There are new faces all over the place in the Troy football complex, and it’s not just the coaching staff.
Yes, former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has taken over with an almost entirely new staff following the departure of Jon Sumrall to Tulane. But the Trojans also must replace all but a handful of the top players who helped the Trojans go 11-3 and win a second straight Sun Belt Conference championship in 2023, with many having graduated and several others having transferred away following the coaching change.
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According to statistics compiled by ESPN college football analyst Bill Connelly, Troy ranks 129th out of 134 FBS teams in “returning production” for 2024. Only Washington, Georgia State, Buffalo, Ohio and Air Force bring back fewer of their offensive and defensive playmakers from 2023.
Between the December and February signing dates and the transfer portal, Parker will have added at least 39 new players to the Troy program by the time summer workouts begin in June. The work in “flipping” the roster begins in earnest on Tuesday morning, when the Trojans hit the field for the first time in spring practice.
“Every time you hear the number (of newcomers), it’s like ‘OK, that’s where we’re at,’” Parker said. “… We’ll keep on challenging that all the way up till June. There is no more critical time to use the word we all want to use in this profession or business and that’s the whole ‘culture’ piece. I have to be elite in making sure we know what we want our culture to be at Troy, making sure we recruit to it and then making sure our staff is echoing that the right way, the same way, all of us are on the same page.
“It is going to be a semester thing. We can’t just build culture like ‘hey, we’re going to do it in the first year-to-two years and then we’re all set.’ We’re going to do this semester-in, semester-out and yearly. And if we’re all not on the same page knowing we’re building it more so by season, more than like 3-to-5 years, you’ll lose it very quickly. So it’s critical that we do that.”
Gerad Parker will hold his first spring practice as Troy's head coach on Tuesday. Parker came to Troy after serving as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2023. (Joey Meredith/Troy athletics)Joey Meredith/Troy athletics
On offense, four-year starter Gunnar Watson is gone after accounting for 96% of the Trojans’ passing yards last season. Running back Kimani Vidal — the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 — jumped to the NFL after setting a program record with 1,661 rushing yards.
Leading receiver Jabre Barber and left tackle Derrick Graham transferred to Texas A&M, while third wideout Deshon Stoudemire and tight end Clayton Olliendieck graduated. Right tackle Grant Betts graduated, while left guard Blake Austin announced plans to enter the transfer portal last week.
The Trojans must also replace 11 of their top 15 tacklers on defense, including standout pass-rushers Javon Solomon (who declared for the NFL draft) and Richard Jibunor (who graduated), defensive end T.J. Jackson (who transferred to West Virginia), linebacker Jayden McDonald (who transferred to Indiana) and the entire starting secondary (4 were seniors, while safety Caleb Ransaw follow Sumrall to Tulane).
Eighteen players from the 39-man 2024 signing class are enrolled in school and will participate in spring practice, a group that includes three high school early-enrollees, seven junior-college transfers and eight four-year transfers. The headliners of the latter group are running back Gerald Green (East Carolina), defensive backs Devin Lafayette (Northern Illinois) and Cecil Powell (North Carolina State), linebackers Jordan Perry (Kansas State) and Brendan Jackson (Gardner-Webb), defensive end Jah-mal Williams (Cincinnati) and punter Evan Crenshaw (Coastal Carolina).
“We’ve got a big number to replace and we’re going to do it with all hands on deck,” defensive coordinator Dontae Wright said. “That’s what I told the group in the first unit meeting that we had — we’ve got to replace this and it’s going to be from the people that are in this room.
“… I want this team to play unbelievably hard, to be aggressive, to play with confidence, to communicate. There’s 11 pieces out there and they all have to do their jobs in order for people to make plays, so I want them to play together.”
The biggest unanswered question among the returning players is regarding wide receiver Chris Lewis, whose football future is in doubt after he was diagnosed with cancer in December. The 6-foot-4 Lewis caught 32 passes for 735 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2023, but won’t participate in spring practice and remains questionable at best for this fall.
Goose Crowder (9) will compete for the Troy starting quarterback job this spring after backing up Gunnar Watson in 2023. Crowder played his high school ball at Gardendale, but originally signed with West Virginia before transferring to Troy. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)AP
Of the 22 players who started the Trojans’ season-ending Birmingham Bowl loss to Duke, only five are still on the roster. One of those is Lewis, while another is linebacker Steven Cattledge, who was filling in for McDonald after McDonald had already entered the transfer portal.
Starting offensive linemen Eli Russ and Daniel King are back for 2024, as is first-team linebacker Terry Thomas. Other returnees who played extensively in 2023 are safety Keyshawn Swanson (a part-time starter last season), defensive linemen Luis Medina, Raymond Cutts and Zach Edwards, running back Damien Taylor, wide receivers Devonte Ross and Peyton Higgins and tight end Ethan Conner.
Quarterback will be a wide-open competition in the spring between junior Goose Crowder (the top backup last season) and sophomores Tucker Kilcrease and Jameson Holcomb, offensive coordinator Sean Reagan said. Crowder was originally recruited to West Virginia when Parker and Reagan were assistant coaches, which would seem to give the Gardendale native a leg up in learning the Trojans’ new offense.
“Goose was a great player in high school,” said Reagan, who returns to Troy after previously working on the Trojans’ staff in various capacities from 2008-18. “The big thing with him was, there wasn’t a route that he couldn’t throw. He’s got phenomenal touch on the football, a very accurate passer. We recruited him to West Virginia and the bottom line was, he was ready to play. I think he was third on the depth chart there, so he transferred down here.
“And the one thing about him since reuniting with him is he’s really gotten his body under control. And what I mean by that is, he’s down to about 212 (pounds) now, from — I think he was 225, 230 at West Virginia. So he’s slimmed down, his feet are faster. I’m excited to see him execute the offense this spring.”
In addition to Tuesday, Troy will also practice Thursday, then March 26 and 28 and April 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 16, 18, 20, 23 and 25. The annual T-Day spring game is set for April 27 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.