A Tale of Two Losses: Troy’s Worst Back-to-Back Conference Losses

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”

Dickens wrote that way back in 1859. While he was talking about 1770s Europe, I don’t think it’s a far off reach to say it applies to the 2019 Troy football season.

The best was certainly memorable: Kaleb’s 6 touchdown performance against Texas State, the beatdown of Georgia Southern right after they had beaten App, and the production of Chip Lindsey’s offense when it was clicking.

The worst of times came on the two narrow losses to Southern Miss and Arkansas State, the rainy sludge of Missouri, and finally the back-to-back season-ending losses to Louisiana-Lafayette and Appalachian State. Those last two losses are the ones I want to focus on here.

Basically, I want to figure out what the Dickens happened this year.

“It was the age of wisdom, It was the age of foolishness,”

It should be said from the outset that I am very understanding of the handicaps this Troy team had going into 2019. The coaching change, along with a massive exodus of players on the defensive side of the ball, should have given most fans (including the writer) pause heading into the season.

I also want to make it clear I am not a fan who dwells on losses (unless you count the 9 years I dwelled on the second LSU loss). However, as a historian, it is important to me to understand what happened in a historical context, so that I can make sense of what occurred.

That is why I will be delving into a simple question: What are the worst back-to-back losses in Troy’s conference history?

“It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,”

Before diving deep into these losses throughout Troy’s history, we need to establish what years we are not talking about. From 1943-45, Troy did not field a team due to World War II.

The only other times during Troy’s conference history (1938 to now) that they did not compete in a conference was from 1991-95 switching from the Gulf South to the Southland and 2001-04 during the FBS transition years before joining the Sun Belt.

In the other 72 years, Troy only suffered back-to-back conference losses in 32 of them. The Trojans suffered back-to-back losses twice in a season (1951, 1965, 1972, 1974, 1997, 2014, and 2019). In 1988, 1989, and 2011, back-to-back conference losses happened three times those years.

Our measure for judging how bad the back-to-back losses were will be very simple: margin of victory (well, loss). This provides a clean measure for assessing these losses across the years. 

“It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,”

For the first set of games, we will look at Troy’s back-to-back losses in games where the margin of victory is less than 15 points. There have been 13 times when Troy has lost back-to-back games in this margin. 

1997 was Larry Blakeney’s only year with back-to-back losses until his second year in the Sun Belt in 2005. His two losses to Northwestern State and McNeese State in Southland Conference play made for the closest margin in back-to-back losses with 4 points. 

1972 featured a 5 point margin with losses to Southeastern Louisiana and Delta State. After this, they increased quickly in total. 

• • 1961 – 7 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1963 – 8 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1988 – 9 points – Mississippi College and Delta State
  • 1977 & 2012 – 10 points – (Mississippi College and Jacksonville State) & Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee)
  • 1965 & 1988 – 11 points – (Jacksonville State and North Alabama) & (Valdosta State and Mississippi College)
  • 1972 – 12 points – West Alabama and Southeastern Louisiana
  • 1940 & 1974 (twice)- 13 points – (Jacksonville State and West Alabama) & (West Alabama & Southeastern Louisiana) & Southeastern Louisiana and Delta State

“It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,”

The second set of back-to-back losses for Troy featured games wherein the margin of victory for the opposing team was below 30 points, but above 15.

Coach Blakeney’s other back-to-back loss in 1997 came at the hands of Nicholls State and familiar foe Texas State to the tune of 16 points. The 2005 season mentioned earlier also featured  a set of games the Trojans lost by 16, falling to Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee.

• • 2013 – 17 points – Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe
  • 1958 – 19 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1989 & 2019 – 20 points – (West Georgia and Valdosta State) & (Georgia State and Coastal Carolina)
  • 1966 & 1990 – 22 points – (Jacksonville State and North Alabama) & (Valdosta State and Mississippi College)
  • 1981 & 1983 – 24 points – (West Alabama and Jacksonville State) & (North Alabama and UT Martin)
  • 1962 – 28 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1975 – 29 points – Delta State and North Alabama

“We had everything before us, we had nothing before us,”

From here on, the point totals get rough. This section contains all the games Troy has surrendered anywhere from 30 to 45 points in back-to-back conference losses.

1951 was the only year during this period to feature two sets of back-to-back conferences losses by the exact same margin, 31 points. The first set were losses to Jacksonville State and North Alabama. The second set were losses to North Alabama and West Alabama. It should be noted that Troy went winless in the Alabama Intercollegiate Conference, due to those three and Troy being the only members. Losses to UL-Monroe and Florida International in 2011 tied with the 1951 double at 31 points.

• • 1988 – 32 points – UT-Martin and Jacksonville State
  • 1956 – 34 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1995 & 1982 – 35 points – (Jacksonville State and North Alabama) & (Delta State and North Alabama)
  • 1957 – 40 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 2011 – 42 points – UL-Lafayette and UL-Monroe
  • 1959 – 43 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama
  • 1965 and 2015 – 45 points – (West Alabama and Jacksonville State) & (Georgia Southern and Georgia State)

“We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”

• • 2014 – 46 points – South Alabama and Georgia Southern
  • 1989 – 48 points – Mississippi College and Delta State
  • 1989 – 49 points – Valdosta State and Mississippi College
  • 2011 – 52 points – Western Kentucky and Arkansas State
  • 1954 and 2014 – 53 points – (Jacksonville State and North Alabama) & (Appalachian State and South Alabama)
  • 1960 – 59 points – Jacksonville State and North Alabama

Was this really going to end any other way?

Troy’s 50 point loss to Louisiana Lafayette was already the worst conference game loss in Troy history. Anything more than a shutout or App somehow scoring one point would result in this game automatically would vault 2019 in these rankings. Instead, App scored enough by themselves to rank 12th in this list with 35 points.

The 85 point combined total sets these losses apart from all the rest, by 26 points. Not to make excuses, but this total can be chalked up to us ending the season playing the two best teams in the Sun Belt. It can also be chalked up to us having lost many players on the defensive side of the ball.

The most important bright side though is simple. We can only go up from here.