Troy University Athletics
Saturday, September 19
Madison, Wis.
2:30 p.m.
Troy University
at
Wisconsin
Players Mentioned
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/ FootballTroy Heads to No. 23 Wisconsin Looking to Build on Early Returns
9/17/2015 4:21:00 PM | Football
TROY, Alabama – Troy entered the 2015 season with many doubters. With two games in the books, a revived Trojan team has laid the initial bricks to proving those doubters wrong. Troy can take another huge step forward on Saturday when it travels to Madison, Wis., for a non-conference contest against No. 23 Wisconsin.
Kickoff in the first-ever meeting between the Trojans and Badgers is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised live on the Big Ten Network. Additionally, 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.
The Trojans and Badgers have both split their opening two contests of the year. Troy fell in its season opener at NC State, while Wisconsin dropped its opener to Alabama. Both teams responded with comfortable wins last weekend over Charleston Southern and Miami (OH), respectively.
"It's great to get win number one under my belt and under our belt," Troy head coach Neal Brown said. "We've talked about the importance of winning at home and I was really pleased with the crowd we had. I thought it was a quality win against a good FCS opponent. I was worried about them coming into the game; they're unique in what they did on both sides."
Troy (1-1) jumped on Charleston Southern 21-7 at the half and stretched the lead to 44-9 before a late touchdown by the visitors set the final score at a 28-point margin. Senior Teddy Ruben was the catalyst for the Trojans as he caught a pair of touchdown passes and returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown.
Where the Trojans will have to be better to have success against a defensive unit that ranked fourth in the nation last season will be on third down. Troy has converted on third down just 25 percent of the time this season and conversely ranks second to last in the country in time of possession (19:14).
"I do think it's misleading, but not when it's as low as ours is," Brown said about time of possession. "I'm more concerned with our lack of plays. I'm really pleased with what we're averaging yards per play, you know I think it's 6.7 something like that for the season, but really disappointed with the number of snaps we're getting."
Troy is averaging right at 6.7 yards per play on the year, but have only run an average of 51 plays. At 75 plays, which is right around where Troy would like to play, that 6.7 yards per play would equal out to 502.5 yards per game.
Sophomore quarterback Brandon Silvers has completed 70.5 percent of his passes this season to go along with three touchdowns and no interceptions. On the ground, senior Brandon Burks has three scores, which already ties a career high, and is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 87.0 yards per game.
Another factor in Troy's shortened time of possession has been the quick strike ability of the offense. The Trojans have eight touchdown drives on the year; five of those have taken less than a minute off the clock. Troy's scoring drives this year are averaging just 4.1 plays and 67 seconds.
Defensively the Trojans have shown improvement from the past few seasons. Troy has allowed just 4.8 yards per play through the first two games this season, an improvement of 1.6 yards from a year ago and 1.9 yards from two years ago.
A big part of Troy's early returns on defense has been the ability to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. The Trojans have recorded six sacks and 15 tackles for loss through the opening two contests; it took Troy five games a year ago to record the sixth sack of the season.
Senior defensive end Tyler Roberts was expected to once again be a leader on that side of the ball and he has done just that. He has tallied 3.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, a pair of quarterback hurries, a pass break up and 15 tackles.
The task will be a tall one for the Trojans, as Wisconsin has won 33 straight non-conference home games dating back to 2003. It is the second longest active streak in the country (LSU, 43 games) and the eighth longest in NCAA history. Troy is 1-18 against ranked team since moving to the FBS ranks in 2001; the Trojans defeated No. 17 Missouri in 2004.
It's been a tale of two games for the Badgers (1-1) so far this season. Wisconsin recorded 268 yards of total offense and allowed 502, including 238 yards on the ground, in the opener against Alabama. Against Miami (OH) it was a totally different story. The Badgers held the RedHawks to just 157 yards in the game and negative three yards on the ground.
"Wisconsin is about what you expect," Brown said. "They're really well coached and they are big and physical. They've won a lot of football games; they are a top 25 team. I think they would probably be higher ranked, but they played Alabama, which may be the best team in the country, certainly up for debate."
Quarterback Joel Stave leads the Wisconsin offense, epically in the absence of All-America caliber running back Corey Clement. Stave has completed 65.2 percent of his passes this year with five touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Dare Ogunbowale has filled in nicely for Clement, as the senior is averaging 6.4 yards per carry and 60.5 yards per game.
Led by linebacker Joe Schobert, the Wisconsin defense already has six sacks and 18 stops behind the line this season. The Badgers held opponents to 294.1 yards per game last season, while forcing 27 turnovers.
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