Birmingham, AL – Under Interim Head Coach Trooper Taylor, Duke’s defense held Troy’s intact offense in check, used some chicanery to score, and booted three field goals to win the 76 Birmingham Bowl, 17-10. The Blue Devil defense stopped the Troy offense we watched decimate Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Championship, 49-23, only two weeks before. Troy’s Kimani Vidal tallied only 75 yards on 17 carries for no scores. Against Appy State, he carried 26 times for 223 yards and five touchdowns.

In front of 20,023 fans on a beautiful, sunny day at Protective Stadium, both teams matched in total yards and first downs with 300 and 19 respectively. To the Duke defense, credit them for holding an offense returning most key players including Vidal and senior QB Gunnar Watson. On the other hand, Duke started Freshman QB Grayson Loftis who managed the offense well enough while his defense kept Troy from crossing the 40 to score until late in the game. They halted Troy three times on all fourth down conversion attempts.

Inauspicious start for Duke

On their first possession, Loftis fumbled the ball under pressure, and Troy started at the Duke 37. A sack by DT Wesley Peebles on third down forced a 47-yard Troy FG which came up short. The Trojans would not mount a scoring threat the rest of the first half. With 2:29 left in the first, Loftis connected with WR Jalon Calhoun down the left sideline for 24 yards to spot the ball on the one. Jaylen Coleman took it over from there to put the Blue Devils up, 6-0. Coach Taylor anticipated a close, hard-fought battle, so he pulled off a bit of trickery on the extra point. Duke lined up in a spread formation to kick. Instead, long snapper Curtis Cooper looked right and snapped direct to TE Nicky Dalmolin who ran it over for two and an 8-0 lead.

Pelino on target for Blue Devils

In the second, the Troy defense halted Duke on fourth down at their 47. On the following series, Duke stopped Troy on fourth down on their 48. The result of the latter came with Todd Pelino’s 34-yard FG at Troy’s 17. Duke’s next possession started from their 25. With :04 remaining in the first half, Pelino extended the Duke lead, 14-0, with a 36-yard boot.

Collegefootballfan.com history and future

A little halftime history here. This was our first trip to Protective Stadium, but not our first game in Birmingham. As a matter of fact, this was our third. The first two were in 1979 and 1980 when we watched Auburn battle Alabama under then HC Paul “Bear” Bryant in two consecutive Iron Bowls. Both were won by Bama with the Tide winning the National Championship in 1979. Protective is a nice stadium. We recorded it as our 89th overall FBS stadium as it is the home of the UAB Blazers. We hope to see the Blazers play there next season if a convenient date falls into place when they host Navy. Both teams now compete against each other in the American Athletic Conference.

Duke vs. Troy: The Interim Coaches Bowl

Under Interim HC Greg Gasparato, Troy pulled out all the stops to start the third period. It did not help their case when punt returner Jabre Carter called for a fair catch on his three-yard line. Despite that, the Trojans got the ball out to the Blue Devil 43. On fourth and ten though, Watson’s pass fell incomplete. Duke took over there. Troy held to force a Duke punt. The Trojans drove from their 20, and with 1:36 in the third, they finally got on the scoreboard with Taylor Renfroe’s 44-yard FG to trail, 14-3.

Troy offense: too little and too late

Duke wasted no time heading into the final period. The ensuing drive finished with Pelino’s third score from 45 yards out. With 13:29 to play, Troy had time to get going. On fourth and two at Duke’s 47, the Blue Devils forced the ball over on downs once again. On the next series, Loftis floated a long pass too far, and CB Damaje Yancey hauled it in for Troy to set up shop on their 13. The Trojan offense started to put a long drive together primarily through the air. With a 30-yard completion to Peyton Higgins and a roughing the passer call against Duke, the Trojans had first down at the the Duke eight-yard line.

Troy’s turn for Trickery

The Devil defense tightened up as it did all day. Troy reverted to “trickeration.” At the two, Gasparato called for at tackle eligible play. All the action went right until Watson wheeled around to hit wide-open, starting tackle Derrick Graham with a lateral. The 6-4″, 304-lb lineman lumbered across the goal line finally realizing no one ahead of him was big enough stop him. With that score, a targeting call was made against the defense. Trailing 17-10 now, Troy would kick off at Duke’s 45. With 5:54 left, at least Duke’s onsides could pin Duke deep in their territory. They started from their 18.

Duke finally punted from the 50, but by then Troy had used all three time-outs. They started from the 11, and Watson completed his first pass. However, the second was tipped into the air by Barber, and Jeremiah Lewis intercepted. Duke ran out the clock to take home the Trophy resembling the Vulcan statue, emblematic of the iron and steel company founded in Birmingham the 1880s to supply the southeast with material to build the infrastructure throughout the South. Hence, the Iron Bowl.

Next!

Duke finished the season 8-5 and welcomes new HC Manny Diaz, former DC at Penn State. Texas QB Malik Murphy announced his intention to transfer to Duke from Texas. He will have three more years of playing time. Bringing Murphy to Duke and keeping some of the younger talent we saw for Duke yesterday, the Blue Devils could continue to ramp-up from what former HC Mike Elko started to build there these last two years.

For Troy (11-3), with the departure of HC Jon Sumrall, 23-4 over the past two years, he leaves to keep Tulane climbing up the FBS ladder. His replacement Gerad Parker, former OC at Notre Dame last season with a lot of good coaching experience, looks to be promising. However, like most other programs, he will have to determine who is coming back and who is leaving Troy to figure out how to refill his missing pieces.

Collegefootball.com season continues

We at collegefootballfan.com, have two more bowls coming up after Christmas. Next Friday, we venture to Memphis for the AutoZone Liberty Bowl to see the Memphis Tigers (9-3) take on Iowa State (7-5) from the Big XII. The next day, we’re back in Nashville for another Transperfect Music City Bowl where Auburn (6-6) of the SEC and Maryland (6-6) of the Big Ten clash. A true consolation bout for these two mediocre programs in growing super conferences this season.