The Troy Trojans wrapped up their fall camp on Saturday with a final scrimmage.

“It was the last full contact scrimmage of the fall,” said head coach Neal Brown. “Offensively I thought we started off slow. Brandon Silvers has been battling strep throat and he didn’t react very well with that today. He threw a couple of bad picks that he shouldn’t be throwing as a third year quarterback.”

Thanks to a better performance by Silvers and freshman quarterback Sawyer Smith the offense got into rhythm in the second half.

“For the second scrimmage in a row I really thought the offense really moved the ball up and down the field in the second half,” Brown said. “I thought we did things nicely in short yard situations.”

Saturday was a day for younger players to shine on offense. Emmanuel Thompson, John Johnson and Ismail Saleem were sidelined, leaving the door open for guys that normally don’t see much playing time.

“We held some guys out,” Brown said. “Offensively I don’t think we played and X or Z that has ever played in a college football game.

“We were trying put in as many new faces and guys that are new into situations where they will show up and preform.”

As for the veterans, Brown is hopeful the players will be able to make an impact soon.

“Emmanuel started practicing some. We are optimistic about him getting back to playing,” Brown said. “John will be practicing next week and we are waiting to hear back from the doctor about Ish.”

The defense, which is expected to be the team’s strength in 2016, performed well on Saturday. Blace Brown, Cam Melton and Demetrious Cain all had interceptions.

“I was really proud of the guys,” the coach said. “Brown, a guy we moved over from receiver, made a great play, probably the best play we have had all camp. We had had three interceptions by that first unit on defense. We stress takeaways all the time, and those guys stepped up and did that.”

Brown is starting to turn heads and should be placed in the rotation at cornerback.

“He will be,” Coach Brown said. “We purposely gave him a lot of snaps today. We played him a lot with the ones at corner and I though he stepped up. I am really happy with him. He has been really selfless throughout the whole transition.”

The special teams struggled during the final tune up. The kickers missed field goals and the snappers botched snaps.

“I was disappointed with our specialists and how they performed,” Brown said. “I expect more out of our punters, snappers and our kickers. I don’t think we had a very good showing today. Those guys have performed well in games for us so I am not losing confidence in them by any means, but I am just disappointed in how they preformed today.”

With less than two weeks remaining until kick off the Trojans will get back to work and begin getting ready for their first opponent Austin Peay.

Kickoff between the Trojans and Governors is set for 5 p.m. on September 3 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.