Who?tah State

This is Gunnar Watson, two-time Sunbelt Champion, and you're now listening to the Troy Boys Podcast. (upbeat music) - All right, everybody, welcome back to the Troy Boys Podcast. I am Trojan Joe. Thank you for joining us. We are here to talk about that game against the Missouri Tigers, and get you ready for the next game against the Utah State Aggies. But I'm not here to do it alone. Let us welcome in the Trojan, who the land folks love to cook, but under the seas off the hook, sea bass. Welcome in, sea bass. - Hey, Joe, it's a pleasure to be here once again to talk about some Troy football heartbreaker up there. Missouri, we kept it close there for a while. There were a lot of really good things, a couple things we can learn from it, and continue to still really have a really good season. We can't let this one loss get in the way. I think the Trojan said a really good job at showcasing what we're capable of pulling off this season. So let's talk about it and get into Utah State. - Absolutely, yeah, it was a tough one, but we'll get into it a little bit more. It's always tough when you schedule these P4 games, but I think what you want most is to learn a lot about your team, and I feel like we did that. Let's welcome in the third man in the booth, the Trojan who's also known by his wrestling nickname, the Inklis Wonder, welcome in Birdman. Welcome in Birdman, how are you? - Dude, you said that just now, and it made me think of that one scene from Spider-Man, where he's like, "I'm, what was it?" He's like, "I'm the amazing spider." He's like, "No, you can't say that." - Spider-Man is like, whatever, bro. - Yeah, I'm here, I'm Inklis. I flew by a tattoo shop today, but they were closed, so another day, another dollar, guys. My money more problems, so let's get into it. - All right, so we got this Missouri game. Obviously we were all up on Saturday night watching this game. The Trojans gave the Tigers quite a game, but came up short, 27 to 17. Obviously not where we wanted things to be. If you were out looking at Troy fans or on Facebook groups, Troy people were, some of them were down in the dump, some of them were kind of excited and thought that we had played a lot better than we did even in our wins, so very interesting. I look forward to hearing you guys in your takes on the game. So let's break it down bass. Go ahead and get started by telling us about how the defense fared against the Tigers. - Yeah, absolutely. Look, Troy's defense played very well coming up against a solid P4 opponent in the SEC. They are a top 20 caliber team. Final score only being 10 points off, 27 to 17. And that's just misleading. There are a couple of moments in this game that I really feel like we could have taken this and run away with it. But I think the biggest takeaway for defense is that we just shut down their offense. Yeah, we talked about their run game being established being a huge problem, and they had some solid receivers that could make some serious plays. Missouri only finished with 230 total yards on 47 plays, 13 first downs, and they only went two for 11 on third down. We held their quarterback Austin Simmons to only 91 passing yards, which is something that Missouri has really been pushing this season. They have a really strong running game. They have a really strong air attack. And we really felt like coming into this game that that's how they were going to try to beat us down. What was just big, powerful runs, and when we stopped them with a wall, big lob pass, we talked about that last week. And I feel like we really did a good job. We were outstanding statistically going up against a quality SEC opponent. Yeah, the Trojan's past defense was excellent. It was probably the strongest part of their defensive performance. You know, like I said, Simmons came into the game, having thrown for 544 total yards and seven touchdowns. And we just kind of dwarf those numbers for him. He only had 91 yards. Like I said earlier, one touchdown. And their longest completion was only 23 yards. So we kind of kept them in shorter situations there through the air. Third down, like I said, we won that one. They were only two for 11. And Troy repeatedly got off the field and forced Missouri to punt. They punted seven times in this game. And five of those puns were pinned inside. The 20 Joe will talk much more about that whenever we get into special teams. But that was a really stellar game there from a punting perspective. The one thing that I'm not pleased with on defense would be the just putting pressure in the backfield. And I feel like that's a song and dance. I constantly saying I'm never quite satisfied. But Troy didn't record a single sack this game, not one. It's encouraging to watch us be stout and secure on the line and stout and secure in the secondary. But I'd still like for us to get in the backfield a little more. And play just a little more disruptor. The defense-- we put Missouri in some tight spots at times, and we did a really good job of getting off the field when it actually counted to give our offense the opportunity to put points on the board. And we really limited what they could do. The bottom line in this game is, I came away from this game much more pleased, much more encouraged about our defense. It's something that we talked-- at the beginning of the season, even in the preseason, so we talked about there's just a lot of unknowns. We know there's a lot of quality there. We just didn't know how well it would all gel, how much it would jive, and what are the other layers that we don't see look like. And I feel like defensively, we are really in a good spot. And I feel like that in conference play, it's going to be a big deal for us. And whenever you go against a quality opponent like Missouri, who is known to be right now a really powerful offensive attack, even with Chip Lindsay, our defense being able to come in and stifle them to only 27 points, whenever that was the spread going into this game, this is really telling at how strong our defense can be, whenever you give them the right time to do what they need to do. Yeah, and you get to talk about it without talking about it. Donnie Smith did play, but he played injured, hurt, had a growing strain. You could definitely tell. I think he's obviously kind of the beating heart of our defense. And I think we would have been a lot better had he been at 100% and he would have given us that kind of X factor to maybe get into the backfield and make some disruptive plays. Birdman, what did you see out of that Troy offense? Absolutely. I feel like the Troy offense was kind of a mixed bag. It was very encouraging, but also extremely frustrating. They definitely explosive enough to threaten the upset, but there was just a lot of inconsistency going on. But however, they finished with 323 total yards and they actually outgained Missouri by 93 yards and they controlled the ball for more than 37 minutes. And that was insane. The only average about four and a half yards per play, they rushed for 93 yards on 40 carries. And they also had, they gave up three sacks and committed two turnovers that directly set up the Missouri touchdowns that we saw later in the game. So highlights, Goose Crowder really big playability. He finished 18 of 32 for 230 yards, had two touchdowns and one interception. It was really upset about that one. His numbers weren't spectacular, but I mean, he did generate some pretty big offensive plays early on. So I was very happy to see that against this caliber of a team. TK keys and Howard Kinchin were notable as well. Kinchin had five receptions for 80 yards along a 55. Keys had two for 83 yards with one being a long of 76, which was, I believe, that was our second drive that we scored on in the first quarter. So really explosive there and really good to see that. After the opening quarter, I mean, they had one more and very impressive drive. I think that possession lasted for like 10 minutes and they, Ethan Head, was able to get a fill goal. And Joe will talk more about that. But after that scoring wise, I feel like we really slowed down a lot. I felt like we had a lot of positives coming out, especially coming in with a strong defense. Like Bash just talked about to hold them to that number and to put the points on that we did early on. I do think Missouri was a little caught off guard. And that really played a played favor for us. But we just couldn't adjust after the half. And I feel like we just got tired. And really the turnovers, man, the turnovers are really just what got us SEC teams when we play these teams like this. And they're in the regular season. And really, we struggle in situations like this, where we just once we do that turnover, once we give up the ball once, we're just in our head. And then SEC teams know how to capitalize on that stuff. Not that Sunbelt teams don't, but against Sunbelt competition, our offense looked a lot more capable than what we were against this SEC foe. So overall, not terrible. Definitely saw some things we can work on, but I was still very impressed with this Troy offense. Yeah, and I'm going to interrupt, Joe, because I know he's about to talk about special teams. And I was going to wait till the end, but you went ahead and started to talk about it. So it our text message thread after this game, because most of us don't text during the games. But when this game finished, the only thing that I said was we failed in two statistics in this game. And those two statistics is what cost us this game. At the end of the day, if we're going to wrap it up into two really simple things, it's going to be turnovers in our inability to rush. Yep. That is what also hit on that. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't and we talked about that last week. We we both brought it up with it. You know, our rush rush attack has become kind of an identity for our offense to to kind of get things rolling for us and we just kept getting stifled and I said that would be one of their things coming in defensively is that they were going to stifle our run and so we needed goose to come out and be sound and secure and there were moments with question marks. You know, we we we outdid them in first downs. We outdid them on third down efficiency, fourth down efficiency. We had more yards in them almost 100 more. We had more passing yards. We had a better completion percentage. We had more yards per pass. We like everything statistically we we had less penalties. We had time of possession down. We did everything right in this game except for two turnovers. Those two turnovers turn into 14 points. You take them away. We're winning. And then our run game we were sub not a 700 and going back to John some wrong era. If we can't get over 100 yards, we're not winning the game. Yeah, and I think that's that's where the consistency kind of like if they were explosive and had really good moments in the game, but they just weren't consistent throughout the game to, you know, to call to actually puts up the pressure. I like, oh, are we going to actually lose or win this game for two? Yeah, and like, I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer. They did a great job. But, you know, in a year from now, are we going to remember that? No, we're not. We're, you know, this is why I'm not a believer in moral victories. I'm a believer in actual victories. And this was a good game for us statistically on paper. This was a this was a great game. Yeah, the coaching staff hats off. You did a really good job in this game, but it came down to two plays and our inability to run the ball. And that that's what did us in. Yeah, and we need we didn't talk about it a lot, but we need other people besides TK keys to step up at wide receiver. You know, I feel like I jinxed him. I made fun of your pick last season bass. And then I picked Noreal White and he has just disappeared. He definitely disappeared during this Missouri game. And I mean, you know, to quote coach Yoast from Remember the Titans, you want to act like a star. You better give me a star effort. I mean, he came in here all of the kind of highlights and flashingness in the world, which I don't mind. I like actually. But if you're going to do that, you need to go out there, you know, and have a Chris Lewis type impact on the game. And we hadn't seen that yet. So I hope he's listening. I hope he takes this as a challenge. It's time to go out there and shut me up. I would be happy to eat some crow on that one. Special teams, you know, you talked about a couple of areas, a couple of plays that you thought cost us the game. I think a lot of areas that cost us the game are on special teams. This is a much more critical report than it usually is. You know, the punt return touchdown really changes the game. Evan was not playing kind of at his usual level. And the coverage team wasn't helping him. It wasn't like they were helping to cover up what was obviously a bad night. I mean, you look at his overall punting line, six points, 253 yards, 42 yard average, 57 yard long, two inside the 20. These aren't terrible raw numbers. If they happen in any other game where you didn't know the score, you'd say, yeah, punter, nobody was supposed to do. But Missouri's punter was doing so much better. Our coverage team was doing nothing to stop them from returning the ball. And therefore kind of that that yardage you don't think about, that started to show up big in Missouri's favor. One area of the game where we were doing very well was the kicking game. Ethan head made the opportunities that Troy could really expect him to make. When we needed to count on head, we could count on head. He connected on a 27 yard field goal late in the first first quarter to go up 10 to nothing. He did miss a 54 yard attempt in the fourth quarter. Obviously, that's huge. We were to put us within a touchdown. But that's a long range kick. So that's expecting a lot out of head. So, you know, I wouldn't consider that a huge negative, even though it would have put us in a better position. Kickoff coverage was okay. Really, the puck coverage was bad. And punt returning was even worse as was kickoff returning. Zero punt returns for zero yards, zero kickoff returns. Whereas Missouri was returning both. And that's kind of that secret yardage we're talking about and really winning the field position battle. You know, you put the game in context. Seven points on the punt return touchdown. Three points after our punting miscue. All of a sudden, there you go. You're at a tie game. That's why special teams is so important. You know, bottom line, place kicking, like I said, if I was solid, kick coverage was was good. Punting and punt coverage really cost us. So I would say, you know, this is a chance for the special teams, which has been kind of just automatic this year to take a look at themselves and see how can we improve. And some of these younger guys, what a, you know, a jury calls the job takers of the week that are out there on special teams. Hey, go out there and make a play because we need you to do it. It's an important part of the game. It's not just the forgotten kind of third leg. All right. Now for some of the toughest work on the day, we're going to ask the bird to kind of dig around in the little sea rock city birdhouse that he's living in to tell us who shown the most for the Georgians in this week's version of the best in the nest. Absolutely. I think this week, I want to show some love to the defense to one of the only good things to come out of mobile besides food sack. Lee's Justin Poe 14 tackles with six solo and one for loss. That was a fantastic effort on his part. Most tackles by any defender on the team on Saturday. So really just impressive. So Justin Poe, if you are listening to this, clear off your mantle because you just got your first best in the nest. Hey, congratulations to the Davidson high school alum who, I mean, just one best in the nest and then was on Trojan Talk with Barry McKnight tonight. So I mean, this is a big day for Justin Poe. They are celebrating on Doffin Street. I can guarantee it. Before we turn the page on last week, let's take a look around the Sunbelt Conference and see if the weird lady on stage and that commercial is still talking about how we're rising in this week's edition of the Rising Report. All right, guys, very quickly. We are going to head very soon to a time we have a lot less games to discuss because when we play in each other, but another big board here today, Delaware defeats Coastal Carolina 22 to 14, Baylor beats Law Tech 36 to 19, South Eastern Louisiana beats ULM 38 to 35, ECU beats all Dominion 20 to 17, App State beats Charlotte 26 to 21, Marshall beat Missouri State 30 to 24, UCF beat Georgia State 44 to 30, Yukon beats Southern Miss 48 to 20, those guys in Mobile beat Ohio 41 to 36, Jacksonville State beat Georgia Southern 31 to 27, it's too bad that the Earth couldn't have opened up and swallowed both teams for that game. TCU beat Arkansas State 31 to seven, Lala beat the University that ate Birmingham 21 to 14, and James Madison beat San Diego State 26 to 13. All right, guys, which of the results of the Detroit game perhaps surprised you the most from the sum belt schedule? Bass, what did you think? Yeah, I'm going to start with the boy's honorable mention here. App State once again, close game against an in-state foe against an American conference team, taking on Charlotte and taking them out. Man, App State playing these close games and really making a name for themselves back in-state against common opponents. That's, I mean, watch out, they could be coming back. All right, so the one that was actually probably the number one most intriguing to literally everybody. Man, how the not mighty, man, how the lowly have fallen even lower. UL Monroe, it's time to have a serious conversation about your validity as an FBS program. ULM was a 10 and a half point favorite at home and lose to the FCS in-state affluent southeastern Louisiana, giving them their first ever FBS victory. And what makes it even more crazy is ULM actually put up way more yards than Southeast from Louisiana. ULM put up 511 yards and Southeast Louisiana only put up 279 war hawks beat them in time of possession and numerous other metrics. And they still find a way to lose. ULM trying to find their way back into it, but a mass if special teams blunder give southeastern Louisiana the go ahead to win the game and pull off the upset. So maybe it's time. Maybe it's time for somebody in that athletics department trailer to look themselves in the mirror and say maybe it's time. Oh, I think it's time for the whole school. Shut the whole thing down. I mean, this is embarrassing. I finally saw a ULM fan out on the Sunbelt Uncensored Facebook page and they were talking about, you know, well, back when we were in the Southland, I was like, buddy, that conference just went for bankruptcy. You are reaching for something that's not even possible anymore. Look, the Ohio Valley conference is begging for somebody to come back. Like, please, please, you were dragging the rest of us down. At least Georgia State is doing something. Wow. That's that's the hottest take you're going to get tonight. It's a bad idea. It's a bad idea. Where's the sun? Hey, hey, they took out Kinesle last week and here you are losing to Southeast Louisiana. It's bad. It's really bad. And we interviewed their kind of color commentary guy a couple of years ago. He was very nice. I feel terrible talking about them this way. I know there are people that love ULM, the way that we love Troy, but it's like, guy, if you just, if you're not going to spend more than $15 million a year, you're not going to compete anymore, even at the Sunbelt level. It's just not going to make it. So you've got to decide what are we going to do? So yeah, I feel bad, but that is embarrassing for the conference. And we've done that. We've lost this mess. Yeah, schools before people send us hate mail, but certainly not in a, not in that type of situation. So Birdman, which game surprised you the most? Yeah, speaking of embarrassment to the conference, you caught in Southern Miss. Like nobody surprised that Southern Miss lost. I think we need to talk about how badly they lost because you con was only about a three, three and a half point favorite, but even looking at the score 48 to 20, it makes the game sound a lot closer than it was, but it wasn't because you con led 41 to six during the third quarter. So really just not a great game for Southern Miss at all. It's pretty significant because this wasn't a road trip to an SEC powerhouse team. This was literally a group of five opponent at home. They were at home. You know, we've been to a couple of their home games. It's not like many of their fans go anyway. So I can understand, but, but this is, but this is Yukon. I know it's the same reason you con team that lost a rice and overtime last year. I mean, this is Yukon. Yeah, it's not good. It's very, very bad. I mean, and after losing 43 to eight at Auburn the other week, they have now surrendered 91 points in two games. And let's sum it up. Why it's surprising, a three point underdog losing his ordinary at three point underdog getting buried 41 to six before garbage time at home is not. So yeah, some belt race Southern Miss is not looking great. There are no other school that should probably just just shut it down. So Southern Miss football, this season is quickly becoming like listening to an episode of the Everyday Eagles podcast. About halfway through you start thinking to yourself, when are the Troy boys going to show up? Like I need something to to get me going here. And this is not it. Shut up to Tim at the Everyday Eagles. All right, guys, my biggest surprise definitely happens to be Jacksonville State and Georgia Southern Jacksonville State winning the game 31 to 27 in a in a Saturday of wacky games. I don't know if you saw the Vanderbilt NC State finish. Surely that replay has been played a million times in every Buffalo wild wings. But I mean, this was a game sort of like that. Jacksonville State was favored by about three and a half points. So winning by four points, bash your guys out in Vegas. We're right on it. It's the way all this coming. Exactly. I don't think this is how it happening this way. Georgia Southern, they were up 17 to nothing looking good. Went into halftime ahead 24 to 10. Still looking pretty good. Went into the fourth quarter leading 27 to 17. Got to feel good about that. Jacksonville State scores 14 unanswered points in the fourth makes it come back from 17 points down. The largest home come back in Jacksonville State history tied with the game in 2019. So obviously, I think Georgia Southern was sort of building some momentum. There's definitely some excitement from their fans and different online forums. But this definitely is a stumble. And as you start comparing yourself regionally, if you're a Georgia Southern fan, I think you start to go, you know, Jacksonville State's a place that we're recruiting against. Very similar schools culturally and an identity. And so this is the kind of game you didn't want to lose. And so obviously, we didn't want to see either of these teams win, but interesting the way that Jacksonville State ended up doing it. All right, that's enough of last week. It is time to get ready for this week. We are traveling out west to visit the Utah State Aggies for a 630 PM kickoff. Despite being 0 and 3, including a loss to an FCS squad, the Trojans are road dogs against these Aggies. You guys on Vegas think the Aggies have a win in store for them. Bass, go ahead, give us some thoughts on these Utah State Aggies. Yeah, Joe, Utah State really has had a rough start here. They're sitting 0 and 3 right now coming into this one. But the record right now is hiding a really decent performance between two really not great performances. And we'll talk more about that here in just a second. They're home opener. They played another FCS opponent Idaho State in the lost 29 to 17. So that's a big red flag like we talked about with Monroe. If you can't handle your FCS opponent handedly, not really going to not really going to end well for you. And in similar circumstances, Utah State out out out gained them 100 by over 100 yards. But man, the turnovers just killed them in that game. Utah State went to Washington up the road and they lost by 2.16 to 14 coming down to a Hill Mary and they just could not get the big 10 Michigan treatment and get a second chance there with zeros on the clock to win the game. So unfortunately, Utah State falls in that one. Really strong showing there against a quality Washington team. And then the following week, they go play Utah and in state foe and lose 33 to nothing. They put nothing up on the board, managed to put up sub 200 yards and really not a great game. So the problem right now that we're going to talk about briefly is that this is a team that we really don't have a pencil on. They're difficult to read. They're super inconsistent. And something that we are going to be able to benefit from in this though is that because of this lack of consistency, they have problems with turnovers. That's a big problem that they have. Utah State has already thrown eight interceptions this season. Yeah, we're going to ball-hawk this. We need to come into this ready just to jump at everything because they'll throw it right to us. The quarterback situation is just not set in stone either. There's a lot of movement there. But you know, they have flashes of the pan. Every now and again, they have some really good moments. One of the biggest highlights is got to be the 78 yard touchdown they had against Washington to keep them in this. But they've just really struggled to sustain drives and protect the football. So defensively, we're going to eat. This is going to be a good game for us defensively. Hopefully our offense can do enough to put some points on the board and not put us in a weird struggle situation on this one. So to sum it all up, I'm going to categorize this team as a questionable at times, but can be dangerous. So we just got to be vigilant. We got to be prepared for most of anything. We got to be ready to attack offensively and overwhelm them on their defensive side of the ball because the other way around, we're going to be just fine. I'm not worried about us in the defensive slot. I just want our offense to be able to run the ball and put some points on the board. I think we'll be fine. You know that this team, I thought they were a better team coming into this season. But after watching them, they're so they're so flipping inconsistent. We really don't know what we're going to get. But I'm hoping that what's indicative of two of their three games is what's going to pan out this Saturday. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Bas, we appreciate your effort looking into the Aggies because we made every effort possible to find and know your foe from Utah State. We reached out to people that host podcasts bragging about Utah State Aggies and you know, File 404, no fan found. We just couldn't couldn't get anybody to come on. So if you're listening to this and you're in Utah, you know, I don't know what's going on. you know next time we do this which I hope is never please volunteer. Come on, represent the Utah State Aggies. All right, now that we have gotten a good breakdown of Utah State, it is time to throw the bass into the Alabama River and have him swim through the water table until he winds up in Pascagula to answer that payphone and figure out what's going on out there in the desert in this week's edition of What's the Word from Pascagula? All right, Birdman, what are you here in? What are the bedding odds for this game? Yeah, Bird, go ahead. Oh, sorry, Birdman. I meant bass. You want to try that again? No, does this bird want to try getting a tattoo? Yeah, yeah, bird, bird, bird. Okay, okay, all right, so the word down in Pascagula, Utah State, I look when I read this and the other two will attest to this, I had a mild come apart when I read this, but Utah State is favored by two and a half points. Why I couldn't tell you, but Utah State is favored two and a half points the over under on this game said at 48 and a half. Money line has Troy plus 128. The FBI from ESPN, now that we're in week four, we can start actually relying on that being kind of okay. 47.6% chance for the Trojan's to win this game, which is in line with a two and a half points bread. So the biggest predicted score in this is Utah State 26. The Trojan's 23. Yeah, I hate this. I'm just going to sorry, Joe, I'm going to interrupt you. I don't like it, because like when you look up like, why are these people, why are they, why is Utah State two and a half point favorites? Home field advantage, odds makers are essentially saying these two teams are evenly matched and resilient, resilient defense versus powerhouse team. I'm like, come on, man. Like, what did, what did we just do against Mizzou? And now you're saying Utah State, who is 0 and 3 is going to find a way to win. I don't know. I think that part of the problem is that and, and I guess I'm kind of supporting what I was saying earlier. Utah State is so wildly inconsistent that they're not willing to risk it for the best get on this game, because because any logical person would look at this and say, man, Troy is the play here. But if Utah State pulls it out because they're their questionable team at best, you know, that made money. Would you, would you consider Troy to be questionable in this as well? Because since we've both shown inconsistencies, I mean, like our, our question marks are fewer and far between than theirs. Like, we know our defense is going to come into this good. We know our special teams is going to be okay. That's, that's actually a bothersome moment there, because I feel like every time we come into this, I'm so used to Joe being so positive. Hey, special teams is wonderful. We're doing great again. And this season, it's not been that. So I wish, I wish we would address that. But I think that because Utah State is so much more volatile that I think Vegas is saying we're just going to treat this like a pick them. And because they're at home, they get the automatic three. Yeah. I think it's a pick them and see which way the money runs. You know, and I mean, I always try to put myself in the heads of their fans like their students, the people that are going to be out there making this a quote unquote hostile environment. I don't know the Utah State gets called bad and awful lot. But I mean, I'm just, I'm thinking O and three. You know, if I wake up and I'm a, I'm a student at Utah State and I wake up at 10 a.m. My alarm's going off. The football team is O and three. It's not going to take a lot to get me to go, yeah, I'm going to give up my student ticket and go to the, you know, the party at the, the fraternity down the street's house or the bar party or whatever it is. So, you know, I think you can, especially if Troy goes in, like we did against Missouri and kind of scores early, not only will you have people who don't come, but you'll have people to go, all right, I've seen enough O and four is coming. And at that point, a quiet stadium is, is a terrible place to be, especially if it's your own. So we'll see what happens. I am not impressed with Vegas on this one. So I'm hoping that we prove them wrong in a big way. Bass, you're going to wish that I called Bird's name on this one. This is your last little bit of work tonight. And boy, is it a doozy. It's when we invite Trojan Nation up to the banks of your pond to throw in their best lures at a chance to catch a sea bass in this week's edition of the tackle box. All right, Bass. I think, I think you have some idea about the stink bait that's being thrown your way here. So I'm not going to stretch it out. Bass here is a great stat. Jared Parker has had our Trojans within one score in the fourth quarter of every game he's played against a powerful squat. Yet there's still a great deal of animosity towards him. Certainly, one little walk around TroyFans.com would tell you that. So how much of the blame for not winning these powerful games do you assign to him versus execution from the guys on the field? Bird, play the music. Coach Parker, on behalf of the Troy boys, the three of us, we would like to formally apologize. For all of the times we said you couldn't do it. From all of the times that we said he's not our coach. From all the times we said what's this guy doing and who does he think he is? From all the times we called you the next Chip Lindsay. You have clearly demonstrated that you were capable of putting our team in a position to win. But what you've also demonstrated is the inability to finish the game. I would like to take this opportunity to say that it's not all you. It's not always you. But if the hammer is going to come down on somebody, it's the person at the top. Coach Parker, these games are winnable when you've demonstrated that it is. Just finish the job. Couldn't have said it better myself. An excellent job there. Seabass spitting that stinkbait backup onto the banks. I tend to agree with you. There are some areas where people can take legitimate issue. You look at the clock management going into halftime. Again, clock management is remaining an issue. So not saying it's him, maybe somebody else, but he's got to do it. Yeah, now that this is done. Okay, now that I've had that moment, Iowa, that's his fault. I blame him on that one. Clemson, similar problem. Dabbo was really down. We had that game in the bag and we lost that one. This one, I'm not going to blame him. This Missouri game is not his fault. That came down to execution. Special teams dropped the ball a couple times and two turnovers turned into points. And that was not his fault. I feel like that this game, and I even said it in our text message thread. I feel like coaching was impeccable in this Missouri game. We did a really good job setting our team up for success. And we clearly had everything rolled our way except for two fundamental areas. And we talked about it too, whenever we like to, he said we like to play these close games. I don't like that. I do not want to play close games. I want to play I want to play stomthorth wrote. And then whenever they're asking to breathe, just push further, you know, we got to wait. It needs to be no questions asked where we are the team. You should be afraid to play and not the team that could beat us maybe. And that's my position on that. So I think I think you killed it, man. I think you got it. I think that's the way a lot of Troy Nation is feeling. And we'll just have to see how does he come out and answer the bell, especially with this Utah State game on the line, which could be very important. You win Utah State. All of a sudden, you're three in one, you're three games away from bowl. I think everybody's feeling a whole lot better. So let's see what happens. All right. Now it's time for our last segment of the night. And that is when I cover myself in icy cold gatorades and wander into the hottest corner of the internet to bring everyone in Trojan Nation a small piece of TroyFans.com. In this week's edition of TheTroyFans.com. Hot Take the Week. So many hot takes this episode. It's been wild. We didn't believe it. Buffalo Wild. Yeah. It's duckless for it. It is. It has been, I could make a hot take of the week just off this episode. But I do want to give a honorable mention. Obviously, the winner of this award has been set up in precedent through angry messages. Has to be on joyfans.com. But an honorable mention goes out to Coach Bryant Vincent, the head coach of ULM, a fan tweeted at him that ULM should fire him and fire the rest of the coaches to which the coach responded, "Why don't you come fire me fat boy?" which is just fantastic. I mean, when things aren't going well, just keep digging. You know what I mean? Maybe I'll hit water, man. So things are looking great down there in Monroe. But this week's winner, and I do apologize, I wouldn't say there's vulgarity in this week's winner, but certainly some language you might not want your kids around just because they'd love to repeat it. But here we go. This week's winner who's not feeling great about the Trojans. And they decided to comment, quote, "If I were raiding us between the worst and best football teams in America, I would say we are a bucket of buttholes." Oh my gosh. We play a real opponent next week. That's it. That's where they leave us. What in the world? I mean, for all of you, say that we go too far when we're like, I don't know, maybe this young man, not executing exactly, no, I mean, this guy's giving out the whole team bucket of buttholes. Is that the episode title? It's something. I cannot wait for December when we do the montage. Because this one, this is probably one of the best ones we've ever. This is definitely up for Hot Take of the Year, for sure. I think you're wrong, poster, but you're also also right. I just love the Hot Takeary. So congratulations, you are indeed. This week's TroyFans.com Hot Take of the Week. Yeah, absolutely deserves all the praise. All right, guys, we have done it. We've taken up an hour of Trojans nations time, breaking down the Missouri game, getting ready for Utah State. Now it's time for some closing remarks. Bass, go ahead, hit Trojans nation with some closing remarks. Yeah, like, rate, subscribe, review to the Trollboys podcast. Share us with all your friends and family. That's how we get the word out for the Trollboys podcast. And if you don't have your season tickets yet, you can still get them. Troj Trojans.com/tickets, get you some tickets. Yeah, let's take care of the Aggies this week. Let's start the season three and one. Let's finish the season strong. Like, let's not let Missouri get in the way of the rest of the season. We're in a good position. And we're not even in conference play yet. I feel really strongly about the steam and things are going very well. So let's support this team and it's coaching staff and let's finish strong. Absolutely. Love to hear it. Birdman, go ahead, hit us with those closing remarks. Yeah, absolutely. I think we're in a good spot. I was really impressed with, you know, what we did against Missouri, even though there are some things we need to work on. And, you know, we can, like, we're a bunch of idiots on microphones. Like, we don't always know what we're talking about. But I do enjoy the hot takes and getting to do this with you guys every weekend. So people, again, I'll just reiterate and emphasize, like, shout out to all the fans that listen. We have right now looking like 100 plus streams on every episode so far this season. And I'm super, super pumped about that. So even the ones that tell us that we're a bunch of idiots and that we hate the Trojans. I see you're still tuning in. Even though I'm pretty sure Joe just goes back and listens like 30 times. So either or, you know, it's just, it's just great to do this. And we love the Trojans. And I'm rooting for a three and one, three and one record next week. And I'm hoping that we at least go bowling this year. And I think we can do it. I think we got the right people. We just need to continue to have that good fan support and just back to Trojans and create hostile environments for even when we are on these away games. So go Trojans. And let's beat the Aggies next week. Absolutely. It is time to beat you to a state not often that we go out there. West Coast ish, Rocky Mountain region adjacent. And so time to go out and prove ourselves. Everyone thank you so much for coming on and joining the Troj boys tonight as we get ready for Utah State. I am Trojan Joe. That's the bass. That's the bird. And as always, go Trojans. And God bless your place, Brown. (upbeat music)