Trojans hope to build on last week’s offensive numbers

By Drew Champlin

Published: September 27, 2008

Troy quarterback Jamie Hampton wasn’t perfect last week against Ohio State, but his performance gave coaches plenty of reasons to be encouraged.

The sophomore hit 30-of-43 passes for 218 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, but one of the picks came when an OSU defender ripped the ball out of Troy receiver Gerald Tate’s hands.

But Hampton, who played Class 1A football at Cedar Bluff in front of crowds with more than 100,000 fewer spectators than the listed 102,989 last week, kept his composure.

“For him to come out and play that poised, and you’ve got to remember where he’s from,” Troy offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. “To play in front of that environment and be as accurate as he was, those are all good signs.

“Can he play better? Sure, but for his first time in front of a crowd like that, he was fine.”

Troy outgained OSU by six yards (315-309). In last year’s run to the national championship game, OSU was only outgained once — in a regular-season loss to Illinois.

Ohio State returned seven starters off last year’s top-ranked defense.

“He didn’t finish as well as I’d like to have finished, but that’s the best defense we’ve played since I’ve been here and it’s not even close,” Brown said.

Troy won’t see a defense like that today when the Trojans (2-1) play at Oklahoma State (3-0) at 6:05 p.m., but they will find a team looking for revenge.

Last year, Troy hammered the Cowboys 41-23 on national television. This year, no webcast of the game is even allowed due to Big 12 conference regulations.

“I expect them to be a little bitter,” Hampton said. “They never expected us to beat them last year.

“We’re just going up there and hoping to put some points on the board early and quiet the fans. At Ohio State, the fans were pretty quiet for most of the second and third quarters.”

Troy likely won’t see a crowd half the size it saw at Ohio State. The Daily Oklahoman reported earlier this week that the crowd should be around 48,000 — the largest since 2005 but well short of the 60,000 that Boone Pickens Stadium will hold.

Regardless of crowd size, Troy players want to build on what they did last year.

“We’re going out to prove that it’s not just a one-year thing and not one special year we have,” Hampton said. “We want to prove to everybody that we’ve got a real good program. Other programs never go down. They just rebuild, and that’s what we’re doing.”