Troy cruises past Florida A&M 59-7

The Troy football team bounced back from week one’s blowout loss to Boise State by dismantling Florida A&M 59-7 at home. The Trojans (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) jumped out to an early 21-0 first quarter lead over the Rattlers and never looked back as the Troy offense posted 477 total yards. Starting quarterback Kaleb Barker went 14-23 on the night, throwing for 140 yards and four touchdowns. As a whole, Troy tallied 185 yards through the air following contributions from Sawyer Smith and Gunnar Watson. Florida A&M quarterback Ryan Stanley completed 15 of his 27 attempts for 208 yards to outpace Barker. A&M only converted three of the 13 attempts on third down and the Troy defense held the Rattler offense to 287 yards of total production. B.J. Smith and Jabir Frye led the Troy rushing attack with 71 yards each with Smith posting one score. The Trojan defense allowed 68 yards on the ground with the longest rush being a 24 yard pickup by A&M’s Devin Bowers. Trailing 21-0 midway through the second, the Rattlers capped off a 53-yard drive with a one yard rush to score their only points of the evening. The remainder of the matchup was all cardinal as Troy scored 38 unanswered points to put the game on ice. The Trojans will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to face to Cornhuskers next Saturday, Sept. 15. To read the full recap of the Florida A&M game as well as the preview for the Nebraska game, pick up a copy of the Tropolitan on Thursday, Sept. 13.