Auburn will be looking for a Week 1 opponent, Could the Troy Trojans fill that role?
Despite only being approximately one and a half hours away from each other and residing in the same state, the Auburn Tigers and Troy Trojans have never faced off on the football field. Never.
Auburn’s football program began all the way back in 1892 and Troy’s 17 years later in 1909. Auburn has played pretty much every other non-Power-five team in the Southeast at least once.
They’ve played recent games against teams like Tulane, Samford, Alabama State, Mercer, Georgia Southern, Southern Miss and even played UAB once in 1996. So why not Troy?
Well, it doesn’t really matter but with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic altering the state of the upcoming college football season, it seems like a perfect time for the two teams to finally face off.
Last week, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) announced that they would be canceling Fall sports. On Monday, that decision became official as the conference voted to move competition to the Spring of 2021.
Auburn was originally scheduled to kick off their season on September 5. against 2019 SWAC champions Alcorn State. On the bright side, Troy’s Week one opponent, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, is also a member of the SWAC which opponents up a schedule spot for both schools.
Now, the SEC has yet to make any official decisions regarding the upcoming seasons and the conference could very well move to a conference-only schedule as the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC have already done. The SEC could also follow in the footsteps of the SWAC and cancel/postpone the season until the Spring.
But, as it stands now, both Auburn and Troy need opponents for Week One so why not finally play a game against each other? There are so many reasons why it would be a great opportunity.
For one, Troy wouldn’t have to travel far (assuming the game is played in Jordan-Hare Stadium) and although there likely wouldn’t be fans at the game, a game against two Alabama teams will always drum up some extra interest.
Additionally, Troy is coached by former Auburn Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey. Lindsey spent two seasons (2017-18) as the OC and QBs coach for the Tigers before taking the head coaching job at Troy.
And it’s not just Lindsey. The team’s offensive coordinator is former Auburn All-American offensive lineman Ryan Pugh, who won a national championship with the team in 2010.
Other former Tigers on the Trojans coaching staff include D-line coach Davern Williams and Graduate Assistant Davonte Danzey.
And although the Trojans only won five games last season after a very successful three-year stretch under former head coach Neal Brown, the Trojans are likely a team on the rise. With their current schedule, the Trojans over/under for wins this season was set at 7.5.
While Auburn is a perfect 24-0 against Sun Belt teams in their history, Troy would offer Auburn a bigger challenge than Alcorn State likely would have, at least from a talent standpoint.
We really have no idea how the 2020 college football season will unfold or if it will even happen at all but for now, Auburn should absolutely look into scheduling this in-state team. And who knows, it could be the start of a semi-regular rivalry.