What Gerad Parker said before Troy's game vs. Alabama State

Troy head coach Gerad Parker came out of the Trojans' season-opening win over Sam Houston pleased with his team's resilience — and blunt about where it needs to improve.

Parker singled out his offensive line during his weekly press conference, issuing a direct challenge before Saturday's home game against Alabama State (3 p.m., Veterans Memorial Stadium). "Trust what we ID and what we do and let's play like we practice," Parker said. "Come on. They've worked too hard. They're better than they played up front." Troy allowed four sacks in the opener, and Parker said cleaning up pass protection is a priority this week alongside better play from receivers and the return game.

The defense, meanwhile, earned Parker's praise for the way it responded after Sam Houston scored first. Troy's defense didn't allow a point from the second quarter through the final minute of the fourth, finishing with 13 tackles for loss and four sacks. Parker credited coordinator Dante Wright and the defensive staff for halftime adjustments and said the unit's ability to settle down without an emotional breakdown is a sign of the program's growth entering year three. "I think it would have taken us longer — or even weeks or maybe a couple games — to recover and get ourselves settled on defense in the past," Parker said.

Looking ahead, Parker said Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body presents a difficult challenge as a dual-threat passer and runner. "He's like a running back," Parker said. "He's got a thick lower half. He's strong. He breaks a ton of tackles. And then he can throw it down the field." Parker also provided a positive injury update, saying Troy came out of the opener "extremely healthy" and that receiver Howard Kinchen, who missed the Sam Houston game with a fall camp issue, is expected on the practice field this week.

Full transcript

Opening statement

Gerad Parker: "A few things I'd like to start with. Some shout outs. We had many new players join our team from January till now that made their first snaps as Division I football players here at Troy. Happy to see a bunch of our team get to do that. With that, we had a bunch of guys learning how to do different jobs and roles and responsibilities both in the game and during our two practice weeks leading up to it."

We saw some guys take some steps and learn how to prepare, whether they're going to get real reps in the game or preparing our football team in practice. We had some scout team players of the week that I'm going to celebrate each week this year. On our offensive side of the ball, that was Hayden Dozier, a new addition for us. Jackson Villegez-Williams, our true freshman defensive lineman, won defensive scout team player of the week. And then Jack James was our scout team special teams player of the week, which tells you a lot about who he is and how he is serving our team both as continuing to get better at quarterback but also becoming a special teams player.

In our game on Saturday night, our offensive player of the game was Goose Crowder. Our defensive player of the game was TJ Thompson. And special teams was true freshman Jaxon Penn, which is pretty neat to see him progress.

Overall, much to fix. By no means are we pleased. There are so many things that we have to improve upon in all three phases, but I thought our guys played hard. I was really happy to start the game in the Vet and become 1-0. Our guys celebrated playing hard. We got better as we went throughout the game. Played our best football in the second half and connected to each other pretty well. But again, plenty to fix and plenty that we've got to get fixed today with urgency in order to keep playing winning football. Happy with our start and certainly excited to play and welcome a great opponent in Alabama State, who's tremendously talented and has a great player at the quarterback position and a winning tradition. It should set up for a very big matchup for us at 3 o'clock on Saturday.

On what stood out on film from the Sam Houston win

Gerad Parker: "I'll take one item from each phase. First, in special teams — when you turn on the tape, we played really hard on special teams. Our effort in every phase of special teams, I was really impressed by our effort and physicality for the most part. There's things we have to execute better, but Crenshaw punted the football the way he should. Really good effort by everyone there."

On defense, our resilience — after we gave up a few things that we would not be pleased with, I thought we had great resilience and played havoc defense with, I believe, 13 tackles for loss and four sacks. Not giving up a point from that point in the score in the second quarter all the way to the last minute of the fourth quarter. A lot of good there, and we stopped the run.

Offensively, we ran the football. There's things we've got to fix in our protections. Much that we can do better over there that were uncharacteristic of us than what we had shown in practice and preparation, and I think we will improve very quickly on. But we ran the football well. We committed to it. There's things we did well in the run game that are signs for good growth, especially coming up.

On the defense's halftime adjustment and TJ Thompson's interception

Gerad Parker: "I think you do have to compare where we are as a program, because there's enough years here now to where we can say, OK, where was this year one, year two, now year three. I think it would have taken us longer — or even weeks or maybe a couple games — to recover and get ourselves settled on defense in the past. For us to have gotten settled after a half and done it with maturity, we really didn't have an emotional breakdown of things. There was nothing on our sidelines of panic. I thought our staff and our players really tied to each other pretty good and got some things really fixed and settled in really well. That's a compliment to Dante and the staff and how they managed it at halftime."

To see our players go out and play a little bit more physical — I just thought we may have been passive a little bit. Watching the tape, our backers and our guys shooting gaps and taking care of the ball, which led to the tackles for loss, were pretty evident in the second half. I thought that's a good sign to have happened this early.

On the team's health and Howard Kinchen's status

Gerad Parker: "Knock on wood, we're in a great spot coming out of game one. Extremely healthy. Very pleased — a testament to our strength and performance team along with athletic training and medical. Howard is obviously coming off of some stuff from fall camp that is nothing that's going to be long-term at all. We feel good about him getting back involved this week, and we'll continue to see where he is. He will be on the practice field this week and we'll see where it stands at the end of the week."

On Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body

Gerad Parker: "In our age of college football, the hardest guy to defend is a guy that can throw it and run. That's it. He's a very good runner. He's like a running back. He's got a thick lower half. He's strong. He breaks a ton of tackles. He's got decent top-end speed, but he breaks a bunch of tackles. He's smart with how he runs and escapes. And then he can throw it down the field and he gets the ball out of his hand. That's what makes him a very good player — because he has both abilities."

On Gavin Griffin's debut (81 rushing yards vs. Sam Houston)

Gerad Parker: "I felt like he approached the game much like he does practice. He wasn't too torn up about playing in his first game here at Troy or playing in front of our home crowd. He was physical. He stepped out of some runs and broke tackles, which is an elite trait of a back — you better have that. He broke some tackles and for the most part had really good eyes and put the ball where it was supposed to be. There were some cuts he'd want back that we missed. Physical, sound in his assignments, and he played settled and poised for his first game out there in front of everybody. It looked very similar to practice for him."

On the atmosphere for Troy-Alabama State

Gerad Parker: "They've got a storied tradition, a winning tradition. There's a lot of respect there. I think it's great for the Wiregrass. This is a bunch of people in our area who care about the sport of football, and I think it's really good for our area. It'll be really good for our stadium. It's going to be a great crowd. I think there'll be juice. I think at the (Sam Houston) game, Adam said there were about 29,000 people here. So it'll be a rocking crowd. I think it'll be great for both teams to play in front of a crowd like that. Clearly, football is pretty important here at Troy as well. We need our fan base to show up and show out. It's going to be a great Week 2 matchup for us to have to play yet another quality opponent in a big-time atmosphere this early in the year."

On the team's resiliency in the opener

Gerad Parker: "I've thought a lot about it over the last 48 hours, just reflecting on where we've been in the past and now. Anytime you can win games like that against Group of 6 opponents — comparable opponents with similar backgrounds — and how we got to prepare for the heat and weather and all the things, there was a lot of equals. It was a really good sign for us to be able to keep our poise about us when we got down in the game and go through some adversity throughout a game together that we have yet to experience with an all-new roster and all those things."

It's good for us to see that — hey, don't panic, just execute. How do you plug back into each other and compete and move forward? Those are good things to have happen, and they're better when you do those and win football games. As my dad would say, some people will put out the 'you can learn from losing.' We'd much rather always learn from winning. We've got to do it with the same urgency as if we would have lost a game, but we want to learn by having success and figure out ways to finish football games. To do that in game one is certainly a building block, if we let it be.

On improvements needed from Week 1 to Week 2

Gerad Parker: "At offensive line — trust what we ID and what we do and let's play like we practice. Come on. They've worked too hard. They're better than they played up front. We need to take a step and do what we practice. I expect our offensive line to play better and be better up front this week. Same thing with our wide receiver play and skill position running backs, for the most part, top to bottom."

Defensively, I want us to come out and carry momentum from the second half, take shots at the ball and run around and play reckless like we did in the second half. On special teams, I expect us to cover better on punts when Crenshaw isn't at his best, and we need to get more out of the return game. Those are the three areas that we better see big climbs on, because we've been better than that.

On the challenges Alabama State presents

Gerad Parker: "They're a winning-tradition program. The players there are used to winning. They've got an excellent player at the quarterback position, but they have excellent players all over the field. They've built a great roster there. They will not at all be in any way intimidated or bothered by coming to Troy to play. It'll be a great environment."

The biggest challenge is they're a good football team. We'll have to be gap-sound on defense to keep this quarterback away from running the football and beating us with his legs and his arm as much as we can. It's a tough challenge because they have capable backs and receivers to make plays as well, and they're good up front. Defensively, they're disruptive. They've got a strong nose player that can give us issues in matchups. Their corners are good players and playing better this year. They have two special players at safety. Across the board, they're a good football team with good personnel.

On OC Adam Austin's first game calling plays

Gerad Parker: "I thought he was very poised and for the most part called a really good game. There were no mishaps. We didn't get personnel on and off at a wrong time. We didn't have any issues getting play calls out. He was a pro with that stuff, which was to be expected. All the systems were in check."

We expect to play better. By no means is anyone pleased on offense with some of the things we did. We just made some uncharacteristic errors, unforced errors — Troy beating Troy on offense at times, things we hadn't done. I expect us to take a big step up front. That will help us play better and certainly be better in the pass game. We've got to keep our quarterback cleaner. But I'm proud of the steps made in our run game and some areas that allowed us to remain somewhat efficient and create explosives that got us to putting up 24 points.