive two and o. You know, what do you need to see in Missouri to make you feel confident as we kind of start to close off our out of conference and get into the sunbelt schedule? - I want to see a continued established run game. I want us to not shy away from what we've been doing. I want us to keep it simple, stupid, and keep the ball on the ground and then provide goose character opportunities to lob the ball, keep that defense in check and keep them honest. I feel like if we did those things offensively, I would be satisfied. You know, I'm not looking for a 400, 500 yard game. I'm looking for consistency and positive yards. I feel like if we're doing those things against an opponent with the breadth that Missouri has, I feel like we're in good shape for the season. Defensively, we've got to tackle. We have got to stop explosive plays. If we can manage to keep them in short yard or situations on third down, I'm satisfied. You know, I feel like if we do those things and keep them controlled and contained, minimize the explosives and actually tackle. Not just do this stupid hug thing, let's become real popular in the last two days. 10 years, actually tackle. I'd be happy. And then on special teams, we cannot have a week that we had last week. I would like literally any week from last year, put that out there and not what we just did. And I'll be satisfied with special teams. If we keep this within 20, I'll be ecstatic. All right. So once again, I think the bass has alluded the lore and gotten Troy fans excited for what's going to happen this Saturday in Como. All right. Last segment of the show. This is when I cover myself in ice packs and wonder into the hottest corner of the internet to bring all of Trojan Nation. This week's TroyFans dot com hot take of the week. I am back and it's literally a hundred degrees outside today. It is hot. Not in Portland. It is very hot. And I will tell you it is even hotter on TroyFans. This week's winter, I love this. This is one of the best parts of message board culture. This week a brave Missouri fan has come over to Troy fans, which I always encourage. I love to see that. I love to see the fans. Yeah, I find there I am, you know, on every Utah State message board just trying to make some friends. We played Utah State like six years ago and you're still talking. But no, it's great. And this guy comes over and has a really great post in response to a Troy fan talking about obviously when we beat Missouri, a huge moment for Troy. So this week's winter is this quote, "I came here in peace." And the first thing I see is such a truly awful memory. My recollection of the week leading up to that game was us laughing at all the talk of the Troy defense. I was at a watch party on campus at Missouri. And I remember right after we got up 14 to nothing, someone saying that Oklahoma and Texas are in trouble if we can do that to the 1985 Chicago Bears defense. But then the rest of the game happened. It's good. I love the sense of humor, man. I love, I love kind of, you know, taking one on the chin. Excellent post. I remember that game, obviously. That's from when I was on campus. And so really, really happy to see that, you know, Mizzou fans are not still in their feelings about it. Maybe a little bit salty, but willing to have some fun on a message board. So, to you, Missouri fan, excellent post to my friend. And you are the winner of this week's TroyFans.com hot tag the week. Hey, can somebody find him and let him know? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, go tag him in the post. Exactly. Yes, somebody go to a Buffalo Wild Wings in Mexico, Missouri, and put this up on the Bolton board there. All right, guys, we have done it. We have spent over an hour of Trojan Nation's time recapping now that a state game getting ready for the Mizzou game. Now it is time for some closing remarks. Bass, go ahead, give Trojan Nation some closing remarks. Yeah, like, rate, subscribe, review to the Troy Boys podcast. Find us wherever you stream, share the Troy Boys podcast with your friends and family. If you don't, they don't find out about us. And that's how we spread the word about this Troy Trojan's community. Look, we had two really great home games to start the season. Now we're going on kind of a stretch. We got two away games, Missouri and Utah State. And then we have like a Tuesday home game against Southern Miss. And then like, we don't have a proper Saturday at home until October the 24th against Monroe. So we have a stretch here. Continue to be proud. You know, support the Trojans on Saturdays and not just your suitcase affiliate college of the road. Go Trojans. Nice. Absolutely. Love it. Love side swipe in the SEC schools in the state. You knew you were going to get me going with that bass. You knew it's too late for that. Now I'm not going to be able to go to sleep. I'm going to be late for work in the morning. Good grief. Birdman, go ahead, give us some closing remarks. I can't say it any better than the bass. That is a good home stand. And I'm excited that we got to start off the season like that. But I'm looking forward to some road action. And hopefully, hopefully we come away with some positive results. So go Trojans. Cheer on the cheer on the boys. And yeah, let's see what we can do to Mizzou. Yep. Absolutely. We've done it before. So it will not be a surprise to us. We've just got to get up there and give it the old hashtag why not Troy in honor of Dr. Jack Hawkins. I think this is the perfect time to do it and really make a statement. Guys, thanks so much for being a part of tonight. All of you listening. Thank you for listening. So that's the bass. That's the bird. I am Trojan Jo. And as always, go Trojans. And God bless your place, Brad. [MUSIC]