What Gerad Parker said before Troy's game at Missouri

Troy is 2-0, and Gerad Parker is not satisfied. The head coach opened his weekly press conference by calling the Week 2 performance against Alabama State "a step backwards" despite the 34-17 final. Troy committed 12 penalties and scored three points in the second half after putting up points on five of its first six possessions. "It's never one thing," Parker said of the second-half stall. He pointed to quarterback inaccuracy, three dropped passes and route-running breakdowns as the primary culprits — a "culminating effect" that turned a dominant first half into what he called "a very humbling experience."

The most pointed moment came when a reporter asked what message Parker wants Troy to send on the national stage at Missouri. Parker redirected the question inward. "Everybody wants to sit in first class and very few people want to pay for first class," he said. "Everybody wants to be a starter and a contributor. Not everybody wants to pay the price it takes to be a starter and a contributor." He said an "identity crisis" exists on parts of the football team — and that it is his job to remove it. Regardless of whether the national media is watching, Parker said his standard is a blue-collar, connected team that plays with urgency and discipline. "We haven't shown that," he said. "And we sure didn't show it Saturday."

Troy (2-0) travels to No. 20 Missouri (2-0) on Saturday at Memorial Stadium — the Trojans' first road game of the season. Parker described the Tigers as an upper-tier SEC team with no holes: defensive ends "as long as you'll see," two linebackers who "play as fast as any backer we've seen on tape," a quarterback he said is as good a passer as Troy has seen since his staff arrived and an offensive coordinator in Chip Lindsey doing "a brilliant job." He praised head coach Eli Drinkwitz, now in his seventh year, for building a high-level program. Despite the challenge, Parker said two consecutive road trips — Missouri followed by Utah State — are "just the recipe" for a team that needs to bond and find its identity.

Full transcript

Opening statement — on the Alabama State performance and discipline

"Just want to say again what I'd said after the game about a heartfelt message to all those affected by 9/11 and the memorials and all the things that happened last week and certainly into the weekend and what a great job I thought Troy did of celebrating that with God Bless America between the third and fourth quarter and all those."

"And then to our game, I thought it was a great turnout, which we expected, and good energy in the stadium and weather cooperating, all those things. And then after that, I thought we saw a Troy team take a step backwards and not play disciplined football, which is a reflection of me and my leadership first to our staff and our players. That's got to be fixed and fixed quickly. There's got to be ownership on both sides. I certainly look inward as to why we did not play a better version of football in Week 2, but also a complete undisciplined brand of football with 12 penalties and all that alike. So much to do and much to attack with complete urgency as we go into a new week."

On the second-half scoring breakdown

"When you have the half you did on scoring — I believe out of five out of six possessions in the first half — and then you go and score three points in the next seven possessions, it's never one thing. It's a lack of attention to detail in accuracy from your quarterback. It's dropped passes and a lack of attention to detail in catching the football and running route responsibilities. It's a lack of finishing blocks and not running the football and converting. It's all those things, and that's the addition that adds up to where that happens."

"It's a very humbling experience for a staff, an offense, a defense, all of us when it happens. But it does not happen by a mistake or any one person. It was a complete culminating effect of all those things — which are the same things that happen when you score points and a lot of great things happened. So a lot of things added up to it, but they happened and now we got to fix them."

On the third-down struggles and film review

"As far as the protection piece of it, we protected pretty well to be honest with you. After going back and looking at it, minus a couple things early — I did not like at all how we had some issues in protection early. Even on the touchdown throw, Goose got hit and shouldn't have gotten hit. But protection honestly was pretty good. I thought a running back stepped to contact and picked up backers really well."

"There's a lot of really good stuff on the tape. Our route details, our throwing accuracy and all those things were the biggest thing. And then of course I think we had three drops. So there was a lot of things that fed it to get to where in situational football you're not clean. Those three things probably are the top of it, and if you flip four of those your numbers are really good. And that's where it was."

On injuries

"Good. We don't know exactly on two of our guys that you saw leave the game. We don't know exactly where that sits yet. We're certainly skeptical and probably aren't expecting great news. Otherwise, we're good on that front and hope to have everybody available and should be good to start the week in practice."

On the national stage and Troy's identity

"Everybody's aware as to maybe the stage we're on. Our staff has coached at places like this. Our staff has coached in games like this on both sides, and many of our players have played on those stages and many have not."

"I want our players and our fan base and the people closest to us along with the country to be able to look at our football team and associate a blue-collar approach, an edgy group that plays with urgency, execution and discipline, plays the game the right way, plays hard, plays for each other, is connected. And we haven't shown that, and we sure didn't show it Saturday."

"Everybody wants to be seen and heard and there's nothing wrong with being seen and heard. We need to. But what do you want to be seen? Everybody wants to sit in first class and very few people want to pay for first class. Everybody wants to be a starter and a contributor. Not everybody wants to pay the price it takes to be a starter and a contributor."

"And that identity crisis that exists right now in some ways on our football team has got to be removed. It's my job to remove it first and make sure that we put a product on the field that is the standards of what we believe we should be here at Troy."

"Regardless of whether it reaches national media and my comments won't go viral from this Zoom because we're at Troy and maybe our brand is not a national brand that somebody would pick up — but the fact of the matter is I'm the head coach at Troy and I expect our football team to play in a certain way that's pleasing to our team, our coaches, our wives, our kids, this administration. And that's what I want us to send a message and do. And the rest of it we probably need to put away and quit acting like we need to play for other people outside of that and just be proud of the product we do for each other and do that. And that's the reason that in my opinion we've fallen short and not done that to this point and it's got to change."

On Missouri

"In every facet of the game, they're superior talented. Their defensive line and defensive ends are long. They play three of them who are as long as you'll see and as talented a pass rushers as we'll see and have seen in a very long time. Their interior defensive linemen are massive. They have two linebackers in number zero and five that run through gaps and play as fast as any backer we've seen on tape. Their corners are 6-4 and 6-2. They're long and can run, will beat you up. Their safeties run all over the field. Their defensive coordinator aligns them. They know what to do. They know how to solve their problems."

"Offensively, they have as good a passer as we've seen since we've been here. He's thrown the football very comfortably. Coach Lindsey has done a brilliant job with that offense and does a great job calling the football game. They have a great back that's their listed number two who's not a number two back. He's very good. They have a left tackle that's a draft pick. Their offensive line doesn't give up sacks and keeps him clean. They have a slot receiver that's really good and the outside guys are equal. Their kicking game is strong. There's no holes in it."

"This is an upper-tier SEC team. Coach Drinkwitz is obviously in his seventh year and he has done a brilliant job in putting them in position to be a high-level team and it's on tape."

On road games and team bonding

"To be honest with you, we need a road game. This team needs to travel together, be on a bus together, be on a plane together, be in a territory that's not at home and have to bond in a team hotel away from everything and some distractions. We need to grow together and I think sometimes two road trips this early in the year and some long trips are really good for that. We need to find our football team and create some things that we want to be sustainable and get some things that I've already mentioned fixed, and two road games I think are just the recipe to do that. And I'm really excited for our team to travel."