Troy Rolls Past UMass, Moves to 7-1 on Season

Saturday, November 5

Troy, Ala.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

7-1

UMass

2-8

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

UMass

Troy

Troy Rolls Past UMass, Moves to 7-1 on Season

11/5/2016 8:01:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Stats Season Stats Troy Postgame Notes Highlights

By: Adam Prendergast

TROY, Alabama – Brandon Silvers accounted for four touchdowns and the Troy defense was credited with five sacks as the Trojans moved to 7-1 on the season with a 52-31 victory over UMass Saturday night in Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Silvers threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another score in Troy's final non-conference game of the season. John Johnson accounted for a pair of touchdowns as he became the first Troy player since Jerrel Jernigan in 2008 to throw a touchdown pass and catch another, while Jordan Chunn picked up his 29^th rushing touchdown of the season.

Troy fell behind by 14-points for the second straight week after UMass (2-8) struck on its first drive of the game and then took advantage of a short field following a Trojan turnover.

The Trojans answered with three straight touchdown drives – all in the first quarter – to take a 21-14 lead; one they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Troy's lead grew to 28-17 at the half following a UMass field goal and a 7-yard touchdown pass from Silvers to Johnson.

UMass pulled within four, 28-24, on its first drive of the second half, but Ryan Kay booted a 21-yard field goal and Johnson threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tevaris McCormick following a fumbled kickoff to put the game out of reach.

Silvers added his third touchdown pass – a 16-yard strike to Andre Flakes – in the fourth quarter on his final drive of the game, and freshman quarterback Sawyer Smith capped the scoring with a 7-yard touchdown run.

Troy held UMass to just 44 rushing yards in game, and the Trojans have now held opponents to under 100 yards rushing in five of eight games this season – tied for the third most in the school's FBS history.

The five sacks recorded by the Trojans – all by five different players – continued a recent trend by the Troy defense, which now has 22 sacks over the past five games. Blace Brown intercepted his fifth pass of the season after entering the game ranked second nationally with 0.7 interceptions per game.

Silvers, who picked up his third three-touchdown game of the season, spread the ball around to a 12 different receivers, which tied a season high. Emanuel Thompson led the charge with five catches for 50 yards and a score, while Sam Letton and Deondre Douglas both had four catches for 49 yards.

Quotable
"I think it's (being ranked) always a byproduct of winning," Troy head coach Neal Brown said. "I think if we keep winning, especially next week, we should see our name. If we continue to play disciplined football and continue to get better, that will lead to wins and wins will lead to being ranked."

Turning Point
Following a Ryan Kay 21-yard field goal, UMass fumbled the ensuing kickoff return and John Johnson threw a touchdown pass to Tevaris McCormick on the first play following the fumble to extend Troy's to 38-24 with 1:39 to play in the third quarter.

Stat Geek
Jordan Chunn rushed for a touchdown in his sixth straight game … Chunn had a streak of eight straight games with a touchdown his freshman season, which was the third-longest active streak in the nation.

Notable
• Brandon Silvers moved into sole possession of fourth place in Troy history with 59 career touchdowns responsible for; he passed both Omar Haugabook and Brock Nutter.

• Troy increased its interception total to 15 on the season, which is tied for the fifth most in Troy's FBS era.

• Troy scored a touchdown on its final three possessions of the first quarter; it marked the second time this year (New Mexico State) that Troy scored a touchdown on three straight possessions.

Up Next
Troy will play host to Appalachian State in one of the most highly anticipated games in Sun Belt Conference history. Troy enters the game 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the Sun Belt, while App State is 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the Sun Belt; the Mountaineers topped the Trojans in triple-overtime last season.

Scoring Summary
UMASS – Jonah 5-yard pass from Ford (Caggiano kick), 13:36, 1^st                       0-7
UMASS – Breneman 11-yard pass from Ford (Caggiano kick), 12:39, 1^st         0-14
TROY – Thompson 5-yard pass from Silvers (Kay kick), 8:56, 1^st                         7-14
TROY – Chunn 13-yard run (Kay kick), 7:03, 1^st                                                    14-14
TROY – Silvers 3-yard run (Kay kick), 2:06, 1^st                                                      21-14
UMASS – Laurent 28-yard field goal, 10:38, 2^nd                                                  21-17
TROY – Johnson 7-yard pass from Silvers (Kay kick), 0:56, 2^nd                          28-17
UMASS – Williams 31-yard pass from Ford (Caggiano kick), 10:13, 3^rd          28-24
TROY – Kay 21-yard field goal, 1:50, 3^rd                                                                31-24
TROY – McCormick 16-yard pass from Johnson (Kay kick), 1:39, 3^rd               38-24
TROY – Flakes 12-yard pass from Silvers (Kay kick), 12:37, 4^th                         45-24
TROY – Smith 7-yard run (Kay kick), 10:01, 4^th                                                     52-24
UMASS – Palmer 4-yard run (Caggiano kick), 5:44, 4^th                                      52-31

Troy Head Coach Neal Brown Quotes

OPENING STATEMENT
Good team win, 7-1. Probably about as good as we could expect at this point in our season. Not a real fun game for me, I talked about that on Monday. I thought the layoff really hurt us, you could tell, two games in 28 days. We were rusty. Let me tell you this, a lot of that had to do with them (UMass), they came right out and hit us in the mouth. We just didn't play very well early. I think the growth and maturity of our program is showing, we've come a long way. Good team win, there are some things that we've got to clean up with out a doubt.

PLAYERS NOT PANICKING
I think that's coaching, I think that comes from our assistant coaches. I though we were calm on the sidelines. We had a spirited talk with the team after the second touchdown and I think that helped. We try not to get too high or too low and I think our guys feed off that.

ON STOPPING THE RUN
We've done it all year. That is something we take pride in. If you can make a team one dimensional you can allow yourself to apply pressure and that's what happened today.

ON SILVERS BOUNCING BACK AFTER EARY INTERCEPTION
First of all, the ball should have never been thrown. I think players and quarterbacks in general try and force things sometimes. We don't need him to make extraordinary plays, we need him to make routine plays; I though he came back out and did that.

ON SAM LETTON
He's been practicing well. He missed some time early in the year with a couple of injuries. He had several catches today and all comes back to practice, he's really gotten better. He's going to be a big time player here. He has a chance to be an all-conference type player.

ON BRANDON SILVERS PRODUCTION
We're 7-1 and he's the leader. I'm pleased, I think he's done a nice job leading this team.

ON POTENTIALLY BEING RANKED
I think it's always a byproduct of winning. I think if we keep winning especially next week, we should see our name. If we continue to play disciplined football, we'll continue to get better, that will lead to wins and wins will lead to being ranked.

Troy Player Quotes
Wide Receiver Sam Letton

Two catches coming into today's game and four out there, what were you seeing?

They were giving us the short pass and we just kind of nickeled and dimed it down the field and they just kept giving it to us. Coach kept calling the plays and they kept working for us.

You were recruited as a tight end, has there been any difference in playing as a wider receiver in this offense?

No, not really. In high school I was a tight end and in the slot. I also played some in the backfield, so it hasn't been that hard of a transition. When Neal (Brown) was recruiting me at Kentucky, he was recruiting me as a slot receiver, kind of a hybrid tight end. I've kind of grown to the position; I like it a lot better than tight end.

Bandit Rashad Dillard

They jump up on an early 14 lead on you guys. What was the morale like on the sidelines after that?

One thing we said, is that we've been here before. We don't start off as fast as we want to at times. We have this thing where we bend, but don't break. We were down 14-0 at South Alabama and we found a way to rally back. Guys played for the name on the front of the jersey and the guys play for the back of the jerseys, we played for each other as well. One thing we always say is it's not how you start; it's how you finish.

Quarterback Brandon Silvers

Going down 14-0, what was the mentality like on the sidelines?

We put ourselves in a hole early. We were down 14-0 against South Alabama too. It was a good team win.

You threw the early pick, what was going through your mind going back to the sideline?
I tried to back shoulder him and when I threw it the corner wasn't looking at me. It was just a bad ball, it happens. I just forgot about it and moved on. It was the second play of the game, so I just moved on from it.

After throwing the pick, you completed eight straight on the next drive. How much confidence did that give you out there?

Just getting into rhythm. With that interception, it sucks. I think I got into rhythm and felt pretty good. I saw everything out there like I did last week.

What kind of confidence do you have in this team? Another great win over a pretty solid opponent?

We have a lot of confidence. We know we can move the ball, probably against anyone. We did it against Clemson. We have a lot of confidence with our offense especially once we get rolling it's hard to stop us. Just getting up-tempo I think hurt them. You saw those two guys that were already hurting from the first actual long drive. We knew we could up-tempo them and get them tired.

It's been a while since you've been sacked. Your offensive line has been playing great all season. Talk about how good they've been.

That was the first sack since Clemson. Sacks are going to happen, no matter who is up there. Two the whole year, if you said that coming into the season, I'd say you were lying. It's only two and if it's only one sack a game that's pretty good anyways.

UMass Quotes
Head Coach - Mark Whipple

On the turning point of the game:
The game turned when we held them to a field goal and then we dropped the ball. Our defense had a good stop in the red zone and we at least got some momentum back after that.

On what went wrong:
I thought our guys were ready to play. Troy was healthy. We had some things that didn't go as planned. We need to make a play on defense. Our only play on defense really was the interception. They've got a lot of good athletes. They were fresh and we were just kind of worn down.

On losing close games:
We've just got to get better players. We're young and these guys are 10 games in a row against pretty good people. We're beat up. We didn't have Da'Sean Downey. He makes a difference in the pass game. He's our best defensive player. We should get those guys back in two weeks and be fresh. That's kind of what you need. We need a break, so we have a lot of guys that are playing that just haven't practiced.

On Neal Brown:
Neal's a great kid. I'm really proud of him and I'm really proud of him for his success. He's doing a good job. He's got good players.

Quarterback - Andrew Ford

We had a good feel for what they like to do to start the game and we were able to execute. The defense was able to give us a short field. I obviously would have liked to have finished a little better, but we can build on the start. We knew we were in this game with a really good football team, so we knew we had to come out like we did to start the first half. We cut the lead and unfortunately it wasn't enough. I think it's just inexperience. We've got a lot of young guys out there still trying to learn their way, but we've just got to build on the positives. We made some plays throughout the game that we just need to be more consistent on and hopefully some of these tough losses start to turn into wins.