The boys are back in town.

From the looks of it, Neal Brown seems to have a pretty clear strategy when it comes to assembling an assistant coaching staff.

Go with what works.

And Troy fans need not look any further than the stretch from 2004-2010 to see what kind of success this new staff is capable of.

In one way or another, almost all of Brown’s hires have had a hand in the Trojans’ dominating stretch of five-straight conference titles.

Let’s face it, the last four seasons, especially this past one, in Troy haven’t exactly been anything to brag about.

Troy went from pounding conference opponents year after year, to getting stomped by those same teams in embarrassing fashion.

It would have been a dream for Larry Blakeney to go out on one last winning season. One last big hurrah. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

It left many fans, I’m sure, thirsting for the dominant days of old.

And then the hats started to drop, and they got their wish.

Brown came first.

Troy fans remember Brown’s dominating and exciting offenses in his short time as offensive assistant and offensive coordinator with the Trojans from 2006-2009, especially his last season which saw the Trojans rank third in the nation in total offense.

Scoring issues? Lack of identity on offense? Not anymore.

Then came Matt Moore.

He too worked as an offensive assistant at Troy. In 2006, he worked with Brown and offensive coordinator Tony Franklin to concoct an offense that led the Sun Belt in total passing.

Moore and Brown met again at Texas Tech from 2011-2012. And all they did there was lead a prolific passing attack that landed the Red Raiders at seventh in the nation in passing.

Moore is another strong cog in the Neal Brown offensive machine.

And newly hired offensive assistant Cornelius Williams knows Brown well. He played wide receiver for the Trojans from 2006-2009 under Brown.

Just the first of presumably many to come from the Neal Brown coaching tree.

Finally, last night, the Trojans announced the hiring of Vic Koenning.

Koenning was the defensive coordinator for the Trojans from 2003-2004. His defenses were dominant. And he coached some guy named DeMarcus Ware. You know, the All-Pro defensive tackle for the Denver Broncos?

One thing was very clear from the moment Brown was hired. Troy was sick of mediocrity. They knew who they used to be, and they know who they can be.

Athletic director John Hartwell stepped up big, locking in Brown and upping the assistant pool to $1.2 million.

From there, they looked within and brought in coaches with proven track records and big accolades.

Trojan fans should be pleased. This program is not OK with the past four years. And they are going to stop at nothing to get back to conference dominance.

Is it August yet?