What Troy's Gerad Parker said ahead of the home opener against Sam Houston

Troy hosts Sam Houston Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium to open the 2026 season, and Parker used his Monday press conference to make one thing clear: the offensive line that was outrushed in seven of eight games has been overhauled. Four of five starters are new, and Parker was blunt — "It needed to be different. That lineup should look different. We did not play well enough at that position."

Two January arrivals, defensive tackle Ty Clemons and offensive lineman Luke Petit, were voted team captains. New coordinator Adam Austin brings a system that led the FCS in scoring at Tarleton State. On Sam Houston, Parker warned that the Bearkats' backs are hard to tackle and their defense will show multiple fronts with heavy pressure.

Clemons, Petit and consensus preseason All-American punter Evan Crenshaw also met with media.

Full transcript

On what he expects to see Saturday:

Gerad Parker: I expect us to play well in every phase. You should see a tough physical football team that plays extremely disciplined and hard. Discipline — do your job repeatedly for team glory. That's it. We were too penalized of a football team early in the year last year in the first four games. That's been addressed.

On the captains — two newcomers voted by teammates:

Parker: Ty Clemons. He knows this area well, knows this state well and is really playing to give it to Troy. And he said that publicly and to his teammates.

Luke Petit. He is a no-nonsense approach with an awesome personality and some sarcasm that I can dig with. But he's tough, he's durable, he's smart, he's in this building as much as any of our coaches are and has earned the right to be a captain as well. His OL coach at Furman was Matt McCutchen, a college teammate of mine. When Matt McCutchen described him the way he did, I trusted him as a past teammate that I also admired and thought was a captain as well. And turns out he was spot on.

On the offensive line — four of five starters brand new:

Parker: I'll be pretty candid here. It needed to be different. That lineup should look different. We did not play well enough at that position. That group is much improved. It now has to produce that way, but it is much improved.

On co-OL coaches Caleb Carbine and Kevin Reiner:

Parker: What better way to mock it than to set it up like a room does in the NFL where there is a lead offensive line coach, but also another assistant offensive line coach in there that are both very capable. So, they share responsibility. They speak in the staff room the same way. They split meetings the same way. Everything is a 50/50 cutup. When you put two capable men in a room, you've just told your offensive line how important it is that we be good and that we serve them well to be coached the right way.

On the rushing game — outrushed in seven of eight games:

Parker: We've got to run the football better. Sack yardage and loss yardage plays kill rushing as well. And that was something that was huge for us last year. Our quarterback was hit too much and sacked too much, that killed our rushing yards as well. On defense, as good as we were at times, we had some gap integrity issues that gave up big runs at times and usually happened once a game or more.

On the kicker battle:

Parker: Ethan Head has separated himself. We don't know how that finishes. Everybody's got to continue to fight for those. Hayden Wolf and Jaylen Ballard are still in the mix for opportunities.

On the punter:

Parker: That was a weapon that won us games when we weren't very good statistically in other areas on O and D. We would like to use him less this year. Sometimes punting the football is not a bad thing.

On Patrick Screws earning a starting job:

Parker: His body's changed. He's lost a bunch of weight, put himself in a better position to play at a higher level, which has allowed him to also play longer and be more efficient during series.

On strength coach Ben Sers and the physical transformation:

Parker: Our big people are slimmer but stronger, if that makes sense. We are faster at every level of our defense and offense. The ability of our football team to play lower. Learn how to push off, push foots and not fall steps, start and stop better.

On Donnie Smith — 14 pounds heavier, now an all-down player:

Parker: He no longer looks slim if you look at him. He's become far more explosive than he even was last year. And instead of now maybe being a third down guy or ways to get him on the field for pass rush, he's an all down player. Instead of it just looking like sacks, I certainly believe it'll turn into TFLs and the other things that are associated with playing the run more.

On Sam Houston:

Parker: Both backs are very difficult to tackle and are good players. If we don't leverage the football properly and tackle those backs and stop the run with this group, this could give us problems in game one. The same electric wide receiver that's a problem that got a bunch of touches is also a really good returner. Predominantly three down at the end of last year. So we're going to have to be ready for multiple looks up front of three down and four down fronts. They're aggressive. They pressure a large amount.

On the wide receiver room:

Parker: It's been as competitive as a room and situation from spring practice through fall camp as we've had on our team. It's the deepest room we've had at wide out in our three years here now.

On the new offense under OC Adam Austin:

Parker: You're going to see us move faster at times, move really fast at times. I think our guys are able to play faster in this offense and what we've changed. I think it'll be a very enjoyable product to see on the field. How we're going to push the ball vertically but also still run the football.

On the Year 3 mindset:

Parker: Do this job better than anybody in the country and earn the right to make sure that we do that. Did I get the operation to become its best? Did I push the right buttons for them to become their best? And did I lead them in such a way that says, Coach Parker's a good man. He pushes us the right way and stands for what's right. If they do that at the end of the day at the end of this year, then I can sleep at night. We'll figure the rest out.

On health:

Parker: As it sits right now, we are very available.

Ty Clemons, DT, Captain

On fall camp:

Clemons: I think fall camp went amazing. Felt good to go through a hard time with the guys. I think that makes a good team going through hard things together, learning how to handle hard the best.

On being named captain:

Clemons: It means everything. I mean, I'm not sure if it should have, but it was very nerve-wracking. Obviously, everyone wants to have that title, but it means a lot to me for my teammates to feel that way about me.

On coming back to Alabama:

Clemons: Being back at my home state, it definitely adds something to it. Being around people that talk like I do. They don't necessarily have an accent.

On leadership style:

Clemons: I just try to give guys tips here and there. Obviously Coach Parker always sets the standard and I just do my best to try to uphold it on the field and off the field. I'm not going to say I'm the most vocal, but I'm not going to say I'm not vocal at all. Really in between right there and definitely lead by example.

On fall camp focal point:

Clemons: Plug in and compete. When things don't go the way we wanted to, what are we going to do? How are we going to respond? The answer is always plug in, compete. Or when we have success, we're doing great. That doesn't mean let off the gas. That means go out there and still plug in and compete.

On the offensive line:

Clemons: I love the offensive line. Obviously, this is my first year here, so I'm not positive what the O line was like last year, but I love the offensive line that we have. We go at it every day and I try to make them better and they in return make me better.

Luke Petit, OL, Captain

On the new offense under OC Adam Austin:

Petit: New offensive coordinator, new to me, new to Troy. I've seen a lot of fun stuff. I feel like our offense has a way of playing together and making each other right and still being able to be explosive and as well as physical in the run game.

On the offensive line coming together:

Petit: This is a new offensive line and a lot of new pieces coming in. Not some of the guys might not have too much experience, but there's a couple guys that do have a lot of experience. I've seen a lot of coming together. We're in a rush to see how connected we can get in these past eight months and in the season. I think we've done a really good job at that.

On defensive players that stand out:

Petit: Ty Clemons and Donnie Smith, two defensive captains are guys that I consistently feel like are making me better and pushing me every day.

On center Cappy:

Petit: Goose is just a guy who I want. He's steady. He's level-headed. He's consistent. Every day he's going to be a good leader. He's going to be doing the right things in the right place at the right time. He's clearly an older leader as well. He knows that and takes advantage of leading, understanding that when he speaks, people listen.

On his play style — four career penalties:

Petit: For people that don't know me, I'm a little bit smaller. I'm not a 6-6, 320-pound guy. I'm a little bit smaller. But I'd say my play style is going to be hard, aggressive, kind of like a gnat that you're trying to swat away. Just being annoying, pesky, staying on guys. Don't let your guy make the play. Five yards of holding really, whatever, it just let go. It ain't that important. There's a time to let go and there's a time where you can kind of keep it in that gray area, but you got to let go.

On what will surprise fans this year:

Petit: We've basically got half of a new team from this past year. I have got the feeling in my time here that there's been a big change in culture and the way that things have been done and the way we have executed as a team. Things are on the up and up and being done a little bit different here. Not that things have been done bad, but we're trending in the right direction.

On similarity to the Furman offense:

Petit: Very, very similar type offense. A lot of the same schematic type plays, really just some of the finer terms and language things get changed around a little bit. A zone scheme is a zone scheme pretty much everywhere, might be a little wrinkles here and there.

On being named captain as a newcomer:

Petit: That means everything. I'm just very blessed to be in the situation where people view me like that. Words can't really describe what it feels like to have your teammates trust you and view you that way.

Evan Crenshaw, P, All-American

On how it felt to kick indoors at NDSU:

Crenshaw: It's a good time. I haven't done that in a while. It really just helps you show your strengths because it helps the ball fly true rather than having outside factors affect it. Didn't do a good job in the game, but pregame I felt great and was seeing the ball come off the foot really well. Just didn't execute when the time came.

On being a leader as a kicker:

Crenshaw: For me, just being a leader starts in our room because we have a lot of different pieces than we did last year. I think we traveled only two returners from last year in the special teams room. So having that — that means we have a lot of different parts that have come in and don't really know how we do things. So being able to take them and kind of show them the way we do stuff and doing things the right way myself so that I'm teaching them the right way — it just starts with me.

On looking back at the New Orleans Bowl opportunity as a springboard:

Crenshaw: When I first got the shot, I was just in my head like, man, I'm really lucky that I get this opportunity. Not many people are able to say that they got an opportunity like that. So just being able to take advantage of that. And then kind of just having the success we had in that game gave me the confidence — oh, I can play at this level. Going into the spring and having a really good spring that next spring and then fall camp, having a really good fall camp, finishing on that note and then going into the '24 season — I had some success there. Like coach Kelly said earlier, momentum snowballs. You kind of feel that as you keep going and you just kind of try to stack days. You take a quarter and you stack it up, and over time you've got a whole stack of quarters and you're sitting there ready to cash it in. That's how I feel about it.

On preseason All-American accolades:

Crenshaw: It just goes to kind of show all the work that I put in, not just that got put on display last year, but the previous three years that nobody really saw or really cared about. Even when I was redshirting in 2024, it's just really cool to see the accumulation of all that. The preseason awards are great, but the big thing for me is just going out there and proving them right.

On long snapper Coach Balls:

Crenshaw: He's amazing. We've been in this for a while, three years now. He's always been a great friend of mine and always been by my side with everything and he's super reliable. He cares about his craft. He's super detail-oriented. And he makes my job way easier. And that's a big reason of why I stayed here as well.

On why he stayed at Troy:

Crenshaw: When I committed here in 2024, I committed to James Wano and then he took another job the next day. And so I was in kind of an awkward situation where I just had to trust Coach Parker and I did. And he's been nothing but great ever since I've gotten here. If you leave or go somewhere else, you don't have that kind of respect or rapport that you would at a place like here, like being a guy that's been here for three years now. I feel like it's my job to kind of pay it forward. And so with the relationships that I've built with our current guys now, I'm in a position where I can pay what Scott and all the leaders that I've had in my career, I can pay that forward.