Troy Drops Opener to No. 22 Boise State

Saturday, September 1

Troy, Ala.

5 p.m.

Troy University

0-1

Boise State

1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Boise State

Troy

9/1/2018 10:36:00 PM | Football

Box Score Troy Postgame Notes Neal Brown Quotes Final Stats (PDF)Troy Player Quotes Boise State Quotes Neal Brown Press Conference Kaleb Barker Press Conference Melvin Tyus Press Conference Deondre Douglas Press Conference Photo Gallery (1)

By: Jace Sanders

TROY, Ala. –No. 22 Boise State stormed out to an early lead and knocked off Troy, 56-20, in front of a record crowd at Veterans Memorial Stadium Saturday.

The Broncos (1-0) got off to a hot start in the first half, jumping out to a 35-7 lead over the Trojans (0-1) before the break on the arm of senior slinger Brett Rypien – who threw for 305 yards and four touchdowns. Rypien connected with Sean Modster seven times for 167 yards and two scores – 161 of those coming in the first half.

Almost half – 21 – of Boise State's points came off four Troy turnovers with two fumble returns for touchdowns by cornerback Tyler Horton – both of which came in the second half.

Troy was able to amass nearly 400 yards in quarterback Kaleb Barker's first career start, including 211 passing yards from the junior. Barker's favorite target was Deondre Douglas who recorded his fourth career 100-yard game with 102 receiving yards on seven catches in the game.

After Boise opened the scoring with the first of the Rypien-Modster touchdowns, Troy responded with a 23-yard rushing touchdown from Jabir Daughtry-Frye – his first rushing score since his 61-yard, fourth-down touchdown at Clemson in 2016.

The 22^nd-ranked Broncos then scored 35 unanswered to effectively silence the 29,612 in attendance at The Vet – the highest-attended game in school history.

Quotable – Troy head coach Neal Brown
"We got beat by a better football team. I think we lost the game late in the first quarter. I like how our guys responded in the second half. I feel like that was probably the best team we have played since Clemson in 2016. Boise is a quality team, they were ready to play, and their quarterback was lights out. We are going to be fine and I know we are because of how we responded in the second half. We have a starting point and we have to get better, but I do think we will be fine. We are going to find out if this 'We Fight' thing is something we put on t-shirts or if it is for real. We got exposed in the secondary and offensive line and I think that was because of communication, so we have to get those corrected and we will be ready to go."

Stat Geek
Four of Troy's top six crowds have come in home openers. Additionally, three of Troy's top nine crowds have come in the last two seasons.

Notable
• A Veterans Memorial Stadium record crowd of 29,612 was in attendance for the game.

• Troy's seven-game winning streak came to an end with the loss; it was the fourth-longest active streak in the country.

• Junior quarterback Kaleb Barker became just the third Troy player to start at quarterback in a season opener since 2010; that total is the fewest in the country.

• Hunter Reese recorded a sack on Troy's first defensive play of the game. Reese has now recorded a sack in three consecutive games dating back to last season. He finished the game with two tackles for loss marking the fourth time in the past six games he recorded multiple tackles for loss in a contest.