Troy University Athletics
Troy Football Opens Fall Camp Wednesday; Q&A with Gerad Parker
8/4/2026 4:47:00 PM | Football
TROY, Ala. – Coming off its third Sun Belt West Division title in four years and picked to repeat as champions, Troy Football opens fall camp on Wednesday morning on both the grass fields behind Trojan Arena and the Indoor Practice Facility.
Troy is faced with an abbreviated camp schedule this year due to the late start to the season (Sept. 5) and classes starting on campus on Aug 12. The Trojans will have just six camp practices before transitioning to a school schedule.
TroyTrojans.com sat down with head coach Gerad Parker for a Q&A session heading into his third season leading the Trojans.
QUESTION:
What are you hoping to see in the first few practices coming off a summer where you were allowed to do a lot more with the players?
GERAD PARKER:
It's year three for us, for a lot of us on staff, and for me personally. It just feels totally different. Now I do appreciate and respect the fact that it probably feels very different in a good way for everybody, too.
You can tell we know more about our team this summer than we did the last two summers, for two different reasons. One, last year was the portal timing, and then year one, just in all the people who showed up in June because we still had to fill the roster.
Now, virtually 95 percent of our team has been here since January, so we know a lot about them. It has been an unbelievable eight weeks in the weight room with Coach (Ben) Sowders and his staff. I feel like it is the best we have in that area.
And then with all you get to do in the summer, we already know more about our team. The expectation is that this first practice tomorrow should look like a team that knows what they're doing and knows each other. It will not be perfect by any means, but we should look like a team that knows how to practice, and this shouldn't look like a day one sometimes does.
That's what I expect, so there are high expectations for tomorrow.
QUESTION:
You didn't have a full stable of skill players on offense in the spring due to injuries; how important is it for them to get off to a quick start this fall?
GERAD PARKER:
This will be the most competitive running back and wideout room we've had since we've been here. But with that, there are a bunch of guys who need reps to figure out who can and who can't, because many of them, like you said, especially in the wideout room, didn't get to practice in the spring.
They have shown great promise, looked awesome this summer and are getting healthy. There's a lot of really good competition at all three or four wideout spots for us, and it's going to be fun to see those guys do it with a helmet and pads on.
That's an exciting room because there's a bunch of talent there, we just don't know much about it yet.
The running back room is the same, but we need to see those guys. They were all here, but Jordan Lovett wasn't healthy. There are five to six guys in that room who can really help us; we're going to have to figure out who can before we start playing. Some of that's inevitable, but we'd better know more than we normally would.
QUESTION:
How does the shortened camp schedule affect what you want to do as a coach?
GERAD PARKER:
It's different. I've never been part of that in my coaching career, where we only have a week. So we had to change our approach and some of the things we're doing, and then you've got to celebrate finding different times, as long as we stay within our CARA hours when school starts.
I think, more than anything, it puts us on a school schedule and gets us into that realm, which we'll celebrate as a positive. One of our kickoff times early in the year, I think game two is around 3:00 or 3:30, we'll be ready for that because we're going to practice essentially at 3:00 about every day when school starts.
So, in one way, we would like to have more time in fall camp without school, but we're going to have to celebrate it, knowing we're already on schedule, and just take advantage of the times when we can.
QUESTION:
How have the new rules allowing more summer OTAs changed the look of these early practices?
GERAD PARKER:
The OTAs are everything you can legally do to simulate as close as you can get to a practice without it being a practice. That's what they afford you. You've done so much to build knowledge of offense, defense and special teams. We've made huge strides in setting up any drill we can, including competitive drills, and we can show how to set them up. So, I think, for us, everything is meant to help us be more efficient when we do it for real – to get there quicker with our people.
Because of how we've trained and what we've learned, we will not be out there as long during the heat of the day. I hope it's because of our improvements and my commitment to finding better ways to get it done more efficiently. How do we take care of soft tissue injuries? How do we avoid a "bloodbath" on day two?
Protecting the football team and keeping people available to the best of our ability is my job. So, our schedule and practice, and how it flows, have all been looked at, and it's been able to be looked at more because of our OTAs and our prep coming out of spring and summer.
QUESTION:
What's the biggest thing you want to see from your team early in camp?
GERAD PARKER:
I want to see how physical we'll be. The quicker we become a physical football team that runs to the football on both sides, the better.
I want to see us run the football and stop the run; I'm ready to see us fight each other the right way to do that. We've got to stop the run better; we've got to run the football better, period. And if we do that alone and play the brand of Troy football we expect to, we'll be just fine.
The biggest thing that I want to see, that you want to see, and that we need to see is that we have to run it and stop the run.
Troy is faced with an abbreviated camp schedule this year due to the late start to the season (Sept. 5) and classes starting on campus on Aug 12. The Trojans will have just six camp practices before transitioning to a school schedule.
TroyTrojans.com sat down with head coach Gerad Parker for a Q&A session heading into his third season leading the Trojans.
QUESTION:
What are you hoping to see in the first few practices coming off a summer where you were allowed to do a lot more with the players?
GERAD PARKER:
It's year three for us, for a lot of us on staff, and for me personally. It just feels totally different. Now I do appreciate and respect the fact that it probably feels very different in a good way for everybody, too.
You can tell we know more about our team this summer than we did the last two summers, for two different reasons. One, last year was the portal timing, and then year one, just in all the people who showed up in June because we still had to fill the roster.
Now, virtually 95 percent of our team has been here since January, so we know a lot about them. It has been an unbelievable eight weeks in the weight room with Coach (Ben) Sowders and his staff. I feel like it is the best we have in that area.
And then with all you get to do in the summer, we already know more about our team. The expectation is that this first practice tomorrow should look like a team that knows what they're doing and knows each other. It will not be perfect by any means, but we should look like a team that knows how to practice, and this shouldn't look like a day one sometimes does.
That's what I expect, so there are high expectations for tomorrow.
QUESTION:
You didn't have a full stable of skill players on offense in the spring due to injuries; how important is it for them to get off to a quick start this fall?
GERAD PARKER:
This will be the most competitive running back and wideout room we've had since we've been here. But with that, there are a bunch of guys who need reps to figure out who can and who can't, because many of them, like you said, especially in the wideout room, didn't get to practice in the spring.
They have shown great promise, looked awesome this summer and are getting healthy. There's a lot of really good competition at all three or four wideout spots for us, and it's going to be fun to see those guys do it with a helmet and pads on.
That's an exciting room because there's a bunch of talent there, we just don't know much about it yet.
The running back room is the same, but we need to see those guys. They were all here, but Jordan Lovett wasn't healthy. There are five to six guys in that room who can really help us; we're going to have to figure out who can before we start playing. Some of that's inevitable, but we'd better know more than we normally would.
QUESTION:
How does the shortened camp schedule affect what you want to do as a coach?
GERAD PARKER:
It's different. I've never been part of that in my coaching career, where we only have a week. So we had to change our approach and some of the things we're doing, and then you've got to celebrate finding different times, as long as we stay within our CARA hours when school starts.
I think, more than anything, it puts us on a school schedule and gets us into that realm, which we'll celebrate as a positive. One of our kickoff times early in the year, I think game two is around 3:00 or 3:30, we'll be ready for that because we're going to practice essentially at 3:00 about every day when school starts.
So, in one way, we would like to have more time in fall camp without school, but we're going to have to celebrate it, knowing we're already on schedule, and just take advantage of the times when we can.
QUESTION:
How have the new rules allowing more summer OTAs changed the look of these early practices?
GERAD PARKER:
The OTAs are everything you can legally do to simulate as close as you can get to a practice without it being a practice. That's what they afford you. You've done so much to build knowledge of offense, defense and special teams. We've made huge strides in setting up any drill we can, including competitive drills, and we can show how to set them up. So, I think, for us, everything is meant to help us be more efficient when we do it for real – to get there quicker with our people.
Because of how we've trained and what we've learned, we will not be out there as long during the heat of the day. I hope it's because of our improvements and my commitment to finding better ways to get it done more efficiently. How do we take care of soft tissue injuries? How do we avoid a "bloodbath" on day two?
Protecting the football team and keeping people available to the best of our ability is my job. So, our schedule and practice, and how it flows, have all been looked at, and it's been able to be looked at more because of our OTAs and our prep coming out of spring and summer.
QUESTION:
What's the biggest thing you want to see from your team early in camp?
GERAD PARKER:
I want to see how physical we'll be. The quicker we become a physical football team that runs to the football on both sides, the better.
I want to see us run the football and stop the run; I'm ready to see us fight each other the right way to do that. We've got to stop the run better; we've got to run the football better, period. And if we do that alone and play the brand of Troy football we expect to, we'll be just fine.
The biggest thing that I want to see, that you want to see, and that we need to see is that we have to run it and stop the run.
Players Mentioned
RB
/ FootballTuesday, August 04
Thursday, July 16
Monday, June 29
Thursday, June 25