Not sure how we're only 4.5 point dogs, but I guess the line has to be placed somewhere.

If Troy's defense plays it's A game, we can win. If Troy comes out cold and uninspired again, then it's another 33-6 shellacking.

Troy appears to be out of SBC title contention, but if Troy wins Saturday, the door reopens, just a little bit.

At this point every game is still huge in the title race. It's great to be up 2 games on the field, but we still have half the conference season left!

A win at Troy would be enormous. And would give us another important potential tie-breaker. As with darn near every SB game, either team can win and the winner will likely need to have played very well.

Hopefully the win at JMU helps reinvigorate the team for the second half of conference play. Also hoping the coaches are working on their gameplans so that we don't come out so flat on offense like we've had the last 3 weeks (and really 4 of the last 5).

First ever matchup between Tech and Troy so that's cool.

Coming out flat and looking like they don't want to be at the game has been a huge issue for this Troy team so far this year. Was at its worst in the ULM game. This coaching staff seems to be just awful at motivation. Hopefully they get this resolved. If not, look for a blowout loss.

(11-03-2026 04:12 PM)islandTROYtrojan Wrote:  Coming out flat and looking like they don't want to be at the game has been a huge issue for this Troy team so far this year. Was at its worst in the ULM game. This coaching staff seems to be just awful at motivation. Hopefully they get this resolved. If not, look for a blowout loss.

Jon Sumrall was a rah-rah guy that could motivate anyone.

Gerad Parker is too nice and soft around the edges.

(11-03-2026 03:24 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  Not sure how we're only 4.5 point dogs, but I guess the line has to be placed somewhere.

If Troy's defense plays it's A game, we can win. If Troy comes out cold and uninspired again, then it's another 33-6 shellacking.

Troy appears to be out of SBC title contention, but if Troy wins Saturday, the door reopens, just a little bit.

I have learned as a Tech fan and alumni for over 40 years to never assume anything, and never take ANY team for granted. No win is ever guaranteed.

Listen, if y'all want to spot us a lead, we'll take it.

That actually suits our style pretty well (not that anyone would turn down an early lead).

(11-03-2026 04:52 PM)Friscodog Wrote:  

(11-03-2026 03:24 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  Not sure how we're only 4.5 point dogs, but I guess the line has to be placed somewhere.

If Troy's defense plays it's A game, we can win. If Troy comes out cold and uninspired again, then it's another 33-6 shellacking.

Troy appears to be out of SBC title contention, but if Troy wins Saturday, the door reopens, just a little bit.

I have learned as a Tech fan and alumni for over 40 years to never assume anything, and never take ANY team for granted. No win is ever guaranteed.

I'll take it a step further; I expect us to play a WTF game (not that Troy is not capable of winning on their own merits). It's just as a Tech fan for 50 years! I have come to expect disappointment. Actually, predating that as I was a Tech fan back to the very early 1970's in our Div II days.

(11-03-2026 05:38 PM)Tech80 Wrote:  

(11-03-2026 04:52 PM)Friscodog Wrote:  

(11-03-2026 03:24 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  Not sure how we're only 4.5 point dogs, but I guess the line has to be placed somewhere.

If Troy's defense plays it's A game, we can win. If Troy comes out cold and uninspired again, then it's another 33-6 shellacking.

Troy appears to be out of SBC title contention, but if Troy wins Saturday, the door reopens, just a little bit.

I have learned as a Tech fan and alumni for over 40 years to never assume anything, and never take ANY team for granted. No win is ever guaranteed.

I'll take it a step further; I expect us to play a WTF game (not that Troy is not capable of winning on their own merits). It's just as a Tech fan for 50 years! I have come to expect disappointment. Actually, predating that as I was a Tech fan back to the very early 1970's in our Div II days.

Every fan base feels this way (correctly). It's not wrong for Tech fans, but it's not unique.

It's just how sports works. Especially sports being played by kids whose prefrontal cortex hasn't fully formed yet (but is the same for older professional players). It's a funny shaped ball and it bounces in weird ways. If you want to add in the various relative disadvantages built into cheering for a "lesser-resourced" program, that just raises the chances of not being perfect (even when you're good).

I'm not convinced we're worse at this stuff than other programs, it just feels that way.

Having said all that, yeah, I'll be nervous about winning the division until it's mathematically clinched. And nervous about the title game (should we get there) until it's over.

But meanwhile, a win at Troy helps a LOT.

Hopefully we make them regret "letting slip the (bull)dogs of war."

I fully expect a tough game at Troy and wouldn't be at all surprised if we left there with an L - they have a proud solid program. I live in S TN and plan to make the drive down to see us play at Troy soon but I can't this year .

All La Tech has to do is blitz all night. Do some jailbreaks. It will absolutely stifle the confidence of the Troy QB's. They will rush their throws and be highly inaccurate.

I bet La Tech does it. It's too obvious. SunBelt Billy got away from it in the second half and got a little more conservative.

(11-03-2026 09:25 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  All La Tech has to do is blitz all night. Do some jailbreaks. It will absolutely stifle the confidence of the Troy QB's. They will risk their throws and be highly inaccurate.

I bet La Tech does it. It's too obvious. SunBelt Billy got away from it in the second half and got a little more conservative.

We play a fairly aggressive 3-3-5. We'll send pressure.

Tipping back to a more positive view, yeah, Tech can win this game...defense travels and we have a solid defense. And Troy is part of a trio of teams very much alive, mathematically, to win the west division. To accomplish that they pretty much have to win this game. It's do or die for Troy so expect a motivated bunch of Trojans. I think, I HOPE! the Dawgs realize that too and bring our "A" game.

This is about as "positive" I can get given we still have Coach Crummy at the helm.

(11-04-2026 07:23 AM)Tech80 Wrote:  Tipping back to a more positive view, yeah, Tech can win this game...defense travels and we have a solid defense. And Troy is part of a trio of teams very much alive, mathematically, to win the west division. To accomplish that they pretty much have to win this game. It's do or die for Troy so expect a motivated bunch of Trojans. I think, I HOPE! the Dawgs realize that too and bring our "A" game.

This is about as "positive" I can get given we still have Coach Crummy at the helm.

Trio of teams? Every team except LTech (1st) and ULM (last) are tied. Even ULM likely has a possible path to the Championship. Granted, the teams that haven't played LTech and only have two losses have a better path and LTech the simplest path.

(11-04-2026 08:55 AM)Luckyshot Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 07:23 AM)Tech80 Wrote:  Tipping back to a more positive view, yeah, Tech can win this game...defense travels and we have a solid defense. And Troy is part of a trio of teams very much alive, mathematically, to win the west division. To accomplish that they pretty much have to win this game. It's do or die for Troy so expect a motivated bunch of Trojans. I think, I HOPE! the Dawgs realize that too and bring our "A" game.

This is about as "positive" I can get given we still have Coach Crummy at the helm.

Trio of teams? Every team except LTech (1st) and ULM (last) are tied. Even ULM likely has a possible path to the Championship. Granted, the teams that haven't played LTech and only have two losses have a better path and LTech the simplest path.

TRIO: Troy, USM, Ark State

Only these three can get the tiebreaker with Tech should we end up tied. I only care about Tech and our prospects, not a scenario where we finish 4-4 or 5-3 and someone else wins the division at 6-2, like South Alabama. I am really addressing a much more likely scenario where we lose to one of the TRIO, and also lose to Ga. Southern, both very real possibilities. And that TRIO team also finishes 6-2.

Hopefully, we run the table 8-0 and won't have to worry about tiebreakers.

(11-04-2026 02:51 PM)Tech80 Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 08:55 AM)Luckyshot Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 07:23 AM)Tech80 Wrote:  Tipping back to a more positive view, yeah, Tech can win this game...defense travels and we have a solid defense. And Troy is part of a trio of teams very much alive, mathematically, to win the west division. To accomplish that they pretty much have to win this game. It's do or die for Troy so expect a motivated bunch of Trojans. I think, I HOPE! the Dawgs realize that too and bring our "A" game.

This is about as "positive" I can get given we still have Coach Crummy at the helm.

Trio of teams? Every team except LTech (1st) and ULM (last) are tied. Even ULM likely has a possible path to the Championship. Granted, the teams that haven't played LTech and only have two losses have a better path and LTech the simplest path.

TRIO: Troy, USM, Ark State

Only these three can get the tiebreaker with Tech should we end up tied. I only care about Tech and our prospects, not a scenario where we finish 4-4 or 5-3 and someone else wins the division at 6-2, like South Alabama. I am really addressing a much more likely scenario where we lose to one of the TRIO, and also lose to Ga. Southern, both very real possibilities. And that TRIO team also finishes 6-2.

Hopefully, we run the table 8-0 and won't have to worry about tiebreakers.

For Troy, they have to beat Tech and win out, Cajuns have to lose again, and Tech would have to lose again after losing to Troy. The door is practically shut for Troy, but beating Tech would open that door ever so slightly. Because of how improbable all of that would be, I'm not really thinking much about a SBC title appearance, I just want to get a win Saturday and take one more step toward bowl eligibility.

(11-04-2026 07:23 AM)Tech80 Wrote:  Tipping back to a more positive view, yeah, Tech can win this game...defense travels and we have a solid defense. And Troy is part of a trio of teams very much alive, mathematically, to win the west division. To accomplish that they pretty much have to win this game. It's do or die for Troy so expect a motivated bunch of Trojans. I think, I HOPE! the Dawgs realize that too and bring our "A" game.

This is about as "positive" I can get given we still have Coach Crummy at the helm.

Try having BV as head coach, OC too because too hard headed to allow the IC he hired to actually call plays, sound familiar?

While I know Troy struggled at Utah State, I wonder how much playing in their 4.7k+ft stadium helped with conditioning. Likely gave them a boost vs JMU's 1.3k ft stadium.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

Troy, please handle business.

(11-03-2026 06:58 PM)Zep2020 Wrote:  I fully expect a tough game at Troy and wouldn't be at all surprised if we left there with an L - they have a proud solid program. I live in S TN and plan to make the drive down to see us play at Troy soon but I can't this year .

Thanks. I remember when you guys had Tony Franklin and the #1 offense in the country. Tony was a very large part of why we had our run of five SBC titles back to back.