Troy vs. Memphis at the Liberty Bowl. A scary place for me and the Trojans to play at. For a long time the media said we had the "Liberty Bowl Curse". We had lost a bowl game and an 11-0 season in this very stadium. We always had rough times in this stadium. The Trojans would finally turn things around over the last few seasons when we finally got a win in that stadium in the actual Liberty Bowl game on a last second touchdown victory. Next season we would crush the curse even more with our 1st win over Memphis in the Liberty Bowl.
So you can understand, despite what the records say, 5-0 Troy and 3-2 Memphis, I would be a bit nervous. What made this day worse...it was all cloudy, dreary and rainy in Memphis on this Saturday.
The Memphis Tigers would jump out to a 21-0 lead in the 1st quarter. Roberts thew just his second interception of the season. The curse was back....
Ok, maybe not. We scored our first touchdown of the game on an Alonzo Roberts 14 yard touchdown scramble, a rare play from a pocket passer quarterback. Memphis would add a field goal, but we would add two more touchdowns and miss a two point conversion to make the score 24-20 Tigers at the half.
But, as soon as we broke out of the locker room, this was a whole new football game. Troy went on a 25 point third quarter run and would never trail the football game again. This was a team determined.
Roberts has been the only player of the game the Trojans has ever known this season. He is a game changer. 500 + yards passing and Six total touchdowns.
Champ.
A quick look at the conference standings for the east shows us at number one, but with a battle with ECU in two weeks for possession of first place in the east.
Alonzo Roberts getting some looks as a possible Heisman winner as he moved up to number three.
He does it again! Conference player of the week!
back home for a game with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Every time we played this team in the past six season, they always had a winning record. This is the first time the Trojans will be up against them at their worse. But this is no reason to over look them. Check out how we rank in the NCAA among all teams; First in points per game and passing offense. Rankings in the top ten in rushing defense and total offense. Pretty darn good from the Trojans if you ask me.
I had hoped this team could add to these impressive numbers from this season vs a down Southern Miss team, but it was not to be. Southern Miss showed us all why records don't matter, heart does. The Golden Eagles took the lead on us in the first quarter 7-0, but a little over thirty seconds later, Roberts hit Gordon for a thirty yard touchdown pass. Troy matched that with another touchdown throw and would not lose the lead again on this football game.
That being said, Southern Miss did not go away without a fight. Their defense made it so tough on our offense to pull away late like this Troy team is known to do, but thankfully our defense had another great game and kept us in it for the win.
Despite the unusually low Troy score of 24 points, Roberts did still throw the ball for close to 400 yards and three touchdowns.
They were a VERY pesky team.
Only a field goal in the second half, very strange for this Troy team.
We land our second big recruit of the 2027 season, four star linebacker Jay London. Turned down Alabama and 7-0 Maryland for us!
Roberts up to number two in the Heisman race! Looks to become Troy University second Heisman winner.
600 more passing yards then the second best quarterback in the NCAA. You can see Concepcion from UTEP on this list, the fella that threw for 400 yards vs us in a double overtime game.
Kyle Kidd just a few yards short of number one.
The big shoes London will have to fill replacing this senior linebacker.
One of the top teams in Conference USA was next...and on the road no less. East Carolina. In years past they had a quarterback just a good as Troy legend Josiah Higdon, who thew for thousands of yards. This team was also responsible, much like Memphis was, for ruining an unbeaten Troy season in the past..
This game was much easier then it should have been. Troy jumped out to a 34-0 half time lead thanks to great play from our defense who had two first half fumbles. The Pirates made things a little crazy in the second half scoring a touchdown, getting an onside kick, scoring a touchdown, getting an onside kick, and scoring one more touchdown. However, ECU would never make the game closer than a 14 point lead for Troy.
For the 8th time this season you can call this man player of the game! Six touchdowns and only 18 away from Higdon's Troy season record of 60 touchdowns.
Our impressive win over ECU landed us our third recruit of the season, a four star wide receiver Jeremy Johnson, beating out rival C-USA member UCF and ACC member Florida State.
How about this for a bit of a change to the Conference USA player of the week, this time the defense gets credit!
Just a look at the Troy passing records that Roberts would like to close in on for single season. As you can see...each one is owned by Higdon.
W - vs MTSU - 72 -6
W - vs Rice* - 51-24
W - at Tulane*- 42-13
W - at UTEP*- 44-41 (OT 2)
W - vs Houston* - 50-18
W - at Memphis* - 59-31
W - Southern Miss* - 24-19
W - at ECU* - 49-28
Week 10 - UCF*
Week 11 - Notre Dame
Week 12 - FAU*
Week 13 - at #21 Florida
Week 14 - BYE
Week 15 - Conference USA Championship Game
Up next for us is a huge three game stretch, but one I am very happy we be making at home for three of the four games. UCF is a team that has always given us troubles in the past. They have their eyes set on the Conference USA East title and can take a shot at it with a win against us. After that, it is a rematch with Notre Dame in the second part of our home and home series.
Up next for us is a huge three game stretch, but one I am very happy we be making at home for three of the four games. UCF is a team that has always given us troubles in the past. They have their eyes set on the Conference USA East title and can take a shot at it with a win against us. After that, it is a rematch with Notre Dame in the second part of our home and home series.
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