Troy Drops Non-Conference Tilt at Memphis

Saturday, September 7

Memphis, Tenn.

11 a.m.

Troy University

0-2 , 0-0

Memphis

2-0 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Troy

Memphis

9/7/2024 4:10:00 PM | Football

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

MEMPHIS – Goose Crowder powered in for an 11-yard touchdown run in the opening minutes of the second quarter, tying the game at 7-all; however, that would be the final snap that Troy's starting quarterback would see the remainder of the game, and Memphis took advantage in route to a 38-17 victory over the visiting Trojans on Saturday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Crowder marched Troy (0-2) down the field on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that consumed seven minutes off the clock, but he suffered a game-ending injury on the touchdown run. Sophomore Matthew Caldwell took over for Crowder and completed 11-of-19 passes for 113 yards and rushed for a touchdown.

Memphis (2-0), the preseason favorite to win the American Athletic Conference, took advantage of the momentum shift and scored touchdowns on the ensuing possessions following the Crowder injury, both of which were aided by questionable pass interference penalties assessed to the Trojans, to take a 21-7 lead into the half.

After a three-and-out on its first possession of the second half, Memphis scored the next three times it touched the football around a Scott Taylor Renfroe field goal to extend its lead to 38-10.

Caldwell used his legs to put Troy on the board late in the fourth quarter as he picked up four yards on a 4^th-and-3 and then scored on a 1-yard punch up the middle on 3^rd-and-goal.

Mario Anderson Jr. rushed for 125 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead Memphis, while Brandon Thomas also found the end zone twice on the ground despite rushing for just three yards. Troy limited Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan to just 161 yards and a touchdown through the air, the fourth-lowest passing total of his career, while his single touchdown throw snapped a streak of six straight games with multiple passing touchdowns.

Troy limited the high-powered Memphis offense to 372 yards of total offense, its second-lowest offense output over the last 17 games. The Tigers took advantage of six first downs via penalty in the game.

Up Next
Troy travels to No. 21 Iowa next Saturday; kickoff is set for 3 p.m., with the game televised on FS1.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Gerad Parker
"When you play good football teams, the room for error is very small, and at the end of the day, if you don't win any phases in the game, you are not going to win the game. You're fighting an uphill when your starting center and quarterback are out of the game.

Memphis is a fine football program that's built up by great players, coaches and environment. I am proud of our guys on how they prepared with those players going down. They responded. We operated well, and Matthew (Caldwell) managed the huddle and did a lot of great things. I'm sure there are things to fix, but he did well. It's not going to get easier, but we are going to lick our wounds and patch ourselves up on this long bus ride. We will figure it out and get a solid game plan to get ready for a good opponent in Iowa."

Notable
• Troy lost the coin toss for the second straight game to open the season. The Trojans are now 8-22 the last three seasons and 3-13 the last two seasons on the coin toss; Memphis deferred to the second half.

• Daniel King extended his team-leading start streak to 30 games, while Scott Taylor Renfroe and Robert Cole started their 16th straight game.

• OL Tyler Cappi, SPR Jordan Perry, S Ian Conerly-Goodly, QB Matthew Caldwell and QB Tucker Kilcrease made their first career appearances in a Troy uniform.

• Troy extended its non-shutout streak to 124 games and 216 games against Non-Power Five teams; the last time Troy was shutout was a 66-0 loss at Georgia in 2014.

• Goose Crowder rushed for his first career touchdown to put Troy on the board in the second quarter ... it was the first rushing touchdown by a Troy quarterback since Gunnar Watson at Texas State on Oct. 28, 2023.

• Goose Crowder finished with 16 rushing yards on two carries before leaving the game in the second quarter with an injury. He becomes the first Troy quarterback since Brandon Silvers in 2017 to rush for positive yards in consecutive games; Crowder rushed for 29 yards on 10 carries against Nevada in the opener. Silvers rushed for four yards at Arkansas State and six yards against North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl in the final two games of his Troy career.

• Troy had two rushing touchdowns from the quarterback position for the first time since Gunnar Watson rushed for two touchdowns at App State on Sept. 17, 2022.

• All three of Troy's quarterbacks finished with positive rushing yards - Goose Crowder (16), Tucker Kilcrease (12) and Matthew Caldwell (6).

• Saturday marked the first time since Nov. 5, 2016, against UMass that two different Troy quarterbacks rushed for a touchdown in the same game; Brandon Silvers scored on a 3-yard run in the first quarter and Sawyer Smith scored a 7-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

• Troy held Seth Henigan to just 161 yards passing and one touchdown; it was Henigan's fewest passing yards since a 159-yard effort at UAB on Oct. 21, 2023, and the fourth-fewest in his career. Henigan threw for more than 3300 yards in eight games last season. The one touchdown pass snapped a streak of six straight games for Henigan with multiple touchdown passes. He threw multiple touchdown passes in 13 of his last 15 games.

• Brendan Jackson recorded a career-high (Troy) nine tackles to lead all players, while Ian Conerly-Goodly had eight stops in his first career game as a Trojans.

• Robert Cole booted a 59-yard punt, the third-longest of his career; twice hit a 60-yarder last season.

• Scott Taylor Renfroe improved to 3-for-3 on the season on field goal attempts after connecting on a 22-yard attempt. He moved into a tie for 15th place all-time in Troy history with his 27th attempt. He is one field goal shy of moving into a tie for 11th in career makes.