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WHERE’S a Trojan horse when you need one?
In mythology, the Greeks used the Trojan horse to defeat the Trojans, but the Buckeyes didn’t come up with a similar clever tactic, suitable to football, against the USC Trojans last week.
Possibly, the OSU contingent will use a surprise strategy – as did the victorious Greeks – when they encounter another group of Trojans Saturday. It seems unusual to be opposed by Trojans two weeks in a row, and the new opponent is from Troy University in Alabama. They have reigned as Sun Belt champion for two consecutive years.
This week’s unranked Trojans are hoping the Buckeyes think Saturday’s game is a mismatch with a big school from a big conference being against one from a small conference.
“We’ll try to predict what kind of posture they will take as far as what they think about us, which is probably not very much,” said Trojans head football coach Larry Blakeney. “I don’t think their writers think much of us. The press isn’t going to have an impact on coach (Jim) Tressel or the team, but they will have an impact on what their fans think of us.
“They are wondering if we are totally out of our league, and we may be, but we are going to go there and shoot at them for 60 minutes.”
Tressel, however, isn’t downplaying the Trojans’ talents.
“Troy has got excellent speed,” he said. “They thrashed Middle Tennessee pretty good (31-17), and we all know what Middle Tennessee has done the last couple weeks, they beat Maryland and ended up on the half yard line or something and should have or could have or whatever beat Kentucky, and Troy had their way with them. And we know Troy is an excellent football team. Great speed. Great tradition.”
Tressel said the personality of the Trojans is that 10 years ago, they wanted to be Division I and decided their road to that division is to go to every great stadium in America and introduce themselves to that team. They’ve already been to several big stadiums, and one of their goals has been to schedule OSU.
The coach during Tuesday’s media conference added the men from Troy “can’t wait to stake claim to visiting a Big Ten stadium and letting people know who they are. So it will be a great challenge for our guys, one that we’re very capable of confronting and I’m anxious to get out on the practice field and go from there.”
Blakeney, who has an overall record of 138-68-1, was on the Auburn staff in 1989 when the Tigers defeated OSU in the Hall of Fame bowl.
Other members of the Trojan coaching staff also have connections with OSU. Assistant coach Shayne Wasden was a member of the Auburn team in 1989, and Troy assistant Mo Crain played against OSU four times while he was at the University of Iowa.
Commenting on OSU’s recent defeat, Blakeney said the Buckeyes “just ran into the best football team I have ever seen on the field. They (USC) may hold the record for NFL players on the field on one team. It looks like they may have 20 out there.”
Being hungry for a win is a great motivator, and this undoubtedly will give impetus to both teams Saturday.
Although Trojan senior Terence Moore referred to the upcoming contest as “just another game on the schedule,” he also commented, “You can’t treat them any different than any other team. We’ve just got to go out there and play our best. The fact that it is Ohio State just makes us more hungry to get a big win for Troy. I am sure they are going to be hungry as well. They have a good football team, and they have a good coach.”
OSU freshman running back Dan “Boom” Herron earlier this week said, “We’re hungry now. We were hurting after a big loss (at USC) …, but we’re ready to go now. We’re working hard in practice. … We’re looking forward to playing the rest of the season. We have a lot of games to go.”
In the rankings, OSU – to the Buckeye faithful’s distress – is headed the wrong way. Currently now 13th in The Associated Press list and 14th in the coaches’ poll, the Buckeyes, which began the season with a No. 2 ranking, had dropped to No. 5 prior to last week’s game.
Troy, which beat Alcorn State 65-0 last week, has a 2-0 record.
The ability to bounce back after a loss is evident during the Tressel era at OSU. During that time, in games after the Buckeyes’ 16 previous losses, OSU’s record stands at 14-2.
Saturday’s game, planned at noon in the ‘Shoe, will be televised by the Big Ten Network.