Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 92. Troy
Spartans, now Trojans? Surely Michigan State/USC are soon
40 years ago, Troy was in Division II. No, not Division 1-AA—Division II, the third highest level of college football. They moved up to 1-AA in 1993 with 3rd year head coach Larry Blakeney, who turned out to be a game-changer for the program over the next 2 decades. During their 8 years in Division 1-AA, Troy made the playoffs 7 times, the semifinals 2 times, and won the Southland Conference 3 times. Since moving to the FBS in 2001, Troy’s been one of the most consistent Group of 5 schools thanks to the foundation Blakeney built, who went 178-113-1 in his 24 years at Troy.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+------+------+--------------+--------+
| 15 | Troy | 2022 | 25.066 | 12-2 |
| 21 | Troy | 2017 | 19.262 | 11-2 |
| 34 | Troy | 2016 | 12.393 | 10-3 |
| 31 | Troy | 2018 | 12.148 | 10-3 |
| 44 | Troy | 2009 | 4.576 | 9-4 |
| 43 | Troy | 2007 | 3.859 | 8-4 |
| 51 | Troy | 2008 | -3.522 | 8-5 |
| 56 | Troy | 2001 | -6.809 | 7-4 |
| 51 | Troy | 2004 | -7.295 | 7-5 |
| 62 | Troy | 2010 | -7.304 | 8-5 |
| 63 | Troy | 2006 | -10.529 | 8-5 |
| 81 | Troy | 2013 | -16.207 | 6-6 |
| 74 | Troy | 2003 | -17.615 | 6-6 |
| 94 | Troy | 2020 | -20.347 | 5-6 |
| 82 | Troy | 2012 | -21.468 | 5-7 |
| 96 | Troy | 2021 | -26.536 | 5-7 |
| 100 | Troy | 2019 | -27.184 | 5-7 |
| 99 | Troy | 2015 | -32.278 | 4-8 |
| 102 | Troy | 2005 | -35.024 | 4-7 |
| 95 | Troy | 2002 | -38.541 | 4-8 |
| 108 | Troy | 2011 | -44.228 | 3-9 |
| 119 | Troy | 2014 | -47.222 | 3-9 |
+------+------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 7343 (92nd)148-122 record
7 conference titles
6-3 bowl record
0 consensus All-Americans
13 NFL players drafted
With 7 conference titles in 22 FBS seasons, Troy has essentially won a conference title every 3 years. Combine that with a 6-3 bowl record and a .548 win percentage, and you get a model example of how to execute a proper FCS → FBS transition. A whopping 5 Sun Belt titles were thanks to Blakeney, winning all of them straight from 2006-10. Afterwards came current West Virginia coach Neal Brown (2017) and Jon Sumrall (2022). The top NFL players out of Troy are Hall of Fame LB DeMarcus Ware and DE Osi Umenyiora.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2014 (3-9 overall, 3-5 Sun Belt)
Troy hit a bit of a rough patch during the last 4 years of Blakeney’s tenure, going just 17-31 from 2011-14 after winning 5 straight Sun Belt titles. It was time for Blakeney to retire and he did, leaving as the 4th winningest collegiate coach in the state of Alabama all-time (behind Bear Bryant, “Shug” Jordan, and Cleveland Abbott). A season opening 10-48 loss to UAB was bad enough, but a 35-38 embarrassment to Abilene Christian 2 weeks later was essentially the end of the season. Troy got their first win against eventual 2-10 New Mexico State to be 1-5, and managed to sneak in wins over Idaho and Georgia State at the end of the year, who went a combined 2-21 in 2014. Overall Troy just had an uninspiring offense which averaged 21.8 PPG and gave up 36.2 PPG. QB Brandon Silvers did set an NCAA record though—highest completion % by a freshman, with 70.5%, throwing for 1832 yards 11 TD 3 INT. Neal Brown was hired after Blakeney left, and took the program to new heights.
5. 2009 (9-4 overall, 8-0 Sun Belt)
This was Blakeney’s 4th of 5 straight titles, and the only season of his to appear in the top 5. It was a strange start, as Troy lost 14-31 to a meh Bowling Green team and 6-56 to Tim Tebow’s Florida. They dominated the Sun Belt as expected the rest of the year though, beating 2nd placed Middle Tennessee 31-7 and 3rd placed UL Monroe 42-21. They won 7 straight before losing 20-56 to Arkansas, and finished with blowout wins over FAU and UL Lafayette. Troy put up a good fight in a 41-44 2OT loss to #25 Central Michigan, featuring one of the best QB battles of the bowl season between CMU’s Dan LeFevour and Troy’s Levi Brown. Brown threw for 4254 yards 23 TD 9 INT on the year for Troy, winning Sun Belt POTY and ranking 2nd in the nation in passing yards. WR Jerrel Jernigan was one of the most dangerous players in the nation, racking up 1101 receiving yards, 266 rushing yards, 897 kick return yards, and 5 total TD. Brown was drafted in the 7th round by the Buffalo Bills in the 2010 NFL Draft, and Jernigan in the 3rd round of 2011 by the New York Giants, returning 3 kicks for 71 yards in the 2011 season Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.
4. 2018 (10-3 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
Coming into the year, everyone knew it was a 2-horse race for the Sun Belt East between Appalachian State and Troy. Troy had 7 preseason 1st/2nd Team All-Sun Belt selections on defense after ranking 11th in the nation in PPG allowed the previous year. Troy embarrassed Nebraska and new head coach Scott Frost in Lincoln in week 3, winning 24-19 thanks to 2 INTs thrown by Nebraska QB Andrew Bunch. Troy (7-2 overall, 5-0 Sun Belt) faced Georgia Southern (7-2, 4-1) in a pivotal Sun Belt East matchup. After going down 14-3 early, Troy scored 32 straight points to eventually win 35-21. A matchup between Troy (9-2, 7-0) and App State (8-2, 6-1) would determine the East champion, but App took it in a defensive slugfest 21-10. Troy got a 42-32 win over MAC East champion Buffalo in the bowl to finish with 10 wins for the 3rd straight year. A whopping 14 out of 22 starters on offense/defense were 1st/2nd/3rd Team All-Sun Belt, including 4 out of 5 offensive linemen and all 4 DBs. Arguably the greatest return man in college football history, Marcus Jones, was on Troy from 2017-18 before transferring to Houston. He had 3 kick returns for TD in 2017 and 1 in 2018. Neal Brown left for West Virginia after the season, having been one of the hottest coaching names in the last two offseasons.
3. 2016 (10-3 overall, 6-2 Sun Belt)
Neal Brown’s first double digit win season. Back then they were led by junior QB Brandon Silvers in his 3rd year as a starter. Silvers was 1st Team All-Sun Belt, throwing for 3180 yards 23 TD 12 INT, part of his 10,677 yards 71 TD 29 INT career. Troy gave 2016 National Champion Clemson one of their toughest tests all year, losing 24-30 in Death Valley. Clemson only outgained Troy 414-386 in yardage, and Deshaun Watson threw 2 picks. After starting 8-1 with the only loss to Clemson, Troy earned a #25 ranking, only to immediately be blown out 35-3 by 5-4 Arkansas State, who was now 5-0 in the Sun Belt and controlled their destiny. After Arkansas State dropped a game late in the year, Troy had a chance to win a Sun Belt co-championship, but fell 24-28 to 4-7 Georgia Southern in the final week to finish 9-3 overall, 6-2 in the conference, and 3rd in the Sun Belt. Hey, at least they won the “Dollar General Bowl” against Ohio. DE Rashad Dillard was the Sun Belt DPOTY with 6.5 sacks, 6.5 TFL, and 2 FF. The best was yet to come for Troy.
2. 2017 (11-2 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
You’ve seen this Troy team before. Do you remember them? You probably will once I mention it: They beat Ed Orgeron’s LSU. It was week 5, LSU was #25 and 3-1, Troy was 3-1, it was LSU’s homecoming game, and LSU had won 49 straight non-conference home games. 50 minutes of game clock later, and Troy had a 24-7 lead. A garbage time TD from LSU made it look close in a 24-21 Troy win, and it was the biggest win in school history. A lot of LSU fans wanted Orgeron fired after the game, but this wasn’t a bad LSU team, it was just a really good Troy team. LSU immediately beat #21 Florida and #10 Auburn in their next 2 games! On the other side, Troy unfortunately lost a trap game 8-19 to South Alabama. They quickly regrouped and were perfect the rest of the way, winning a Sun Belt co-championship with Appalachian State, who they didn’t play. It was even sweeter because the Trojans got revenge on Arkansas State for last year’s 35-3 blowout. In the last week of the season, down 24-25 with 15 seconds to go, senior QB Silvers threw the winning TD pass to walk out with the win and the Sun Belt title. An offensive explosion 50-30 win over North Texas in the bowl was an excellent way to end Silvers’ career, who threw 4 TD and ran for 1 more in the game. The win over LSU still stands as probably Troy’s biggest all-time win, and this team finished #21 in my rankings.
1. 2022 (12-2 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
The days of Neal Brown were long gone by this point. Troy had fallen back into mediocrity, going just 15-20 from 2019-21. Chip Lindsey was fired, and new head coach Jon Sumrall came in for the 2022 season from Kentucky’s defensive coordinator position, many Kentucky fans singing his praises. The season went way better than anyone expected, mostly thanks to defensive improvements (26.1 PPG allowed in ‘21 to 17.1 PPG allowed in ‘22). Nobody was getting in Troy’s way in 2022. After a 1-2 start, they started their march. Wins over (final record) 9-4 Marshall, 9-5 Western Kentucky, 10-3 South Alabama, 9-4 Coastal Carolina in the conference title game, and 11-3 UTSA in the bowl game. The only losses came at the beginning of the year to #21 Ole Miss, and 28-32 to Appalachian State on a hail mary. 4 players on defense were 1st Team All-Sun Belt, including the 5’9 210 lb LB Carlton Martial. Martial finished his career as the NCAA’s all time leading tackler!! He had 578 tackles over 5 seasons, totalling 76, 127, 114, 126, and 135 from 2018-22 respectively, and won Sun Belt DPOTY in 2022. Jon Sumrall was the Sun Belt COTY. Troy finished 15th in my rankings due to the amount of quality wins they racked up, and the losses being excusable.
5th Quarter
Do you remember that 2017 win against Orgeron’s LSU? Did you know Troy was a good team at that time, or were you more focused on LSU’s embarrassment? What do you think about Jon Sumrall, Neal Brown, and Larry Blakeney? And finally, is there a season or player that sticks out to you from Troy’s 23 years in the FBS?
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