Trojans still uspet over loss to LSU

By Drew Champlin

Published: November 17, 2008

TROY — Levi Brown heard the same thing he’s been hearing since he’s been at Troy from fellow classmates following yet another close loss to a powerhouse school.

“I’ve had some people tell us it was a good game, blah blah blah, you tried hard,” Troy’s junior quarterback said. “It’s the same old story. It’s like that’s what Troy always does. We go to these big schools, we play them good and lose by a little bit. It’s nothing to be excited about, I don’t think, making a good showing and not winning.”

Troy was up 31-3 at LSU Saturday before the wheels came off and LSU scored the final 37 points in the last 17 minutes of the game to take a 40-31 win. The defending national champions capped off the biggest comeback in Tigers history.

The Trojans (6-4, 4-1 Sun Belt) can’t dwell on that now — not with a chance to clinch the conference title at home Saturday when UL-Lafayette (5-5, 4-1) comes to town. A win there puts Troy in great shape, but if Florida Atlantic beats Arkansas State at 2 p.m. Saturday and the Trojans win at 6 p.m., they’ll
clinch the conference title.

“That’s probably the toughest loss,” offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. “It’s really tough to get over. In one sense, they’re more talented than we are. We got beat by a team we’re better than in Monroe, but when you let one slip out of your hands … it would have been a program-changer. Coach (Larry) Blakeney deserves to get one of those.”

Neal Brown defended the calls to pass the ball extensively, saying that the matchups didn’t favor the run, but he said he had a few things he’d like to do over — like getting the ball more to running back DuJuan Harris (65 rush yards, 29 receiving yards, 1 TD) and changing up two third down play calls in the fourth quarter.

But of Levi Brown’s 72 pass attempts, the most by any quarterback in college football this year, 13 were dropped. Levi Brown hit 36 for 312 yards and two scores with one interception.

“When we had success running the ball, they were all on plays that they were expecting pass,” Neal Brown said. “I felt we had a good game plan, and we didn’t deviate from it. We got to 31-3 and I felt like if we got to 38, we’d win the game. The only thing that changed gameplan-wise was we quit catching the ball.

“We had 13 drops and a lot of them were when the tide had changed. Momentum had shifted their way. We had two third down plays we didn’t make in the fourth quarter and a fourth down play we didn’t make, and all were dropped balls.”

Neal Brown was especially happy with the way Levi Brown played in his first start in front of a huge environment like LSU. He was also pleased with the running backs and with the offensive line, which gave up just one sack. That was on a Hail Mary attempt with 15 seconds left in the game.

“(Levi) stood in there and threw some big-time balls,” Neal Brown said. “His mistakes weren’t throwing mistakes. He could have made a few better reads pre-snap. I was really proud of him.”

But the one call that made coaches mad was near the end of the game. LSU scored to go up 33-31 and Troy took over at its 38-yard line. After a 6-yard run by Harris, Levi Brown hit Jerrel Jernigan for a gain of 17 to LSU’s 39.

That’s when a flag came out and right tackle Dion Small was called for holding — the first such call of the night.

“There’s been 100 passes in the game and there’s three minutes to go and you finally call a holding penalty? It was a 35-yard change in field position,” Neal Brown said. “At the very worst, we’d get a field goal attempt and eat up at least a minute and a half in clock. That was a huge momentum difference.”

Brown did say that lack of fourth-quarter execution cost the Trojans the game and not the officials, but he wasn’t pleased with the referees standing over the ball and allowing LSU defenders to sub in and out while Troy was ready to snap it quickly.

Oops: Jorrick Calvin feels like the rest of the country knows who he is, but for the wrong reason. With Troy up 31-27, the defense forced a punt. The ball hit Calvin, who was blocking, in the foot, and LSU recovered at the 20 and scored three plays later to take the lead.

The highlight was shown on ESPN several times. The code word for “get out of the way” was yelled out by punt returner Cornelius Williams.

“I thought I was farther and I was trying to block,” Calvin said. “Bad mistake. I didn’t even feel it. I saw the ball and it rolled and they jumped on it.”

Special teams coach Shayne Wasden said there was nothing that could be done about it at the time and that Troy had a similar bounce go its way in a 33-23 win over Florida International.

Odds and ends: Athletic director Steve Dennis is calling for a sellout and asks that every fan wears cardinal colors to the game. … Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins sent out a university-wide e-mail calling for a “Call to Arms” for fans to come and stay for Saturday’s game. … Linebacker Bear Woods had 17 tackles against LSU despite playing on just one good foot. “Bear’s a freak of nature,” linebacker Boris Lee said.