Interim Coaches Lead Troy And Duke Into Birmingham Bowl With New Leaders Ready In Wings

Troy and Duke each enter the Birmingham Bowl in that bizarre limbo between teaching regimes.

The groups will probably be led by interim coaches in Saturday’s sport at Protecting Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, after the Blue Devils misplaced Mike Elko to Texas A&M and the Trojans’ Jon Sumrall left for Tulane. The colleges have already employed their successors, with Duke bringing in Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and Troy hiring Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker.

And the gamers emerged from the turmoil of teaching modifications with a sport nonetheless to play.

“We’re all only one huge blissful household proper now,” Duke linebacker Tre Freeman stated.

The Trojans (11-2) have gained 10 consecutive video games and a second-straight Solar Belt Convention championship. They’re attempting to turn out to be the primary crew in program historical past with back-to-back 12-win seasons.

“What you’ve bought to do is simply deal with ending the season out the best method,” Troy interim coach Greg Gasparato stated. “It is a reward for the season that they’ve had: one other convention championship, 11 wins so far, attempting to get No. 12 back-to-back seasons.

“And likewise being able to be the one Solar Belt crew to ever beat a Energy 5 crew in a bowl sport. So there’s lots of little motivations for this crew.”

The Blue Devils (7-5), in the meantime, try to achieve eight wins in consecutive seasons for the primary time since 2014-15.

INTERIM BOSSES

Duke affiliate head coach Trooper Taylor is main the Blue Devils via the bowl sport. Taylor has been on the workers since 2019, serving as affiliate head coach the previous three seasons.

“His power’s all the time up,” Freeman stated. “He’s all the time making jokes. Like, there’s by no means a boring second with Trooper.”

Troy’s first-year defensive coordinator Gasparato leads a protection that ranks tenth nationally in scoring and speeding protection and fifteenth in complete protection.

LOFTIS AT QB

The Blue Devils have turned to freshman Grayson Loftis as their beginning quarterback. Riley Leonard is headed to Notre Dame. Loftis has handed for 823 yards with eight touchdowns in opposition to three interceptions.

“I believe he’s simply gotten environment friendly operating the offense, they usually don’t ask him to do issues which are exterior of his wheelhouse,” Gasparato stated. “And he’s gotten higher as all people would as they get reps.”

The freshman looks like “simply being myself” is the important thing to becoming into his new position and incomes teammates’ belief.

“They know they will rely on who I’m going to be every day,” Loftis stated. “And I believe leaning on among the older guys which have been via this course of has been useful as properly.”

PASS RUSH

Led by Javon Solomon, Troy has already set the Solar Belt Convention document with 45 sacks, rating sixth nationally.

Solomon’s 16 sacks lead the nation, and he has 10 during the last 4 video games. Duke has solely allowed 15 sacks this season, and deal with Graham Barton was Duke’s solely first-team All-ACC decide.

STOPPING VIDAL

The largest problem dealing with Duke’s protection will probably be containing Troy operating again Kimani Vidal. Vidal, the Solar Belt offensive participant of the 12 months and a third-team AP All-American, has run for 1,582 yards and 14 touchdowns. This system’s profession speeding chief ran for 233 yards and 5 TDs within the Solar Belt title sport in opposition to Appalachian State.

BOWL STREAKS

Each groups are driving bowl profitable streaks. Troy’s 5 straight bowl victories stands tied with Georgia for the second-longest energetic streak, one behind Minnesota. Duke is true behind with 4 consecutive bowl wins.

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AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Related Press)