Wesley Kirchharr 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 in the first win of the season. Troy eclipsed the 50-point mark for the eighth time during the Neal Brown era, highlighted by starting quarterback Kaleb Barker’s five total touchdowns. Barker went 14-23 on the night, throwing for 140 yards and four touchdowns. The junior rushed for one more score as he was one touchdown shy of tying the school record for the most touchdowns responsible for in a single game. 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 for the evening. The remainder of the matchup was all cardinal as Troy scored 38 unanswered points to put the game on ice. “Always good to win and get win number one right here at home on a great night for college football,” said Head Coach Neal Brown. “In these types of games that is always a huge positive; so many of our players work in fall camp and spring ball to get the opportunity and to get some quality reps for almost everybody that we wanted to, and it’s going to pay off down the road. “Florida A&M played hard; that team is going to get better. Winning is hard. There is so much that goes into it, and you never want to take a win for granted. We will enjoy the win tonight and start worrying about Nebraska tomorrow.” Tron Folsom paced the Trojan defense, posting two interceptions and one pick six. The Trojans tallied the most tackles for loss since the 2015 season with 14. The Trojans will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to face to Cornhuskers next Saturday, Sept. 15. The game against 0-1 Nebraska is set to kickoff at 11 a.m. CST.
Staff Writer
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