Friday, September 11, 2009

Troy Has No Chance in The Swamp

The Troy Trojans' advertising slogan says: Anyone … Anytime … Anywhere.

No one can dispute Troy’s willingness to go on the road to play in backyard of some of best teams in college football. In the past three years, Troy has traveled to LSU, Ohio State, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Georgia Tech and Florida State.

You know how many of those games the Trojans have won? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

And they won’t win Saturday when they make a return engagement to “The Swamp” to play the No. 1 Florida Gators.

A few weeks ago, I heard one of those ESPN college football analysts – I can’t remember which one – say that this was a possible trap game for Tim Tebow and the Gators because it comes before Florida plays Tennessee.

I laughed off the notion. Troy win at Florida? C’mon. Not even on a bad day for the Gators. And that was before the Trojans blew a 14-0 lead and lost 31-14 at Bowling Green last week in their season opener.

When the Trojans played the Gators in 2007, Troy scored 31 points and gained 336 yards, but still lost by four touchdowns, 59-31.

There won’t be any suspense today. The Gators should have this one well in hand by the end of the first quarter – if not sooner.

The only drama today will be if Trojans senior defensive end Brandon Lang shows he’s deserves to be a first-round draft pick. According to one scouting report the 6-foot-4, 256-pound Lang is rated the No. 3 defensive end for the 2010 NFL draft, comparing favorably to former Troy stars DeMarcus Ware (Dallas Cowboys) and Osi Umenyiora (New York Giants).


In 2008, Lang led the Trojans with 10.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss, ranking in the top 15 in the nation in both categories. He had five tackles against Bowling Green.

Lang is looking forward to playing the Gators again. “We’re going to try to improve a whole lot from the last time we went,” he said. “I feel like we’re a much better team than we were the first time we went. We have got the players and the talent. This game we’re going to have to come with it. We’re planning on coming out with a better attitude, and we’re going to come out intense and ready to play.”

Perhaps, Lang can get in a few licks on Tebow and a few of the other Florida ball carriers, but not enough for the Trojans to score a knockout.

I expect Florida to swamp the Trojans 55-10.

No comments:

Post a Comment