Trey Cooley (left) and Rara Thomas (right) are two new faces for head coach Gerad Parker's "new-look" Trojans
The Troy Trojans look to bounce back from their underwhelming 2024 season with a healthy roster and the addition of some high-impact players.
Gerad Parker enters his second season as the head coach of the Troy Trojans. Year one, in a way, could be viewed as a blessing in disguise. Key injuries, the transfer portal, and adapting to keep the team united are extremely challenging tasks for a young head coach, but Parker did a phenomenal job and now has the Trojans set up to have a very good year.
When starting quarterback Goose Crowder saw his 2024 season end due to injury, Matthew Caldwell was able to step in and fill the void. On the ground, running back Damien Taylor carried the workload alongside fellow running back Gerald Green. The problem? Caldwell and Taylor are now at SEC programs for the 2025 season. This lead to Coach Parker having to explore the transfer portal and fill the voids.
With all of the moving pieces in the program, Coach Parker is not living in the past and is looking forward to successful 2025 season with veterans returning and new impact players joining the program.
🗣️ Gerad Parker pic.twitter.com/bvyN41Km3k
— Troy Trojans Football 8x⚔️ (@TroyTrojansFB) July 22, 2025
Departures
One big area of concern for any team in the modern age of College Football is losing players to the transfer portal. For the Troy Trojans, this was an issue.
Quarterback Matthew Caldwell is now a member of the Texas Longhorns, backing up quarterback Arch Manning. Caldwell was a key piece to the 2024 Trojans, producing 1,608 yards passing with 13 touchdowns to eight interceptions. Caldwell also added five touchdowns on the ground.
Running back Damien Taylor is now a member of the Ole Miss Rebels, which comes as a surprise since Ole Miss has a few veterans at the running back position. Taylor was the leading rusher for Troy in 2024, where he put up 1,010 yards on the ground, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, and seven touchdowns. Taylor also had a receiving touchdown.
Wide receiver Devante Ross heads to State College, Pa. to join the Penn State Nittany Lions, looking to be the top target for Heisman candidate Drew Allar. In 2024, Ross had 1,043 yards receiving with 11 touchdowns. He was the biggest weapon on their offense and now looks to boost his stock in the 2026 NFL Draft.
In addition to the players highlighted above, tight end Brody Dalton (Alabama), running back Jamontez Woods (undecided), quarterback Caleb McCreary (Tennessee State), offensive tackle Carlos Slayden (Southern Miss), offensive tackle Daniel King (North Carolina), guard Boaz Stanley (South Carolina), guard Zak Bowden (Austin Peay), and receiver Kevin Beckham (Hinds CC) entered the transfer portal on offense.
While some important pieces departed on defense, the Trojans were not nearly as gutted as they were on the offensive side of the ball.
Defensive back Ian Conerly-Goodly is now a member of the Southeastern Louisiana Lions after being an extremely productive member for Troy in 2024. He finished the year with 54 tackles, as well as the only pick-six of the season.
Defensive lineman Phillip Lee left for Arkansas after becoming a key piece on the defensive line in 2024. He finished the year with 30 tackles, five sacks and a forced fumble.
Safety Tyrek Thompson (Johnson C. Smith), defensive lineman Cheick Kaba (Charlotte), corner LJ Green (Tulane), safety Dorion Jackson (Tulane), corner EJ Hall (Tuskegee), safety Cecil Powell (Sam Houston State), safety Darrell Starling (Prairie View A&M), defensive lineman Kevin Norwood (East Mississippi CC), defensive lineman Ty’Quarius Perry (UT Martin), corner Semaj James (Hawaii), and long snapper Will Spain (Houston) entered the transfer portal.
Additions
While losing a lot of players to the portal, Troy landed some key names in the portal.
Wide receiver Rara Thomas joins the team after spending time at Mississippi State and Georgia. Thomas missed the entire 2024 season due to some serious legal issues, but after accepting a plea deal Thomas is poised to make an impact in 2025.
Running back Trey Cooley joins the team after spending time at Louisville and Georgia Tech. Cooley was injured in the opening game of the 2024 season and was never able to be much of a factor on offense for Georgia Tech. Now healthy, he joins Jordan Lovett and Bethune Cookman transfer Dennis Palmer in an underrated running back room.
TOUCHDOWN GEORGIA TECH
Trey Cooley will hammer it in the endzone#GeorgiaTech #Louisville pic.twitter.com/tj9Cz9WAvG
— CFB Country (@_CFBCountry) September 2, 2023
Safety David Daniel-Sisavanh bolsters the defensive secondary after spending three seasons at Georgia. After the 2023 season, Daniel-Sasavanh was dismissed from the Bulldogs for a violation of team rules and missed the entire 2024 season. Coming out of high school, Daniel-Sisavanh was highly recruited as the 131st-overall player, according to 247Sports, and the 14th-overall recruit in the state of Georgia.
Other newcomers joining the team are quarterback Ui Ale (Houston), tight end Malik Ellis (Mississippi State), corner Amare Garrett (Toledo), tailback Dennis Palmer (Bethune Cookman), offensive lineman Patrick Screws Jr. (Georgia Tech), receiver Tray Taylor (Coastal Carolina), receiver Kristian Tate (Delaware State), offensive lineman Garner Langlo (Appalachian State), defensive end Elijah Davis (South Carolina), defensive lineman Taleeq Robbins (Houston), corner Kaleno Levine (Missouri State), offensive lineman Vysen Lang (Tennessee), safety Steven Sannieniola (Vanderbilt), and corner Jaquez White (Washburn).
Troy’s recruiting class ranked 96th, according to 247Sports.
Expect to see a more balanced Troy team in 2025 and now that they are healthy, the ceiling is very high for them.
The Troy Trojans take on Nicholls at home on Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. ET to begin the 2025 campaign.
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