Coming the rest of the week in the Dothan Eagle

October 16, 2007

Drew Champlin

Tomorrow, find out why linebacker Bear Woods has long hair, and how he reacted to getting a scholarship.

Thursday, see what the Troy defensive backs are up against.

Friday, is one offensive lineman too nice?

That’s in the paper. Check the blog tomorrow (Wednesday) for some baseball notes. Also, hopefully some comments from a North Texas beat writer, and more. Thanks for checking out the only Troy blog on the net.

Basketball notes

Drew Champlin

Head coach Don Maestri and senior guard/forward Justin Jonus were on hand Monday at the weekly football media gathering.

I’ll probably have a basketball story at some point this week, but here’s what my gut is telling me about the lineup, etc.

Of course, there’s only been 4 days of practice, but I bet the opening day lineup looks like this. I do reserve the right to be wrong.

PG-Mike Vogler (So.)
SG-O’Darien Bassett (Sr.)
SF-Justin Jonus (Sr.)
PF-Trayce Macon (So.)
C-Tom Jervis (Jr.)

6th-Mario Telfair (Jr.) SF/PF
7th-Jarvis Acker (Sr.) SF/PF
8th-Jerome Odem (Sr.) PG

Of course, Bernard Toombs (So. C), Josh Williams (Jr. PG), Kenny Ware (Jr. SG/SF), Brandon Hazzard (So. SG), all those guys have a chance too. Maestri said he expects to play more guys this year.

The big part of this team is CHEMISTRY. It’s there. Last year, it was not there. None. Whatsoever. It was a great team on paper, and I told a lot of people at the beginning of the year that it would contend for the Sun Belt title.

“We had a 20-win team last year and we won 13 games,” Maestri said.

So I’m done predicting wins and losses, even though my last post said 7-11 in the Sun Belt. The thing about this team is that I just don’t know. It could be a team that just gets better and better as the season goes along. Bassett and Jonus are the type players that can carry it. They described Vogler and Jervis as tremendously skilled players, especially when it comes to passing. Trayce Macon apparently is a guy with a knack for scoring from anywhere within reason, and Mario Telfair is a guy that can take it to the rack and fininsh (wonder how good he can shoot free throws?)

Plus, I’m a guy that loves to talk hoops, probably because I understand it better than the other sports.

Tuesday links

Drew Champlin

From my end, the usual Monday notebook.

From the Denton Record-Chronicle, a UNT notebook, led by DL Montey Stevenson’s top performance.

I’m on with John and Barry at 8:40 a.m. CST on AM-970 out of Birmingham, if you see this and you’re in that area.

Check the blog later this morning for a basketball update and my projected starting lineup (you know, since I haven’t seen a minute of practice). Also on tap is a little teaser for tomorrow’s feature, which will be on a former walk-on.

Some Monday stuff

October 15, 2007

Drew Champlin

It’s been a busy Monday, as with the press conference I have also gone to PIke Liberal Arts, the local private school, to do an interview with Jerel Foster, a running back who ran for an AISA record 420 yards and eight touchdowns last week. He’s a junior, smallish in size at 5-foot-6, 150 pounds, but that’s probably the size DuJuan Harris was a couple of years ago and he’s got a chance to be a good one.

Will have BASKETBALL and BASEBALL updates too over the next couple of days so stay tuned.

There’s no doubt Troy coaches and players got their eyes opened when North Texas beat UL-Monroe 31-21 last week. The Mean Green was once the pride of the Sun Belt, and many feel that new coach Todd Dodge will have them back there pretty soon after a couple of down years. True freshman quarterback Giovanni Vizza has started the last two games and the offense has gotten even better.

Not much “news” Gerald Tate (knee) still has to be cleared to play Saturday; if not, Patrick Cherry will back up Andrew Davis at the H. Shawn Todd (neck) should play.

I ran into DE Brandon Lang on the elevator and we talked about his rehab. He’s still got the mindset of coming back Nov. 20 against Middle Tennessee. He’s running now, even sprinting. Can you really believe he tore his ACL on Sept. 14? Most guys are done for the year, but he didn’t do any more damage to his knee other than the ACL.

The guy who voted for Troy…

Drew Champlin

...is Adam Van Brimmer, who covers Georgia Tech and other sports for the newspapers in the Morris chain in Georgia (Savannah, Augusta, etc.)

He was kind enough to respond to my e-mail and explain his vote.

“I struggled with the last four spots in the poll this week. And since Troy has won four in a row, looked good on national TV beating OSU and its two losses were on the road to SEC teams, I voted for them over Georgia (biggest win is Alabama and should have lost to Vandy on Saturday), FSU (loser to Wake and not worthy anyway) and Texas (most overrated team in the nation this season). I’d rather go with a two-loss mid-major on a roll than a two-loss major conference team that looks good one week, bad the next and hasn’t beaten anybody.”

Give him credit - a lot of voters have too much pride for that, though Troy would be in the polls with a victory over either Arkansas or Florida.

This AP voters list has a link to who everyone on the AP poll votes for.