Troy University Athletics
Time to Hit The Books
8/11/2009 1:30:00 PM | Football
For the last 10 days the members of the Troy University football team have been immersed in one subject – football.
That all changes tomorrow when Troy University officially opens for business for the fall semester. The Trojans will have to balance their football responsibilities – practice, weights, meetings and treatment – with going to class and study hall.
As long as I have been around college athletics, it still amazes me that these student-athletes are able to manage their time as well as they do. It takes an incredible level of determination and sacrifice, and that goes for all student-athletes, not just football players.
Things will really start to get busy around campus today, and that goes for the Athletics Media Relations office as well. We'll have our first meeting with all of our students later this morning in an effort to get everyone off on the right foot.
Besides myself and assistant Travis Jarome, staff assistant Taylor Bryan and students Matt Mays and Kerrie Marcoullier have been hard at work in the office all summer. Several other students have been in and out over the summer, helping out when and where they could.
Taylor will be assisting me with football and golf this year while also handling men's basketball for a second straight season. He has built up a great rapport with coach Don Maestri and his staff and will do a great job covering them again this year.
Look for Taylor to publish a complete recap of the Trojans' trip to Europe in the coming days, as soon as Coach Maestri shakes off the jet lag.
Matt will be our primary contact for volleyball this year. He put out a season preview yesterday that included a short video interview with head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick.
Kerrie will be our soccer contact. Both have been hard at work over the summer getting media guides for their respective sports ready for the season.
You may have noticed that we have been adding a lot of video to stories recently. We are planning to continue doing that over the coming weeks. While the video production is far from professional grade, we hope that these short videos will provide fans with an inside look at some of the things going on in the athletics department.
You can see all of the videos we have loaded so far on our Troy Athletics YouTube Channel. Just go to www.youtube.com/TroyAthletics. You can become a subscriber, or a friend, or both. You can also post comments about the videos.
We have also selected some of our favorite videos from the YouTube world. One of the best is the clip from a game in 2007 when former Trojan Omar Haugabook was chased out of bounds and shoved into athletic trainer Chuck Ash. Barry McKnight's final words on the play are great.
Also among the clips in our favorites list are all of sophomore offensive lineman Micah Grimes' preseason promo videos. His short comedic feature on Bear Woods and Boris Lee received mention yesterday in the CBS Sports online preview of the Sun Belt Conference.
The piece, written by J. Darin Darst, picks the Trojans to win a fourth straight Sun Belt title and selects Lee as the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year. Boris was also one of just two active players in the league who was named to the conference All-Decade team.
Busy Weekend
This past weekend was a busy one for the Trojans. On Saturday the team held its first scrimmage of fall camp and then the coaches and selected players took part in media day. We had a solid turnout from the media, but not as big as in years past. Still, the Trojans are generating their fair share of interest from members of the media.
On Sunday, the team gathered at Lake Simmie for some food, fun and games. Two of the highlights of the day were the team awards distributed by coach Kenny Edenfield and coach Richard Shaughnessy.
When Coach Edenfield arrived two years ago the Trojans instituted an accountability program to track all off-the-field things the players are responsible for taking care of. These things include going to class and making good grades, being on-time for meetings and a wide variety of other things.
Coach Blakeney and Coach Edenfield select 10 captains, who in turn select nine teammates to be on their team. The group then earns accountability points throughout the year. The top three teams were recognized during the cookout at Lake Simmie and awarded their prizes.
Coach Shaughnessy also handed out the team strength club t-shirts. Players earn different levels depending on their combined results in a variety of test areas in the weight room. The top individual performer was sophomore Brandon Boudreaux.
Besides the food and awards, there were lots of games played and fishing as well. The most heated competition was in horseshoes and “corn-hole”, which is a beanbag toss game that is very popular in the midwest.
Coach Shayne Wasden was one of the top players in horseshoes and the team of James Brown and Kyle Wilborn dominated the cornhole competition.
Twittering Away
If you are one of the millions of people around the world who has gotten into the Twitter phenomenon, then you probably already know this, but several members of the football team are Twittering now. The most active Tweeters on the football team are quarterback Levi Brown (@LeviBrown12), kicker Sam Glusman (@GLUS38) and receiver Jerrel Jernigan (@jernigan3), but several others are set up with Twitter accounts.
Linebackers Boris Lee (@borislee_LEGEND), Bear Woods (@TheBEAR48) and David McDowell (@42dmac) as well as defensive end Cameron Sheffield (@90camsheff) and receiver Cornelius Williams (@CWilliams1WR) have also signed on to Twitter.
We are hoping to see several more Trojans join the Twitter age. We'll keep you posted on any additions.
Of course you can follow me (@TroySID), assistant director Travis Jarome (@Tjarome_SID) and Taylor Bryan (@tabryan) on Twitter, as well as the Voice of the Trojans Barry McKnight (@barrymcknight), offensive coordinator Neal Brown (@CoachNealBrown) and volleyball coach Sonny Kirkpatrick (@troyvball).
If you are thinking about getting on Twitter, there are plenty of resources out there to help you get started. I suggest you take a look at www.twitter-athletes.com, www.twackle.com and www.sportsin140.com, but there are many more.
Forbes Recognizes Troy University
If you didn't see it over the weekend, Forbes Magazine came out with its ranking of all colleges in the United States. In addition to being ranked as the top public university in the state of Alabama, Troy University was ranked at No. 70 overall among all public universities in the nation.
Forbes explained their rankings this way:
To our way of thinking, a good college is one that meets student needs. While some college rankings are based partly on school reputation as evaluated by college administrators and on the amount of money spent, we focus on things which directly concern incoming students: Will my courses be interesting and rewarding? Will I get a good job after I graduate? Is it likely I will graduate in four years? Will I incur a ton of debt getting my degree?
To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25% of the rankings on 4 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25% is based on post-graduate success, equally determined by enrollment-adjusted entries in Who's Who in America, and by a new metric, the average salaries of graduates reported by Payscale.com. An additional 20% is based on the estimated average student debt after four years. One-sixth of the rankings are based on four-year college graduation rates--half of that is the actual graduation rate, the other half the gap between the average rate and a predicted rate based on characteristics of the school. The last component is based on the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.
By that criteria, Troy ranked fourth overall in the state, and first among public schools. Among all public schools in the nation, Troy ranked 70th, ahead of many of the schools perceived to be among the best in the country – like Ohio State, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma and Connecticut, to name a few.
Upcoming Schedule
The next couple of weeks will be busy as momentum builds toward a Sept. 3 date with Bowling Green.
On Thursday night this week I will be speaking to a group of Troy University alumni in Luverne at 6:30 p.m. and a week from Friday will mark the official start of the athletics year when Chris Bentley's soccer team takes on Alabama State at 3 p.m.
Football fans who want to be a part of Appreciation Night still have time to get a ticket for the event, which is scheduled for Saturday, August 22, at 6 p.m. in the Stadium Club at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium.
If you still want to get a ticket, contact Judy Morgan in the football office at 334-670-3682.
All fans will have a chance to meet the Trojans on Sunday, August 23, at Fan Day. That event will be held at Trojans Arena at 2 p.m. and is free to the public. Members of the football, soccer and volleyball teams will be on hand, as will the cheerleaders and T-ROY.
The first “Trojan Talk” from Yanni's Steakhouse is slated for Monday night, August 24, from 7-8 p.m. Coach Larry Blakeney will be the keynote speaker at the Montgomery Quarterback Club's kickoff meeting on the evening of August 25. Tickets for that event are $30 and are available by calling 334-207-6196.
