Troy Rolls Over Florida A&M at The Vet

Saturday, September 8

Troy, Ala.

6 p.m.

Troy University

1-1

Florida A&M

1-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Florida A&M

Troy

9/8/2018 11:49:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Stats Troy Postgame Notes Neal Brown Quotes Troy Players Quotes Florida A&M Quotes Photo Gallery (1)Photo Gallery (2)Photo Gallery (3)Highlights

By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – Troy rushed for nearly 300 yards and forced four turnovers on its way to a 59-7 thumping of Florida A&M at Veterans Memorial Stadium Saturday night.

Troy (1-1) combined its strong offensive performance with a ball-hawking defense and stellar special teams play to rout the Rattlers (1-1) in the two teams' first meeting since 2002. The Trojans compiled 477 total yards, picked off two passes, recovered two fumbles and blocked a punt in the game.

Kaleb Barker threw four touchdown passes and rushed for another, just one shy of the school record for most touchdowns responsible for in a single game. The junior opened the scoring with a 2-yard rushing touchdown then followed with back-to-back touchdown tosses to Damion Willis to put the Trojans up 21-0 in the opening quarter.

Barker connected with Deondre Douglas for another score in the second, then hit Sidney Davis on a 19-yard screen pass for his fourth and final passing touchdown of the game.

Jabir Daughtry-Frye and B.J. Smith teamed up to lead the Troy rushing attack – both running for 71 yards. Freshman D.K. Billingsley ran for 64 yards on 10 carries in his first collegiate appearance.

The Trojan defense was led by Tron Folsom, who picked off two passes and took one 53 yards to the house – just his second and third career interceptions. As a team, Troy recorded 14 tackles for loss in the game which is the most since New Mexico State in 2015. Freshman Antonio Showers paced the attack with a pair of sacks, while fellow freshman Carlton Martial added a pair of tackles for loss.

Troy hits the road for the first time next week when the Trojans travel to Lincoln, Neb., to take on Nebraska. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. and the game will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.

Quotable – Troy head coach Neal Brown
"Always good to win and get win number one right here at home on a great night for college football. In these types of games that is always a huge positive; so many of our players work in fall camp and spring ball to get the opportunity and to get some quality reps for almost everybody that we wanted to, and it's going to pay off down the road. Florida A&M played hard, that team is going to get better. Winning is hard, there is so much that goes into it and you never want to take a win for granted. We will enjoy the win tonight and start worrying about Nebraska tomorrow."

Notable
• Troy finished the game with 59 points marking the eighth time in the Neal Brown era that the Trojans have scored 50 or more points; the Trojans had so just once in the previous 66 games and just three times at the FBS level prior to Brown's arrival.

• Kaleb Barker finished the game with five total touchdowns -- four passing and one rushing -- to finish one shy of the Troy single-game record for touchdowns responsible. The record is held by Sim Byrd who did it twice during Troy's 1968 NAIA National Championship season; Troy honored the 50th anniversary of that championship during the game on Saturday.

• Sawyer Smith and Tray Eafford hooked up for a 16-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter; it was the first touchdown of the season for both players. It also marked the shortest touchdown reception of Eafford's career -- 70, 53 and 49 yards were his three previous touchdown receptions.

• Tron Folsom added his second interception in the third quarter and returned it 53-yards for a touchdown. It marked his first career multi-touchdown game and first by a Trojan since Blace Brown intercepted two at Coastal Carolina last season. Folsom reached a top speed of 22.1 mph on the run, the second fastest of the night by a Trojan (Marcus Jones registered 22.4 mph)

• Troy now has eight defensive touchdowns since Vic Koenning returned as defensive coordinator in 2015; the Trojans had eight in the prior six seasons combined.

• Jabir Daughtry-Frye blocked his second career punt which led to Troy's opening touchdown of the game; he also blocked a punt against New Mexico State in 2015.