Troy takes lumps playing with big boys
Scheduling national powers helps Trojans draw recruits as well as bring in money
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:25 AM
By
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Troy University photo
Troy coach Larry Blakeney says playing national powers "helps us competitively if we live through it."
Larry Blakeney, the football coach for 18 years at Troy University in Alabama, has heard variations of the question before. This year, the question is this: "What are you doing playing LSU and Ohio State? They were in the national championship game last season. You've got 6,500 students on your campus."
"Everybody says (the athletic director) is trying to kill you and get rid of you because of who we play," Blakeney said in a recent interview.
"I think we've understood what it takes to climb. You've got to play those people to recruit well. We haven't played all of them, but we've played a bunch of them."
Ohio State, which plays Troy on Saturday in Ohio Stadium, is the 15th ranked opponent the Trojans have challenged since they moved to NCAA Division I-A (now the Football Bowl Subdivision) from I-AA in 2001. They are 1-13 in such games, the win at home against Missouri in 2004.
They have played 25 teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences. They are 3-22 in those games. They beat Oklahoma State at home last season and won at Mississippi State in their fifth game as a I-A program in 2001.
"We caught them a little flat," Blakeney said of Mississippi State. "But we played good. We had players, too, who were good enough to play for them or anybody else.
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