Troy Blows Past Texas State in League Opener

Saturday, October 10

Troy, Ala.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

2-1 , 1-0

Texas State

1-4 , 1-1

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Texas State	3	0	7	7	17
Troy	6	17	7	7	37

Troy Blows Past Texas State in League Opener

10/10/2020 8:16:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Stats (PDF)Notes Photo Gallery (1)Chip Lindsey Quotes Players Press Conference Chip Lindsey Press Conference Game Highlights Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2 Photo Gallery 3 Photo Gallery 4

By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – Troy dominated Texas State from start to finish and handled a strong test from Mother Nature as well in a 37-17 victory Saturday afternoon at The Vet in the Sun Belt opener for the Trojans.

Troy (2-1, 1-0 Sun Belt) outgained Texas State (1-4, 0-2) by 234 yards (588-254) and limited the Bobcats to just 93 yards through the air after they entered the game averaging 265.2 yards per game in the passing attack.

A heavy rain pelted the stadium throughout most of the first and fourth quarters, but the Trojans did not turn the ball over in the game as sophomore quarterback Gunnar Watson completed 33-of-46 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns – all career bests.

Kaylon Geiger caught seven passes for 121 yards and a touchdown while Reggie Todd found the end zone twice among his seven catches for 86 yards. True freshman running back Kimani Vidal had his coming out party with 106 yards on 12 carries; it marked just the 14^th time in school history that the Trojans had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard receiver and a 100-yard rusher in the same game.

After the Bobcats took advantage of a short field and a penalty to score first, Troy responded with three straight touchdowns and a field goal to take a 23-3 lead into the break. Todd caught touchdown strikes on back-to-back possessions and Geiger scored from 38-yard out on 4^th-and-8 for the Trojans' third straight score.

Texas State pulled within two scores, 23-10, on a Brady McBride 4-yard touchdown pass to Blake Aragon midway through the third quarter, but the Trojans defense held the Bobcats without a score until waning seconds of the game.

McBride finished 15-of-28 for just 93 yards in the game and no Bobcat receiver finished with more than three catches.

Carlton Martial led the Trojans' defensive effort with seven tackles and a pair of tackles for loss; it was his 10^th career game with multiple tackles for loss. Jayden McDonald added six tackles and a half tackle for loss while Reddy Steward recorded a sack in his second straight game.

Troy finished with nine tackles for loss and a pair of sacks in the game in addition to breaking up a trio of passes; two of which came from T.J. Harris.

The Trojans put the game out of reach with a pair of touchdown drives at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter. Tray Eafford caught his 10^th career touchdown pass and B.J. Smith added his 18^th career rushing touchdown to put Troy up 37-10.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Chip Lindsey
It's always good to get a win in college football, and we're excited about how our guys came out today. After the week off, I thought we did a great job of staying motivated. We played really hard today. It wasn't our cleanest game in a lot of areas but we're really pleased with the effort. We were really excited to play today, and we did a job of playing fast and physical.

Sound Smart with Your Friends
With Kaylon Geiger's 121 receiving yards, he surpassed the 1,000 receiving yard mark for his career. It was his sixth career 100-yard game tying Eric Thomas (2011-13) for third most in school history. Geiger became the quickest to six career 100-yard receiving games in program history (15 games).

Notable
Gunnar Watson's 44-yard pass to Kaylon Geiger in the first quarter marked Troy's longest play of the season. The reception was the second-longest of Geiger's career, his longest being a
57-yard catch against Southern Miss last season (Sept. 14).

Troy recovered Jack Martin's second quarter on-side kick. It was the Trojans first successful on-side kick attempt since Bratcher Underwood recovered his own on-side against Buffalo in
the 2018 Dollar General Bowl (Dec. 22).

The Trojans entered the game ranked 12th in most tackles for loss in the country since 2017 with 296. Troy added nine tackles for loss to that total, good to move into sixth in the nation pending games from five other schools.

Gunnar Watson becomes the 11th quarterback in program history to have a game with at least four touchdown passes.

With 448 yards of total offense, Troy has now reached the 400-yard plateau in 11-of-15 games under Chip Lindsey.