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While it’s never flashy, everything on a football team’s offense starts upfront with the big guys on the offensive line.

The Troy Trojans go into 2024 with just two returning starters on the offensive line in offensive guard Daniel King and center Eli Russ.

King is the only offensive lineman to earn All-Sun Belt last year. The senior is coming off a 2023 season that saw him earn Second-Team All-Sun Belt after being rated by Pro Football Focus (PFF) as Troy’s top pass and run blocker. He allowed just five sacks and was called for just three penalties on the season. He helped pave the way for Kimani Vidal’s record-breaking season, as well. He is in his third season as a starter at offensive guard for Troy after starting his college career at Georgia Military College.

Russ came to Troy from Oklahoma State last season and he started in 13 games, allowing just three sacks in 466 pass blocking situations. He didn’t allow a single hit on the quarterback in 11-of-13 games he played in.

“We have an experienced center (Russ) and an experienced guard in Daniel King and they are both great and starting to lead that group for us upfront,” Troy Coach Gerad Parker said.

After that, though, the experience drops off. At 6-foot-3-inches and 315 pounds junior Zerian Hudson is expected to man the other guard spot. Hudson earned All-Conference honors at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College last season and was an All-Star lineman at Brookhaven High School in Mississippi.

“Zerian Hudson is a junior college guy that has continued to change his body since he got here and is learning and really has an edge to him,” Parker said. “He’s developing leadership skills, too. He’ll be a good player for us.”

At left tackle, 6-foot-4-inch, 283-pound redshirt freshman Elijah Prather seems to be in line to man that spot. The LaVergne, Tenn., native redshirted last season but was a dominant blocker at LaVergne High School.

“Prather has ascended at left tackle and he’s getting bigger and bigger and he’s really twitchy and plays hard,” Parker said.

Right tackle is much more up in the air, however. Sophomore Kyler Gibson, standing at 6-foot-5-inches and 300 pounds, manned the position during the spring but Parker and his staff knew that there needed to be more competition at the position.

“Kyler had a good spring but we had to find some competition there,” Parker said. “We brought three JUCO transfers in, three big bodies that are capable and are awesome to have that we didn’t have in the spring. I feel really good about the competition there.”

Those JUCO transfers include 6-foot-4-inch, 275 pound Zak Bowden; 6-foot-5-inch, 305-pound Casey Fua’au; and 6-foot-5-inch, 350-pound Matt Henry. A wild card on the offensive line is “Swiss Army Knife” Stanley Boaz, who can play all five positions across the line.

“Boaz is coming off an injury but has had a really good summer and he will play for us,” Parker said. “We can plug and play him anywhere.”

Regardless of who trots onto the field as the starting five in week one, Parker said he expects as many as 10 different players to play on the line early in the season.

“Early in the year I would be shocked if we didn’t play 8-10 guys to figure out who the best five in the group is,” he continued. “We want to win every game but we have to be ready to play our conference schedule and if we have found our 5-7 guys (at offensive line) by then, then I’m happy. I think we’ve definitely upgraded at all the positions there, though.”

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Quarterbacks
Running Backs 
Receivers 
Tight Ends 
Offensive Line