Alabama NewsCenter 2022 football preview: Troy University
Running back Kimani Vidal is named as one of the team's standout players by head coach Jon Sumrall. (Troy University Athletics)
First-year head coach Jon Sumrall already knows his way around Troy University since he was there previously as an assistant coach. That has helped him more quickly get his footing among the Trojans.
“There’s a comfort level in regards to understanding the culture here and the landscape here, what football looks like here,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of things about this opportunity for me personally, that there’s some familiarity and that allows maybe a touch more confidence in how we’re doing things.
“I know what’s helped create success here in the past,” continued Sumrall, who was an assistant to Neal Brown for three seasons from 2015 to 2017. “We had a really good run when I was assistant coach here; that does have some value.”
But the top Trojan isn’t letting player stumbles from last season’s 5-7 campaign influence him too greatly.
“When I got the job in December, I really kind of started things new and didn’t put too much into what had happened,” said Sumrall, who rose to co-defensive coordinator on Mark Stoops’ staff at Kentucky. “I really evaluated what had happened previously and made sure I knew what certain players’ strengths and weaknesses had (been). But I really came in with an open mindset, evaluating each player individually and independent of what they had done historically.”
Alabama NewsCenter is taking a look at the upcoming college football season. Today, the focus is on Troy.
Alabama NewsCenter: What are the prospects for this season?
Jon Sumrall: I think we’ve got some quality young men on this team. I think they’ve been in a lot of close games over the last several years and have won five games every year for the last three years. They have been close to having some success but I think maybe just came up short in some situations. I do believe there’s some good players here and good, good young men on this roster. I think that we have enough ability that if we execute and do things with great detail and play with fanatical effort that I think that we have the potential to be a quality football team. I look forward to our guys just hopefully growing as the season goes, getting better as the season goes. I don’t think you can walk in expecting them to just already have it, have it all down right at the start of the year. You want to see continuous growth and development throughout the season.
ANC: What is the strength of this year’s team?
Sumrall: Coming into this year, a lot of people know our defensive production has been really good and we’ve got some high-level defensive players. That would probably be the first thing that jumps out. Defensively, I think we’ve got a lot of returning production in guys who have proven themselves as players to a certain extent. You have to continually show up every day to prove who you are, and we get relaxed on that. Defensively, we’ve got a lot of strengths. Offensively, this training camp we’ve seen a lot of growth and development. I probably came into this training camp and fall practice here in the last couple of weeks, really with a keen eye on who’s gonna step up and who’s going to grow on our offense. I think we’ve made some tremendous strides the last couple of weeks. I’m probably as excited about that growth as I am anything currently going on with our team.
ANC: Who are your team’s standouts?
Sumrall: On defense, you’ve got several guys I can make reference to who are very proven commodities. Carlton Martial and K.J. Robertson at inside linebacker, Javon Solomon and Richard Jibunor as edge rushers, T.J. Harris out on the edge of the field, William Choloh inside on the defensive line, Craig Slocum and Dell Pettus at safety, Reddy Steward at corner are kind of the guys that have played a lot of football here and done some really good things during their time here. Offensively, I think we’ve got some O-linemen who’ve played a lot of football as well. Austin Stidham, J.J. Andrews, Grant Betts, DeAndre Butler were all starters last year. Gunnar Watson at quarterback has been here for a couple years. Kimani Vidal at running back, Tez Johnson at receiver, Jabre Barber at receiver and Deyunkrea Lewis at tight end, Mike Vice at tight end and Clayton Ollendieck at tight end. A lot of guys have stepped up. Those are some of the guys that jump out as really having proven themselves as high-level players.
ANC: What game(s) do your fans have circled on your schedule?
Sumrall: I think any conference game, fans are always going to have importance for. But, not to be cliche’, it’s with Game 1. It’s the only game I’m working on right now, getting ready for the first. I do think conference games hold value. Home games, to me, hold a lot of value. We have some unique home games this year. You look at Army. We play Army the week of Veterans Day, so a lot of fans are probably excited about that one. They’re a really quality opponent. I think they’re all unique in their own right, and different. We’ll prepare for them all the same each week and try to put out the best product we can on the field.
ANC: What is your lingering question?
Sumrall: We haven’t officially named the starting quarterback … and then just situational work that we’ve got to make sure that we’re detailed in our execution in situations of the game that are unique that you have to be prepared for in regards to 2-minute offense, 4-minute offense, end-of-game/end-of-half scenarios. There are a lot of unique parts of the game that we have to continue to become masters of our craft in how we’re doing the game.
Alabama NewsCenter is posting season previews for all 16 college football programs in Alabama. Read previews for Jacksonville State University, the University of North Alabama, Alabama State University, Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University, Faulkner University, Tuskegee University and the University of West Alabama, and look for a new preview each weekday.
