Trojans Looking for Some Magic on the Mountain

TROY, Alabama – You don't have to look too hard to see the similarities between this year's Troy squad and Appalachian State's 2014 team. The Mountaineers turned around their season against the Trojans last year and now Troy heads to the mountains of North Carolina looking for some of that magic on Saturday.

Kickoff between Troy and Appalachian State is set for 2:34 p.m. from Kidd Brewer Stadium in a game that will be broadcast live on ESPN3. The Troy Sports Radio Network will have full coverage of the game beginning with the pregame show at 12:30 p.m. on the full 16-station network.

App State (6-1, 3-0 Sun Belt) came to Troy last season 1-5 on the year, including a loss to Liberty out of the FCS. The Mountaineers, in their second year of a rebuild under head coach Scott Satterfield, left Veterans Memorial Stadium with a victory in their back pocket, the first of six straight to close out the season – App State enters Saturday's contest with wins in 12 of its last 13 games.

Enter Troy. The Trojans are 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt after a 52-7 pasting of New Mexico State last weekend. Troy is in year one of a rebuild under head coach Neal Brown and is playing with confidence after its trip out west.

"Just playing well gives you some confidence," Brown said. "Going on the road, I wasn't surprised that we played well on the road. If you look at it, even the games we've lost, we've played pretty decent on the road.

"You look at it, they were 1-5 and lost by several touchdowns a couple times and they made the long trip here and won going away and didn't turn around the rest of the season. That's something we're looking to duplicate."

After missing seven quarters of action due to injury, sophomore quarterback Brandon Silvers returned against New Mexico State and turned in the best game of his young career. The Trojan signal caller threw for 288 yards and five touchdowns (all but one yard came in the first half) as Troy built a 45-7 advantage at the break.

Silvers enters the weekend with 20 touchdown passes and just six interceptions in 17 career games; he has thrown an interception in just three games in his career.

"It was good to get him back," Brown said. "We are a different team offensively when he plays. He came out and threw with confidence, got the ball out of his hand quick and was decisive."

His favorite target has been senior Teddy Ruben, who has topped the 100-yard mark in back-to-back games with identical 109-yard tallies. Ruben leads all Sun Belt receivers with five touchdown catches on the year after finding the end zone twice last weekend. He is also one of the most dangerous return men in the country with three punt returns over 30 yards on the year and a 19.6 per-return average.

The ground attack is paced by the legs of Brandon Burks, who is fourth in the country with four rushes of over 50 yards. Burks broke off his best run of the season last weekend as he turned what looked to be a 2-yard loss into a 92-yard touchdown. He has accounted for 72 percent of Troy's rushing total on the year.

On the other side of the ball, the Trojans are second in the Sun Belt allowing just 16.7 points per game in league play and have the 10^th best turnaround in the country in yards per play allowed (-1.07).

The Trojans rank 23^rd nationally holding opponents to 32 percent on third down after ranking 125^th last year; Troy is holding opponents to just a 51 percent conversion rate on third and short (1-3 yards).

"We haven't played as well on defense in the last two games as we had earlier," Brown said. "Some of that is because we have gotten banged up a little bit. The good thing is, I think this is a testament as to how far we've come – we haven't played as well, but we gave up seven points this week and only gave up 16 the week before. I think a lot of that shows how much improvement we've made."

A lot of Troy's defensive success can be traced to its play behind the line of scrimmage. The Trojans are 29^th nationally averaging 7.3 tackles for loss per game this season, up from 4.3 a year ago. Tyler Roberts leads the charge with 3.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss, while Rashad Dillard has 3.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. Linebacker William Lloyd is Troy's leading tackler with 50 on the year to go with six stops behind the line.

App State is the only team in the country to be ranked in the top 20 nationally in both total offense and total defense. The Mountaineers haven't allowed more than 14 points in their four victories and have won by an average score of 43-7.

Running back Marcus Cox leads the App State offense with 111.6 yards per game on the ground to go with six touchdowns on the season. Quarterback Taylor Lamb has completed 59.4 percent of his passes, while averaging 190.4 yards per game through the air with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Defensively, the Mountaineers are similar the Trojans with their disruption behind the line of scrimmage. App State leads the league with 16 sacks and 54 tackles for loss, compared to Troy's 15 sacks and 51 tackles for loss.

The App State defense has been opportunistic with 16 turnovers forced (11 interceptions and five fumbles), while the Mountaineer offense has only turned the ball over nine times.

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Players Mentioned

Brandon Burks

Rashad Dillard

William Lloyd

Tyler Roberts

Teddy Ruben

Brandon Silvers