Homecoming! It’s supposed to be fun and exciting and a winning experience for the football team and it’s fans.

You may ask yourself, or someone else for that matter. Who is Troy and where are they? Funny you should ask, I happen to have the answer.

According to Wikipedia, Troy University, located in Troy, Alabama. It was originally founded in 1887 as Troy Normal School. It is the flagship university of the Troy University System. Its main campus enrollment is 7,194 students. The total enrollment of all Troy University campuses is 29,689. Today, Troy University offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

That’s not really what you wanted to know is it. Can they play football? The answer is yes. They have been playing since 1909 and have won three national championships, the NAIA in 1968 and the NCAA Division II in 1984 and 1987. But what about now? Well, not so hot.

Up until September 1, Troy had a 4-4 record. Their highest winning game was against South Alabama, which they won by 21 points. Their highest losing game was against Louisiana-Lafayette, which they lost by 13 points.  But they average 459.6 yards of total offense.

Sal Sunseri, UT defensive coordinator said, “for the Trojans, their offensive success comes from their ability to move the ball down the field in a variety of different ways.

In Troy I see a team that comes out and is very multiple, they are delivering the ball to all four wide receivers,” Sunseri said. “They will go to empty, they will go into a two-back set, they will run the option and they have two different style quarterbacks. They have a quarterback who sits back there and slings it, number six [Corey Robinson], and then they bring an athletic guy in there, number seven [Deon Anthony], who does a great job of running a little bit of a read zone and can beat you with his feet. You have to be really careful with him back there because he will pull the ball down and take off.”

This is what Troy Head Coach, Larry Blakeney said in a news conference on October 29.

“We’ve got to get ready for Tennessee. By the way they are an SEC team and they are pretty good. If you let those three or four guys that they got on their offense and their kicking game get a hold of the ball you’re going to have problems. Quarterback is good enough and their defensive guys look like an SEC team and they’re good. We’ll have to find a way to attack them and find a way to defend them and we cannot kick it to either one of those guys. We’ll try to have a plan, which I promised the team last night. We’ll try to control them in all three phases and we’ll have a plan to win. It’s not a plan to go look good losing close. If it was I promise you I’d burn more clock and burn 40 every time we had it. But that’s not how we play and that’s not how we are successful to get wins and that’s not what we will do. We play the early game, the SEC game of the week at 11 a.m. central, so I hope we don’t get any remnants of the storm but we’ll have to deal with the elements.”

So, with all of that said, what are our chances of winning. Our chances are the best we have had all year. That’s why teams pick teams they know they can beat for homecoming.

Hang those banners on your cars, dress up in orange, go tailgating or have a football party at home or your favorite sports bar. This Saturday is going to be a great time for all Big Orange fans. Go Vols!

By Nancy Morris