Sun Belt Sports Fans

South Carolina 69, Troy 24

No, this wasn’t a conference game for the Troy Trojans, but a Murphy’s Law afternoon in Columbia, South Carolina, has revealed something about the team that had ruled the Sun Belt with an iron fist in three of the previous four seasons: It’s not nearly as physical or as ferocious as it was in 2006, 2008, or 2009.

It’s so easy to gravitate to the quarterback position and lament the fact that Troy no longer has Levi Brown under center, but that ship has sailed, to be honest. If you want to know why Troy is losing its hold on the conference, it’s not because of the offense. Freshman signal caller Corey Robinson has done a fine job for coach Larry Blakeney this year, with only one game – the 28-14 loss at Louisiana-Monroe – sticking in the craw of the Sun Belt’s most accomplished team over the past half-decade. It’s really the defense which has bottomed out for the Trojans; if last week’s 52-35 loss against Florida International was an accident, then this 45-point loss against the South Carolina Gamecocks affirmed a trend.

One game can be chalked up to singular circumstances, but now that Troy’s defense has been pummeled for two straight weeks, it’s clear that a loss of grit and backbone is responsible for the Trojans’ diminishing returns and a likely fall from the top spot in the Belt.

South Carolina is the SEC East champion for 2010, but in past years, this game would have spelled trouble for Coach Steve Spurrier’s team. Carolina was coming off a draining and emotional win at Florida; this game was meant to be a breather for the Gamecocks, a contest in which this team could play at half-speed or with additional backups (or both) and still win… but not by 45 points. It was shocking to see the ease with which an historically inconsistent team obliterated the recent standard-bearer for the Sun Belt. Not very long ago, Troy could be counted on to give an SEC opponent a fierce battle on the road (remember the near-win at LSU a few years ago?); this past Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium, the Blakeney Bunch got embarrassed and eviscerated in a manner that had to shock people who regularly follow the program.

This game spiraled out of control in a heartbeat. South Carolina recovered a Troy fumble on the opening kickoff and scored just 13 seconds into the game on a 17-yard scamper by running back Marcus Lattimore. Troy got one first down on its next possession but then punted. After a 58-yard dash by Lattimore, the best freshman running back in major college football scored from eight yards out. The Gamecocks led 14-0 before three minutes had been played. Troy felt small and humiliated on the field, and that sinking feeling caused the Trojans to collapse. Fumbled punt snaps, breakdowns in the secondary, and an utter lack of toughness in the trenches made Troy look every bit as bad as Georgia State – a first-year FCS program – did on Thursday at Alabama against the Crimson Tide. Troy’s lack of resilience enabled South Carolina to take a 28-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of play. That’s not a misprint. The Gamecocks led 28-0 with 5:49 to go in the first quarter, en route to a 56-7 halftime lead.

Now we know… now we know why Troy seems unlikely to defend its Sun Belt title. At the very least, this 5-5 team needs to finish with a winning record to salvage what has been lost. This no-show at South Carolina needs to motivate a team to recapture what currently does not exist: the heart of a Sun Belt champion.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer