NEW ORLEANS – Troy (8-4, 6-2 SBC) is seeking to add to its conference-leading eight Sun Belt football titles in Friday’s Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Va. The game is set for 7:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN.
The Trojans are appearing in their third championship game over the past four seasons, having hosted—and won—the 2022 and 2023 editions at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Ala. Appearing for the first time as the visiting team, Troy will attempt to give the visitors back-to-back wins for the first time in championship game history. Home teams are 5-1 all-time in the championship game, with Marshall breaking through for a 31-3 road win at Louisiana a year ago. Troy is 4-2 on the road this season.
A Troy win over No. 25 James Madison (11-1, 8-0 SBC) would give West Division teams a 4-3 edge in championship games, with the Trojans providing three of those four wins. A Trojans victory also would make Troy the first-ever three-time victor in the event’s history and the first team to have won the championship game at home and on the road.
Since joining the Sun Belt ahead of the 2004 season, Troy boasts a conference-leading 107 wins in league play to go along with a conference-best eight football championships (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2022 & 2023). The Trojans are just a year removed from back-to-back Sun Belt titles and back-to-back 10-win campaigns.
Troy opened its season by using a 28-point fourth-quarter outburst to outpace Nicholls, 38-20, at home. The Trojans carried that momentum into a road matchup at then-No. 8/8 Clemson, where they led 16-3 at the break and held the Tigers to just 316 yards of total offense, in an eventual 27-16 defeat. Troy returned home to face a bowl-bound Memphis program, but could not overcome the loss of redshirt junior starting quarterback Goose Crowder to injury on the opening possession in a 28-7 loss.
Turning to junior quarterback Tucker Kilcrease under center, Troy scored 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points in a 21-17 road win at Buffalo to close the non-conference slate and spark a season-best five-game winning streak. In the decisive fourth quarter, the Trojans defense held the Bulls to just 57 yards over four drives.
Troy then posted a four-game Sun Belt revenge tour with wins over South Alabama, bowl-bound Texas State, ULM and bowl-bound Louisiana—who all beat the Trojans a year ago—to clinch bowl eligibility and open conference action 4-0 for the first time since 2018.
In front of 28,035 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium, Kilcrease became the second Trojans quarterback since 1995 to throw for more than 200 yards and rush for more than 100 yards in Troy’s seventh victory over South Alabama in the Battle for the Belt rivalry over the past eight meetings, 31-24 in OT. He then led Troy to a come-from-behind 48-41 overtime win over Texas State, throwing for 415 yards and five touchdown passes. Defense led the way with four second-half takeaways in a 37-14 win over ULM and three interceptions in a 35-23 bowl eligibility-clinching win over Louisiana.
A lack of protection was the story in back-to-back losses to bowl-bound Arkansas State, 23-10, and bowl-bound Old Dominion, 33-0, as the Trojans surrendered nine sacks in consecutive weeks.
On Senior Day at Veterans Memorial Stadium, Crowder took every snap for the first time since Week 2, throwing for 361 yards and four touchdowns in a 31-19 win over Georgia State to set up a winner-take-all showdown with bowl-bound Southern Miss for the Sun Belt West Division title and a berth into the championship game on the final weekend of the regular season.
Troy went on the road and clinched its third West Division title and third Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola berth over the past four seasons with a 28-18 win at Southern Miss in the regular-season finale, buoyed by two fourth-quarter touchdown connections from Crowder to senior wide receiver RaRa Thomas.
Troy’s defense is 1-of-3 units in the Sun Belt conceding less than 380 yards (377.8) and less than 25 points (23.9) per game, alongside James Madison and Old Dominion. The group has been particularly stingy in the red zone, where it holds opponents to a .786 scoring clip, good for 26th in the nation.
Led by junior defensive lineman Donnie Smith (11.5 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks), who paces the Sun Belt and ranks 14th in the country with 9.0 sacks, the Trojans rank among the Top 31 teams in the nation with 6.3 tackles for loss and 2.42 sacks per game. Senior linebacker Jordan Stringer (104 tackles, 8.7 tackles per game) and senior defensive back Devin Lafayette (99 tackles, 8.3 tackles per game) are 1-of-2 Sun Belt tandems each averaging eight-or-more tackles per game. The unit also leads the Sun Belt and ranks third in the country with four defensive touchdowns on the year.
Crowder and Kilcrease’s top targets have been Thomas (495 yards, 5 touchdowns), senior wide receiver Tray Taylor (478 yards, 3 touchdowns), junior wide receiver DJ Epps (430 yards, 5 touchdowns) and redshirt senior tight end Ethan Conner (362 yards, 3 touchdowns). Epps and Thomas are tied for seventh in the Sun Belt with five touchdown receptions on the year. Junior running back Tae Meadows (685 yards, 5 touchdowns) and sophomore running back Jordan Lovett (311 yards, 2 touchdowns) have done the bulk of Troy’s damage on the ground.
Troy’s special teams units have not had a kick or punt blocked this season and rank third in the country with a 43.75 yard net punting average. Ray Guy Award finalist redshirt junior punter Evan Crenshaw averages 46.70 yards per punt to lead the Sun Belt and rank sixth in the nation. Twenty of his 56 punts on the year have gone for 50-or-more yards, with 25 being downed inside the 20-yard line. In the return game, Epps ranks sixth in the Sun Belt and 35th in the country, averaging 20.4 yards per kickoff return.
Friday night’s meeting will be the fourth in the all-time series between Troy and James Madison. The teams split two matchups in the FCS Playoffs, before James Madison escaped Troy with a 16-14 win in the first clash as Sun Belt Conference foes in 2023. The win—which gave James Madison a 2-1 edge in the all-time series—was part of the Dukes 10-0 start to an eventual 11-2 campaign and was Troy’s lone conference loss in an 11-3 Sun Belt championship season. The Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola will be the first-ever FBS meeting between the two programs in Harrisonburg, Va.