TROY PREVIEW: New-look Colts ready to bounce back
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
TROY — When it comes to Troy football, the Colts’ recent performances on the field have been subpar.
Troy is 14-13 in the past three years, with its lone playoff game a loss.
This year’s team has had enough of that — and it’s ready to put an end to that trend.
“(Last year’s record of) 3-6 is just not acceptable,” Troy head coach Gary Griffith said.
“It would be great, not just to get to the playoffs, but to win games,” fourth-year starting offensive lineman Greg Webber said. “That’d be huge, just for our school in general. Last time we actually won a playoff game, we got pretty far.”
A run like that is the players’ expectation at camp.
IN GOOD HANDS: Troy’s Joe Leonard is one of many speedy players who hope to do some damage in the open field for the Colts this season. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
“We expect to make the playoffs,” senior captain Justin Losey said. “We’re doing everything we can, any extra things we can do, to win the big games.”
The Colts have tweaked the offense and defense to improve on last year’s record.
Backs and Receivers: Troy adds a slew of athletes this year, including twin transfers Torrance Jr. Cherry and Terrance Cherry and Southfield transfer Juwuan Jackson. All three bring electric speed to the Troy spread offense, along with senior slot receiver Joe Leonard.
“(The Cherry twins) both have very similar skill sets,” offensive coordinator Duane Losey said. “They’re very quick in space and small boxes and have decent vertical and horizontal speed.”
However, the Cherry twins transferred from military school, where they did not play football. The last time they were in pads was as freshmen at Sterling Heights three years ago.
“That’s quite a hiatus from the sport,” Duane Losey said. “(Contact is) something that they probably haven’t experienced in a couple years. That’s something that’s going to have to be experienced again.”
The Cherry twins and Jackson have worked at running back and slot receiver.
Another change to the offense is under center, where junior Jay Darish will start at quarterback. Darish started for the junior varsity team as a freshman and learned from starter Justin Losey last year on varsity.
Griffith and Duane Losey believe Darish brings a better deep ball to the offense. Now, the athletic Justin Losey has a chance to make plays elsewhere, such as wildcat quarterback, running back and slot receiver early in camp.
“Jay’s just too good of an athlete not to have on the field,” Griffith said. “I had a luxury of Justin Losey and Jay (at the same time) and in order to get both of them on the field, I thought the best move was to put Jay at quarterback. It just gives me the best of both worlds.”
Losey and his dad said the adjustment to wideout was fairly smooth.
“Justin’s a very athletically intelligent kid, so on the outside I think Justin adds the ability
to be able to read defenses while running routes and/or carrying the football,” said Duane Losey. “He can see the field, much like a point guard in basketball.”
“I think I have it down now,” Justin Losey said. “I’m just fine-tuning everything right now.”
The Colts have solid depth at wide receiver, with seniors Quincy Walker, Drew Braun and Mike Barto and freshman Derek Daschke. Senior Tommy O’Donovan started at wideout in the Black and Silver scrimmage Saturday.
Offensive Line: The Colts boast their biggest and most experienced offensive front in ten years.
They bring back senior right guard Webber (6-feet-4, 290), senior center Brian Johnson (5-9, 210) and senior right tackle Connor Hayden (6-2, 200). Last year’s left guard Tommy Richardson (6-4, 295) will move to left tackle, giving Troy four returning starters on the line.
That leaves only left guard, where junior Damian Howard-Doney (6-2, 300) started the scrimmage. Seniors Omar Hamed (5-9, 210) and Nico Adamski (6-1, 235) are also candidates.
The offensive line will bring eight years of varsity experience into this season, something
Griffith said is even more important than its size.
“Offensive linemen have to work together,” Griffith said. “The more time they spend together, the more looks they get, the more comfortable they feel, and when something happens, they don’t have to stop and analyze it. It becomes a reaction.”
“We’ve been together a long time,” Webber said. “Our calls are going to be easy. We can have more plays from our playbook, and our offense will be larger.”
The experience will also help the line against defensive fronts. With the size difference, opposing defenses could line up with different stunts to try to keep Troy off-balance.
That’s why, according to Griffith, experience is the biggest key.
“It’s like having a Ferrari with a bad engine,” Griffith said. “I don’t care what it looks like on the outside. If it doesn’t run, it’s not worth much.”
Front Seven: The defensive front won’t come close to the offensive front in experience.
The linebackers corps will be all underclassmen, with sophomore Chase Fayne coming up from the freshman team to play strong-side outside linebacker. Junior Davis Strobridge will play middle linebacker and juniors Joe Lee and Erik Soreide will battle for the weak-side outside linebacker spot.
Strobridge will lead that group after playing five games on varsity last season.
“I have tons more confidence,” he said. “When I get my reads, they’re so much more fluent. Last year, I was just an itty-bitty sophomore getting wrecked by big men. This year, I’ve developed, I’ve gained strength, and I just have much more confidence.”
What Troy lacks in experience on the defensive line, it makes up for in depth. Sophomore Chris Koumoutsopoulos — who also came up from the freshman team — as well as juniors Alex Dello and Howard-Doney are first-year starters. Hayden, a defensive veteran, will also play both ways. Richardson, Webber, Hamed and Johnson could also see time on the interior.
Only Hayden has extensive starting experience. But Strobridge said it’s the mindset that matters most.
“Last year, we just had no attitude at all,” Strobridge said. “We were so monotone, no screaming. We weren’t going in for the kill. This year, we have a new attitude.”
And that new attitude is aggressiveness, getting to the ball with intensity.
Secondary: As a whole, Griffith wasn’t pleased with the performance of his defense last season.
“We weren’t good at anything last year defensively,” Griffith said, adding that the problem was talent. “It wasn’t the X’s and the O’s, it was the Jimmys and Joes.”
Griffith and secondary coach Jim Pobursky paid a visit to Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison and secondary coach Greg Mallory to try to improve those efforts.
What they came away with was a simplified defensive scheme, based on only one front and some different looks coming out of that front.
“We helped the other team too much,” Griffith said. “A five-yard gain is a five-yard gain. It doesn’t need to be a 15- or a 50-yard gain. Too many times last year we let a normal play pop for a big gain, and that’s just not acceptable.”
Newcomers Quincy Walker and Jackson will play cornerback in this scheme to try to shore up the defense. The safety position is deep, with Losey, juniors Danny Wunderlich and Justice Bigelow and seniors Mike Barto and Drew Braun.
“We feel we have a lot of potential,” Griffith said, “but potential’s just another way of saying you haven’t done it yet.”
(Jake Lourim is a junior at Troy High School and a member of the S.H.P. Media Group / www.northoaklandsports.com Student Correspondence Program. He is publisher of website www.troycoltsportsupdate.com and a member of the Troy school newspaper editorial staff. He can be reached by e-mail at j.lourim@comcast.net)
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