USM 30 – Troy 27 F/OT

2008: Year of the Choke Job

Well folks, there’s really not much to say. Theres one Troy WR Im not particularly happy with, I will say that much. I’ll put in a full recap tomorrow if I have time and real life doesn’t rudely interrupt.

New Orleans Bowl Gameday Open Thread

Anyone else think that Southern Mississippi looks like a bunch of bananas running around? Watch, cheer, discuss. Open thread.

Pre Game Link Dump

Well folks its the first Saturday of the bowl season and the day before our Trojans take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Hopefully youre getting a chance to enjoy some of the great football already being played, I know Im really enjoying this Navy v. Wake Forest game (seriously, good football). Until then, here’s your final fix of Trojan info before tomorrow. You are encouraged to come and join in on the Game Day Open Thread tomorrow night during the game.

• Xavier Moreland hopes to play off broken collarbone
• Odds & News (who?) offers their preview of the game
• The guys at Scout.com have expanded their preview
• Phil Steele offers up his insight to the bowl
• SI Fannation rips into the NOLA Bowl
• ESPN ran a story on Trojan legend Demarcus Ware, who is now closing in on the NFL’s single season sack record

Wednesday Random Ten (ft. Jack Johnson)

Last week we had some impressive participation with two responses, and I’m hoping we can build on that this week. Come on guys and join in on the fun. Take your iTunes Library or whatever music library you use, set it to shuffle, and list the first ten songs that show up, no matter how embarrassing they might be. Give it a whirl, for Pete’s sakes.

 

1. P.O.D. – Execute the Sounds
2. The Almost – Say This Sooner
3. Hootie & the Blowfish – Only Wanna Be With You
4. Relient K – The Truth
5. Foo Fighters – Drive Me Wild
6. Beastie Boys – Sure Shot
7. Dropkick Murphys – Im Shippin Up to Boston
8. Pearl Jam – Light Years
9. Jack Johnson – Upside Down
10. Operation Ivy – Gonna Find You

2009 TMTDM Sweetheart

Every Monday, to help you fight those work week blues we’re helping you out by giving you a dose of good will cheer from the TMTDM Sweetheart. Naturally we dig super hot blondes class as well as beauty, so like Ron Burgandy himself we always keep it classy. So the choice is yours, who is your pick for 2009 TMTDM Sweetheart? Vote in the poll and see if your ultra hot babe beauty wins it.

Your candidates:

From left to right: Aishwarya Rai, Kiera Knightley, Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Love Hewitt

Player Profile: Damion Fletcher

As promised, even if a little late, here is the player profile for the always dangerous, always exciting, always talked about by USM fans, first team all-CUSA running back Damion Fletcher. 

I can hardly blame SoMiss fans for wanting to hype the kid. Over the past few years he’s been overshadowed by some stellar C-USA RB talent like UCF’s Kevin Smith and Tulane’s Matt Forte , but all the while he’s been putting up some stellar numbers. Fletcher, now a junior, put in 1586 yds his sophomore season to accompany his 1388 as a freshman. His freshman year Fletcher averaged 5.0 ypc and piled on 11 TDs. Fletcher improved his sophomore year to 5.4 ypc and 15 TDs. Needless to say, the guy is a stud.

This year Fletcher’s numbers have seen a dive, with only 1235 yds and 9 TDs. This is due in part to having a more productive passing game with freshmen Austin Davis and DeAndre Brown, but also because of a missed game against UCF, one of the worst teams in the C-USA. But dont let those numbers fool you, Fletcher now averages 6.0 ypc with his tiny 5’10 175lb frame.

Don’t let his small demeanor fool you. The kid runs hard and when simple physics dont hold him down, he’ll keep chugging right through you after initial contact. While grit, determination, and solid technique can help you run through some tired safety’s hands or bust through arm tackles, a 175 lb, 5’10” frame doesn’t allow for you to be a solid 3rd-and-short RB. Fletcher is also fairly slow, especially compared to Trojan RBs, clocking a 4.55 40yd dash time. He’s been known to get run down from behind but his speed is adequate enough when coupled with good anticipation to beat a defender to the corner. Also important is that he moves quickly out of his cuts, a tremendous benefit to him. 

Its also important to note that while Fletcher is a threat out of the backfield, he is not a typical target for the young USM QB.

So he’s not powerful, he’s not very fast…. whats the big deal? What really benefits him is that he’s shown some stellar balance on multiple occasions, especially for a relatively tall RB at 5′ 10″. Other than that, it could be said that while Fletcher isn’t particularly stellar at any one thing, he’s very solid at just about everything. A well rounded RB who can find ways to make plays the same way you did with your friend’s in your family’s front yard when you were a kid; not by out running everyone or fancy calculated spin moves, but just some indescribable, inconsistent magic that turned on when you needed it.

All in all, Fletcher is a legitimate threat on the ground, especially considering how effective USM’s air attack can be when it’s clicking. But to be entirely honest, I’d rather be playing Fletcher than our own DuJuan Harris, whose stats are very much comparable. To compare him to our competition, I’d even go so far as to say he’s no better than ULaLa’s Tyrell Fenroy, who’s 4 straight 1000 yd seasons and 19 rushing touchdowns in 2008 agree with me. Against Troy, Fenroy only snagged 23 yards on 10 attempts with a long of 6.

I guess what Im trying to say is, in short, if we prepare for Fletcher the right way, he’s the kind of guy that can be contained. He isn’t so special as DeAndre Brown whom we can simply hope to slow down; on the contrary. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fletcher held to less than 50 yards if the offense gets ahead of USM early and the linebacking corps plays as well as it has been since the 4th quarter collapse at LSU.

This isn’t homerism, this fairly objective. Fletcher was held to 29 yds at Auburn and only busted out 59 yds in 20 attempts versus the mighty Mustangs of Southern Methodist.

Xavier Moreland Out for NO Bowl

It seems Moreland will be out for the New Orleans Bowl against Southern Mississippi. This is a significant loss as Moreland provided a serious threat in relief of starter DuJuan Harris, a sophomore. Chaplin refers to him as a senior but the TroyTrojans.com roster and ESPN both refer to him as a junior. Moreland averages 6.6 ypc on just under 30 touches this year. Maurice Greer will be filling in. Greer has also been impressive, having a solid showing at T-Day and totaling 194 yds on 31 carries.

From Drew’s Blog:

Just came across this on the game notes.

Senior running back Xavier Moreland is out for the New Orleans Bowl with a broken right collarbone suffered against Arkansas State. It’s a tough break for Moreland, who broke his left collarbone in preseason practice and missed a few games. It seems like he missed a game in midseason for something too.

Good kid and the good thing is he’ll never break his collarbone again because they fix those things so well when they’re operated on.

Maurice Greer would be the backup running back.

Wednesday Random Ten (ft. John Denver)

In an effort to get some people registered and open up some dialogue in the comments sections, we’re going to do a musical random ten every week, and YOU are encouraged to play along. Set your iTunes (or whatever you might use) library to shuffle and list the first ten songs that come up. No cheating/lying, no matter how embarrassing they might be. Here’s mine:

1. Saturday Fantastic – Diamond Nights
2. Wonderwall – Oasis
3. Testify – Rage Against the Machine
4. On Fire – Switchfoot
5. We Don’t Care – Kanye West
6. Oh! Gravity – Switchfoot
7. Behind the Music – KJ – 52
8. What am I to You – Norah Jones
9. So What – Miles Davis
10. Annie’s Song – John Denver

Bowl Matchup Roundup

From scout.com:

Troy vs Southern Miss
This bowl could be good because … This is the best ever New Orleans Bowl matchup by far. These two teams should be playing in a far more prestigious bowl. Southern Miss is red hot, coming in on a four-game winning streak, while Troy is good enough to challenge anyone outside of the BCS. 

This bowl could suck because … The New Orleans Bowl almost always sucks. Southern Miss had better bring its A game or else Troy will win this thing in a rout.

From Sports Illustrated:

29. New Orleans (Dec. 21): Troy (8-4) vs. Southern Miss (6-6). Troy, if you haven’t noticed, is a pretty good team, one that nearly knocked off LSU in Baton Rouge. Unfortunately, as Sun Belt champions, the Trojans are obligated to this crappy bowl.

From the Tampa Tribune:

Troy (8-4) vs. Southern Miss (6-6)
At New Orleans
Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)  

The Skinny: Troy had a very respectable season – losing against Ohio State (28-10), Oklahoma State (55-24), Louisiana-Monroe (31-30) and LSU (40-31, after surrending a huge second-half lead). Southern Miss, under former Florida assistant Larry Fedora, needed to win its last four games just to qualify for the postseason.

The Prediction: Troy 23, Southern Miss 16.

From ESPN:

Southern Miss won four straight games to reach bowl eligibility when everyone else counted the Golden Eagles out. The Golden Eagles won their final four games by an average of 25 points, and their defense is playing better than it has all season, limiting its last four opponents to 8.75 points per game. Southern Miss is 20th in the country in total offense, averaging 434.50 yards per game, and most of that is thanks to freshman quarterback Austin Davis, freshman receiver DeAndre Brown and junior running back Damion Fletcher. But Southern Miss is going to have a tough time with a Troy team that only had one loss to a non-BCS opponent this season and hasn’t allowed a non-BCS opponent to score more than nine points since early November (three games). Troy ranks 26th in the country in total offense behind quarterback Levi Brown, who replaced starter Jamie Hampton in the middle of the season after he tore his ACL. In just seven games as starter, Brown has thrown for 1,775 yards and 14 touchdowns. Brown, combined with receiver Jerrel Jernigan, who plays some quarterback, and running back DuJuan Harris makes Troy’s attack multiple and difficult to defend.

From CollegeFootballNetwork:

9. R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl 
Dec. 21 / 8 p.m. ET New Orleans, La. ESPN 
Projection: Troy vs. Southern Miss
Normally one of the worst bowl matchups of the season, the New Orleans Bowl really might be one of the most entertaining early bowl games. Really. This is the best New Orleans Bowl matchup by a huge margin with Southern Miss coming in red hot, and probably deserving of a far better game, and Troy coming in as one of the Sun Belt’s best teams ever. Southern Miss is 2-0 in this game, having won two in a row in 2004 and 2005, while Troy blew away Rice in 2006. USM overcame a lousy start to win the final four games of the season in head coach Larry Fedora’s first season, highlighted by a 21-3 win over eventual Conference USA champion, East Carolina. The Golden Eagles are 2-0 against the Sun Belt this season, having beaten UL Lafayette and Arkansas State in the first three games. Troy pushed LSU to the wall before dying late, but the Trojans are still on a nice run having beaten UL Lafayette and Arkansas State by a combined score of 83 to 12 to close out the year.
Stars of the show: 1) Southern Miss RB Damion Fletcher, 2) Troy LBs Bear Woods & Boris Lee, 3) Southern Miss QB Austin Davis
The knee jerk, off-the-cuff, initial prediction: Troy 27 … Southern Miss 17

Drew Champlin’s Neal Brown Interview

Drew Champlin posted an interview conducted with Troy offensive coordinator Neal Brown just before the Arkansas State game. Among other things, Brown had this to say:

Most memorable coaching moment?
The most positive coaching moment would have to be the Middle Tennessee game in 06. It was an unbelievable way we came back. I use that word unbelievable, but the adversity we had to go through to win it. The thing that sticks out to me was the plays our kids made to win it in the last five minutes. People say “oh you’re lucky,” but I don’t think it was that. We were down inside the 10-yard line and didn’t get it on fourth and an inch. We got that field position (forced a punt) and took it and scored our first touchdown. Our kids made some great plays down the stretch.