Troy Tops Western Kentucky on National Stage

Saturday, September 23

Troy, Ala.

11 a.m.

Troy University

2-2 , 0-1

Western Kentucky

2-2 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Western Kentucky

Troy

Troy Tops Western Kentucky on National Stage

9/23/2023 4:22:00 PM | Football

TROY, Ala. – Gunnar Watson threw for almost 350 yards, and Kimani Vidal found the end zone twice to lead Troy past Western Kentucky, 27-24, in non-conference action at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The game turned on a dime on the final play of the first half when Watson's 40-yard Hail Mary was caught by Chris Lewis in the end zone for Troy's (2-2) first touchdown of the game, giving the Trojans a 10-7 lead at the break. Lewis finished with a career-best 101 yards.

Vidal rushed for 158 yards on 26 carries in addition to his two touchdowns, while Watson finished with 349 passing yards and a touchdown. Vidal moved into second place in Troy history with his ninth career 100-yard game, and the Trojans improved to 18-3 when Vidal rushes for 50-plus yards.

The Hilltoppers (2-2) opened the scoring with 1:35 left in the first quarter on a 10-yard run by K.D. Hutchinson. The Trojans struck back with a 25-yard field goal off the right foot of Scott Taylor Renfroe with 6:09 left in the first half.

Despite only being up three going into halftime, Troy dominated the Hilltoppers statistically in the first half outgaining their opponent 251-70. The Trojans limited the Hilltoppers to just 288 yards on 51 plays for the game, the fewest plays by a WKU team since 2010.

Vidal scored the first of his two touchdowns with 11:06 remaining in the third quarter from 19 yards out to put Troy up 17-7. Less than four minutes later, the Hilltoppers answered back with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Austin Reed to Malachi Corley to make it a three-point game.

Renfroe added his second field goal of the day from 26 yards out with 1:55 left in the third quarter to make it a 20-14 lead. After going 2-for-2 on the day, Renfroe has multiple makes in three of Troy's four games.

Lucas Caneiro converted on a 24-yard field goal for WKU to cut the deficit to three with 14:07 to play in the game.

With 5:37 remaining in the fourth quarter, Vidal punched it in from 11 yards out to make it a 27-17 lead for the Trojans. Vidal's two-touchdown game was the fourth multi-touchdown game of his career, and he moved into a tie for eight all-time in Troy history with 21 rushing touchdowns.

The Hilltoppers took advantage of a late Troy turnover as Reed led WKY on a 5-play, 80-yard drive to close the gap to three with 2:29 to play.

The Hilltoppers elected to kick the ball deep instead, and Troy picked up two first downs to milk the clock.

Up Next
Troy heads to Atlanta next Saturday to take on Georgia State (4-0, 1-0 SBC) at the Center Parc Credit Union Stadium at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Jon Sumrall
"It's good to get the bad taste of losses out of our mouth. We did some things very well today; we did some things that we still have to improve upon. Right out of the gate we had 521 yards on 88 plays, they had 288 yards on 51 plays.

"I'm proud of our guys being resilient, tough and responding. These are college aged young men who I think are learning a lot about life, adversity and trials. I told them in the locker room, that I was a little bit worried about the identity of this team, that I've been worried for the last couple weeks. I've got a better pulse of what their identity is going to become, by the way they competed today.

"Great players are usually great people and those are two of the best people in our building, Kimani Vidal and Chris Lewis. Smart, intelligent, authentic caring teammates."

Notable
• Troy lost the coin toss and kicked off to start the game; the Trojans are 0-4 on coin tosses this season and 5-13 under head coach Jon Sumrall.

• Troy extended its non-shutout streak to 111 games and 206 games against Non-Power Five teams; the last time Troy was shutout was a 66-0 loss at Georgia in 2014.

• Troy outgained WKU by 233 yards in the game; the Trojans have held the offensive advantage in 3-of-4 games this season.

• Troy improved to 9-1 at home under head coach Jon Sumrall.

• Troy won for just the eighth time in 23 games since 2015 when not scoring in the first quarter.

• Troy improved to 9-1 when leading at the half and 9-0 when leading after the third quarter under Jon Sumrall.

• Troy held Western Kentucky to just 51 offensive plays in the game; this came after WKU ran 86 against the Trojans last year. The 51 plays are the fewest by a WKU team since Sept. 11, 2010, at Kentucky -- the Hilltoppers averaged 69.3 plays per game this season entering the game.

• Troy outgained WKU 251-70 in the first half of play; the Trojans didn't take the lead until the final seconds of the half on a Hail Mary from Gunnar Watson to Chris Lewis.

• Western Kentucky's 12 rushing attempts were the fewest by a Troy opponent in program history; 17 was the previous low by Jacksonville State in 1997.
• Troy improved to 41-7 since 2017 when topping the 400-yard mark on offense, the Trojans 521 yards against the Hilltoppers.

• Gunnar Watson threw for a season-high 349 yards, his 11th career game with 300-plus passing yards. He threw for 333 yards against James Madison last week. It marked the third time in his career that Watson threw for 300 yards in consecutive games (did so in three straight games last season). He finished two yards shy of his career-high, set against Alabama A&M in the 2022 home opener (351 yards).

• Kimani Vidal rushed for 158 yards on 26 carries, moving him into sole possession of fourth all-time in Troy rushing yards with 2,865. Troy is 8-1 when he rushes for 100-plus yards and 18-3 when he rushes for 50-plus yards. Kimani Vidal is 577 yards shy of becoming Troy's all-time leading rusher.

• Troy ran 81 offensive plays against WKU; the Trojans averaged 65 plays in their first three games of the season. The 81 plays are the most since Troy also ran 81 played in the 2022 opener at Ole Miss.

• Troy has held 12 of its last 13 opponents to 400 or fewer yards after limiting Western Kentucky to 288 yards.

• Jordan Stringer set a career-high in tackles with seven; previous high of five tackles came on Nov. 11, 2022, against ULM.

• Troy held WKU to just 288 yards of total offense and 20 yards on the ground; the Hilltoppers had 284 yards at Ohio State last week ... it was their fewest rushing yards since a -9 output at UTSA on Dec. 3, 2021, and lowest total output besides the Ohio State game since a 284-yard performance against Georgia State in the 2020 Camilla Bowl.

• Troy forced two turnovers in the game after entering the weekend tied with Clemson for the most turnovers forced since 2016 with 170; the Tigers did not force a turnover in their loss to Clemson.

• Scott Taylor Renfore was perfect on his two field goal attempts and is now 6-for-7 on the season; he has made two field goals in three of Troy's first four games of the season. His six made field goals are tied for the fourth most in program history through the first four games of a season.