Troy Heads to Mississippi State for Final Non-Conference Tilt

TROY, Alabama – Coming off an emotional loss last weekend, the Troy football team must quickly regroup to face its final test in what has been a grueling non-conference slate.

Troy travels to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State on Saturday for the third time in the past four seasons. The Trojans have already made trips to Wisconsin and NC State in a season that is just four games old.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3:01 p.m. and the game will be televised live on the SEC Network. Additionally, the Troy Sports Radio Network will have full coverage of the game beginning with the pregame show at 1 p.m. on the full 16-station network.

"Like it or not, we are going to move on and play a really good opponent this weekend in Mississippi State," Troy head coach Neal Brown said at his weekly press conference. "Obviously, when you turn on the video they are what you expect when you talk about an upper echelon team out of the Southeastern Conference, a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country. I think they will be the most physical team we've played so far this year. It will be a tough environment, a lot of cowbells. They have renovated the stadium and it is a very good place to play."

Both teams enter the weekend with a bitter taste in their mouth as Troy (1-3) fell 24-18 at home to South Alabama, while Mississippi State (3-2) dropped a 30-17 decision at Texas A&M last weekend.

Under new coordinator Vic Koenning, the Troy defense has shown substantial improvement from a year ago. The unit kept the Trojans in the game against South Alabama allowing just three second half points while recording five sacks, eight tackles for loss and four quarterback hurries.

Led by seniors Tyler Roberts and Montres Kitchens, the Troy defense is allowing 56.5 fewer yards and 7.0 fewer points per game than a year ago, while sacks and tackles for loss are up to a tune of 1.4 and 2.2 per game, respectively.

"Defensively, we gave ourselves a chance," Brown said of the South Alabama game. "We limited what I thought was a pretty good rushing attack to 3.1 yards per rush and to 31 percent on third downs. I thought we played good team defense and got a lot of guys to the ball. In the second half, they continually gave the offense opportunities to take the lead."

Offensively, the Trojans will need to take care of the ball after three turnovers led to 10 South Alabama points last weekend. Troy has had success in the red zone and with striking quickly this year. The Trojans are one of six teams in the country with a 100 percent success rate inside the red zone and lead the country as 70 percent of their touchdown drives have been under two minutes.

Sophomore quarterback Brandon Silvers enters the game with four touchdown passes and a 62.3 completion percentage, while senior running back Brandon Burks is averaging 79.8 yards per game and has found the end zone three times. Senior Teddy Ruben has led the receiving corps through the opening four games with 17 catches for 197 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

On the other sideline, Mississippi State has victories over Southern Miss, Northwestern State and Auburn, with losses to LSU and Texas A&M. The Bulldogs spent three weeks at the top of the College Football Playoff Rankings last season and return 10 starters from that squad; four on each side of the ball plus a pair of specialists.

The hands-down leader of the offense for the Bulldogs is senior quarterback Dak Prescott. The one-time Heisman candidate is averaging 255.8 yards per game through the air and a team-best 43.4 yards per game on the ground. Prescott has accounted for 10 touchdowns – seven passing and three rushing – without an interception.

Defensively, the Bulldogs have caused havoc at the line of scrimmage much of the season as they have 13 sacks, 34 tackles for loss and 15 quarterback hurries. Linebacker Richie Brown paces the Mississippi State defense with 50 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and an interception.

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Players Mentioned

Brandon Burks

Montres Kitchens

Tyler Roberts

Teddy Ruben

Brandon Silvers