Troy University Athletics
Troy University
South Carolina
Early Mistakes Costs Trojans in Loss to No. 17 South Carolina
11/20/2010 3:31:11 PM | Football
TROY GAME NOTES | GAME STATISTICS | PHOTO GALLERY
COLUMBIA, SC -- The SEC's Eastern Division Champions left no doubt to the Troy Trojans football team on how they earned that title. South Carolina defeated the Trojans 69-24 Saturday afternoon.
“I don't know what happened,” Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. “We couldn't tackle them. We couldn't hold on to the ball. We gave them a chance to beat us today with fumbles and interceptions and dropped snaps. We talked about trying to salvage something out of the second half, and I think we did salvage something out of it against a very good football team.”
Marcus Lattimore has been a pivotal part of the Gamecocks offense all season, and he scored three touchdowns in his first four carries on the day en route to becoming a 1,000-yard rusher. The Gamecock freshman posted 88 yards on those four carries, and that led him to a 102-yard rushing performance on the day.
“The first half was certainly one of the worst halves of football I have ever experienced as a coach and a player,” Blakeney said. “We acted like we had never seen a football field.”
The first half was a display of steady decline in Troy's ability to stop any offensive progression of the Gamecocks. South Carolina rolled up a 56-7 lead on Troy in the first two quarters of the game.
“I'm glad we had some positives to carry out of here from the second half,” Blakeney said. “There certainly weren't any for us in the first half.”
Jerrel Jernigan led the Trojans on the offensive side with six receptions on the day for 30 yards and a touchdown. Jernigan returned four kicks on the afternoon for 72 yards.
Shawn Southward posted 40 yards for the Trojans on the ground accounting for half of the Trojans total rushing yards on the day. Troy posted 81 yards on the ground.
The air game for the Trojans posted just 183 yards and two touchdowns. Corey Robinson connected 22 of 38 passes on the afternoon with two interceptions. Jason Bruce was one-for-one in the passing category throwing the first touchdown pass of the day for Troy. He did it with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Chris Anderson with 4:49 left to play in the half. The Trojans trailed 35-7 at that point.
“It seemed like every time we got a drive going there was either a penalty or a turnover that would kill the drive,” Bruce said. “We just weren't executing plays that were called. Our coaches are always telling us to take advantage of our opportunities. They knew I could throw the ball well, and they gave me the opportunity.
Robinson hit Jernigan for a 14-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter for Jernigan's lone score. Anderson scored the Trojans third touchdown of the day in the opening minute of the fourth quarter when he scored on a seven-yard rush.
The Gamecocks only posted 461 yards of offense on 61 plays on the day. Credit the low yardage numbers to five Troy turnovers giving the Gamecocks great field position on multiple drives.
Troy accumulated 264 yards of total offense on the day.
The Gamecocks started offensive drives from the Trojans 17-yard line and the 29-yard line in the first quarter resulting from turnovers. The Gamecocks averaged starting their drives from their own 46-yard line in the first quarter, the Troy 49-yard line in the second quarter, and the Troy 48-yard line in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans are back at home after the Thanksgiving holidays to host Western Kentucky. Kick-off is scheduled for 2:30 pm at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“I hope we can go back to work here this week,” Blakeney said. “We're out of school this week, and we'll be on a unique schedule, and we don't need any disdtractions. We need to be finding a way to get better, and we need to find a way to beat Western Kentucky.”
