Week 3 Preview: Memphis at Troy

The Troy Trojans will return home Saturday afternoon for a matchup against the 2-0 Memphis Tigers.

Troy is coming off a road loss to the Clemson Tigers, while Memphis won on the road against the Georgia State Panthers.

The Tigers and the Trojans last met in 2024, where Memphis won the matchup 38-17.

Memphis

Memphis is riding high after its second straight win to start their season. Against Georgia State, Memphis was up 17-16 at the half, with Georgia States’s passing attack causing them early problems. Georgia State completed their first 10 passes of the game.

“First half, you could have gone out there and run a seam route against us and probably scored,” said Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield. “We weren’t where we needed to be exactly in a timely fashion.”

Memphis fixed that issue after halftime and ran away with the second half to come out on top 38-16.

Memphis’s run defense and pass rush was a huge story in there win last week. Georgia State had 49 yards rushing on 27 attempts, which is an average of 1.8 yards per carry. Georgia State quarterback TJ Finley was also sacked four times.

This season, Memphis has been able to rely on their run game with a well balanced attack. Multiple running backs are averaging five yards per carry which is efficient. Memphis has a total of eight rushing touchdowns on the season compared to only one passing

The Tigers have outscored their opponents 83-26 in the first two games so they will look to keep their momentum going against the Trojans this Saturday.

Troy

Troy looked like they were on their way to an upset victory last week at Clemson. Troy dominated the first half with as 16-0 lead through the midway point of the second quarter and a 16-3 lead at the half. This was despite the fact there was a 90-minute lightning delay.

But the second half was the complete opposite, as Clemson scored 24 unanswered points to comeback and win 27-16.

Troy quarterback Goose Crowder went 19-for-31 for 223 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions, two of which came in the third quarter helping Clemson gain the momentum.

Along with the three interceptions, Troy was penalized 10 times for a total of 97 yards, two things head coach Gerad Parker took note of in his post-game press conference.

“Knowing if we execute a little bit better, little less selfish penalties, the things that lose games, we come away with one that’s special.”

Along with cleaning up the turnovers and penalties, Troy will look to reestablish the run game. After rushing for 272 yards against the Nicholls State Colonels to start the season, they only ran for 78 yards on 32 carries against Clemson, averaging 2.4 yards per carry.