Football Steps Out of Conference at Liberty

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TROY, Ala. – Troy steps out of conference Saturday when the Trojans put their seven-game road winning streak on the line at Liberty. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CT) from Williams Stadium and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Troy (5-1) carries a bevy of streaks in Saturday's meeting with Liberty (2-3) including the nation's third-longest road winning streak of seven games and 10^th-longest overall winning streak of five games.

"We're excited about getting on the road this week to Lynchburg," Troy head coach Neal Brown said. "I've heard really good things about their crowd support, especially their students. It is their first year fully in the FBS after a very successful run in the FCS led by Turner Gill who is one of the most respected men in college football."

The Trojans knocked off Georgia State, 37-20, last Thursday for their ninth straight Sun Belt Conference victory. However, the win came at great cost with starting quarterback Kaleb Barker lost for the season with a torn ACL and starting Will linebacker Tron Folsom listed as questionable heading into the Liberty game.

"Just like we say all the time we have to be a 'next man up' program and Sawyer Smith will get the start (at quarterback) on Saturday," Brown said. "We believe that we have recruited well and we believe that we have really good depth. We make it a point in spring practice and in fall camp to get a ton of guys reps and we continue to do that during the season as well."

Smith completed 10-of-15 passes for 81 yards and a touchdown after taking over for Barker against the Panthers and saw a potential 38-yard touchdown pass fade away on a dropped ball. The sophomore signal caller has completed 64.7 percent of his passes on the season with three touchdowns in addition to averaging 7.3 yards per carry on the ground.

"All that is going to change is Sawyer's the starter now and Gunnar (Watson) is going to be number two," Brown said. "We strongly believe because of situations like this in getting our number two quarterback ready. Sawyer has played in every game we've had this year and has had success. He's played in a number of games as a true freshman and had success. It's just plug-n-play and we are not changing what we are doing. Our team and our coaching staff have a ton of confidence both in Sawyer and Gunnar."

Troy's rushing attack has been near unstoppable the last two games with the Trojans churning up 622 yards and five touchdowns on just 69 carries; the 9.01 yards per carry the last two games would lead the country by 1.28 yards.

Junior running back B.J. Smith has topped the century mark in consecutive games rushing with 103 and 143 yards, while Jabir Daughtry-Frye and Barker joined him in the century club against Coastal Carolina and Georgia State, respectively. The Trojans had not had a pair rush for more than 100 yards in the same game since 2002 and have now done so in back-to-back weeks.

The Trojan defense continues to wreak havoc on opposing backfields with 53 tackles for loss and 20 sacks through six games; Troy is on pace to break its season tackle for loss record of 112 set last season and to finish one sack shy of the school record.

Troy has forced the seventh-most turnovers in the country this season with 13 and the third most since the start of the 2016 season with 65. Turnovers have played a critical role in Troy games under Brown with Troy checking in 22-1 under its head coach when winning the turnover battle and 5-11 when on the wrong end of the turnover margin.

Know Your Foe
Liberty enters its first season at the FBS ranks with mixed returns. The Flames knocked off Old Dominion, who beat Virginia Tech, and New Mexico and have suffered setbacks to Army, North Texas and New Mexico State. The Flames feature one of the most prolific offenses in the country averaging 33.2 points and 487.6 yards per game.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Neal Brown
"We finished up the two-game homestand that I thought was going to be a critical junction in our season and we went 2-0, but the win came with costs. Tron Folsom is questionable for the game and we will know later in the week. Kaleb Barker tore his ACL, he will be out for the rest of the season and will have surgery on Friday. I hate it for him because I think his first quarter on Thursday night was probably as good as any quarterback that's played in my eight years here."

Notable
• Troy has won 26 games since the start of the 2016 season which is the most among Group of Five schools and the ninth most nationally. The Trojans are 17-3 in their last 20 games dating back to the 2016 Dollar General Bowl.

• Troy has forced the third-most negative plays in the country over the last three seasons; the Trojans are averaging a negative play on 15.28 percent of opponent offensive snaps.

• Kaleb Barker and Sawyer Smith produced the two longest runs by a Troy quarterback in the school's DI history last week against Georgia State. Barker took the opening play of the game 75 yards and Smith followed with a 63-yard run in the third quarter.

Football Steps Out of Conference at Liberty

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Players Mentioned

Kaleb Barker

Jabir Daughtry-Frye

Tron Folsom

B.J. Smith

Sawyer Smith

Troy University Athletics