The five best quarterbacks on Troy’s schedule
It’s never too early to look ahead and prepare for the upcoming college football season. We’ll do that here by taking a peek at some of the best quarterbacks the Trojans will have to lineup against in 2019.
Troy hasn’t necessarily been top tier in the Sun Belt in terms of passing yards allowed per game. Several factors go into that, but the raw numbers have been trending in the right direction.
| Year | Pass YPGA | SBC rank |
| 2016 | 246.4 | 7th |
| 2017 | 231.3 | 4th |
| 2018 | 219.2 | 7th |
Where the Trojans make their mark, though, is forcing turnovers. Troy has consistently been one of the best teams in the country at intercepting passes.
| Year | Interceptions | SBC rank | Nat rank |
| 2016 | 22 | 1 | 2 |
| 2017 | 17 | 2 | 15 |
| 2018 | 18 | 1 | 5 |
The biggest schematic change the team will see this year will be in the secondary, however, with Troy switching to an outside press look in an effort to be more physical at the point of contact.
How that impacts Troy’s run of success in the defensive backfield remains to be seen but the Trojans will be challenged by talented quarterbacks all season long. Here are five of those quarterbacks:
5. Dan Ellington
This is the surprise of the list and definitely a sleeper pick. Ellington is gearing up for his second season behind center for the Georgia State Panthers and will have more wiggle room to utilize his skill set.
Ellington had one of the Sun Belt’s most lethal weapons in Penny Hart last season but will no longer have him going forward. This is a good thing. Hart was the centerpiece of the offense during his three healthy seasons.
Last season, 31.6 percent of Ellington’s passing yards were accumulated by Hart. This year, head coach Shawn Elliot can fully unveil his offense with an experienced backfield.
The senior quarterback was third among Sun Belt quarterbacks in rushing yards with 625. Among the top three, he was second in passing yards with 2,119. Ellington threw only 12 touchdown passes but only five interceptions. He had only thrown two picks through the first nine games of last season.
Against Troy, Ellington completed 20 of 36 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown. Ellington will have a full backfield of young, athletic running backs to fall back on this year.
The Panthers eclipsed 2,000 team rushing yards last season for the first time in school history. Georgia State could very well break the rushing record again this year and that will only help Ellington’s efficiency, the big area of his game that is lacking (59.6 completion percentage in 2018).
4. Jack Abraham
The Southern Mississippi quarterback is coming off of his first year as a starter following a 15 touchdown season in 2018. Abraham started nine games last season and was 5-4 in those games.
The junior completed an efficient 73.1 percent of his throws but tossed 10 interceptions during the year. His home/away and win/loss splits were noticeable and could play a factor in this year’s contest in Troy.
As a team, Southern Miss was 5-1 at home but just 1-4 on the road in the hurricane-shortened season. At home, Abraham completed an incredible 76.3 percent of his throws for 1,512 yards and 12 touchdowns to four interceptions.
He completed north of 80 percent of his throws in each of the last two home games he played against Louisiana Tech and UTSA. Abraham’s worst home game came against a Sun Belt opponent, Louisiana-Monroe. He threw a season-high 46 passes and completed 67.4 percent of them for over 340 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions.
On the road, Abraham completed just 69 percent of his passes (still great) for 835 yards. In four road games, Abraham threw six interceptions to just three touchdowns.
Abraham completed 68.5 percent of throws in losses to 78.3 percent in wins. When the Golden Eagles won, Abraham tossed 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. In losses, the ratio dipped to an ugly four touchdowns and eight picks.
If Abraham can solve his road game woes, the quarterback could give Troy fits thanks to his efficiency within the offense. Not only was he one of just four quarterbacks in the country to complete at least 70 percent of his pass attempts, not including Kaleb Barker, but he led the nation with his 73.1 completion percentage.
3. Shai Werts
Shai Werts is not like the rest of the quarterbacks on this list. Werts leads a triple option offense that recently went through a highly successful reawakening at Georgia Southern. The junior started 11 games in the disastrous 2017 season and started all 13 in the Eagles’ 10-3 season last year.
Werts finished sixth in the Sun Belt in rushing yards in 2018 with 901 yards and first in rushing touchdowns with 15. He was seventh nationally among all quarterbacks in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns.
The junior struggled on the ground against a stout Troy front seven (16-35-1) but threw for a season-high 190 yards, which was also third-most in the school’s FBS history. His two touchdown passes that day was just the seventh time since 2014 a Georgia Southern quarterback reached that mark.
Werts threw or ran the ball 39 times against Troy last season, up from 16 in 2017. In those plays, Werts averaged 5.8 yards per play in 2018 and 7.0 in 2017. The Eagles were much more balanced in last year’s game and pestered Troy with a sneaky prolific pass attack.
The same can be expected this year, especially considering the strengths and weaknesses of the Troy defense. The Trojans were particularly strong against the option run last season, giving up 246 yards on 2.8 yards per carry against Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina.
The Eagles’ 101 rushing yards against Troy was a season-low and lowest since gaining just 70 yards against Auburn on September 2, 2017.
2. Zac Thomas
Appalachian State’s Taylor Lamb replacement filled the big shoes nicely last season, guiding the Mountaineers to an 11-win, Sun Belt title winning season.
Thomas threw for just over 2,000 yards and tossed 21 touchdowns while never losing at home. It was his feet, though, that made him so dangerous last season. Thomas amassed 504 rushing yards and had a team-high 10 rushing touchdowns. His 32 total scores (one receiving touchdown) led the Sun Belt.
Against Troy, Thomas completed 12 of 24 throws for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He added another score on the ground to go along with 33 rushing yards. That was game one of two consecutive where Thomas’ air production was minimal, largely due to playcalling and weather.
Thomas actually struggled at times when playing in Boone last season, especially compared to his play on the road. The junior completed 65.7 percent of his throws on the road to 58.8 percent at home. His interception rate was also lower on the road (2.1 percent) than at home (2.6 percent).
Thomas stuck to his strengths in year one as the starter and performed well, to say the least. This year, he’ll have the benefit of playing under Eliah Drinkwitz, who has specialized in pocket passing quarterbacks. An improved arm, and thus a more consistent arm, spells danger for the rest of the Sun Belt.
1. Kelly Bryant
Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant gets the nod in this spot thanks to experience and playing on a big stage. Bryant’s 3,338 career passing yards is the most of any FBS quarterback on Troy’s schedule.
Bryant was a full time starter in 2017 at Clemson and led the Tigers to a 12-2 season and a playoff berth. This will be the second time that Troy faces a quarterback with College Football Playoff experience (Deshaun Watson-2016).
The South Carolina native transferred to Missouri after losing the starting job to true freshman Trevor Lawrence and, having graduated, is eligible to play immediately.
In 2017, Bryant threw for 2,802 yards and 13 touchdowns to eight interceptions. He was also impactful on the ground, rushing for 665 yards and adding 11 more touchdowns. Bryant had just 54 pass attempts last season, but did have a career-high yards per attempt at 8.5.
Bryant was surrounded by elite talent at Clemson and will at least have plenty of returning experience at Missouri this year. Running backs Larry Roundtree and Tyler Badie give the Tigers a trio of ground options.
Johnathan Johnson, Albert Okwuegbunam and Jalen Knox combined for 127 receptions last year and lead a pass-catching group that can easily eight to 10 players deep.
Side note with little bearing on this matchup: Bryant and Missouri will square off with Neal Brown and the West Virginia Mountaineers a month before Troy travels to the Show Me state.