Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The preseason for the 2024 Troy University football season got officially underway on Wednesday, July 31, with the start of fall camp.

As is annual tradition in Southern Alabama, the Trojans started off fall camp battling the heat.

“Welcome to Troy and welcome to the South,” Troy Coach Gerad Parker said of the heat. “We all expected it and it’s what we train for, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some anxiety for practice one. I know I didn’t sleep near as good last night in anticipation for that and what it brings is a bit of added stress. You throw on a helmet and, before you know it, we’re out here fighting to get through it.”

While Parker said there was certainly some good to start camp, he sees plenty of room for improvement.

“I would say it was a C+ at best,” he said of what he would grade practice one. “It’s not where we want to be for us to be where we want to go and for us to have the mental and physical endurance to get through a practice and a game. It’s certainly not up to our standards yet – and we understand why – and we will get that grade moving up as we go.”

The quarterback position is one that has already gained plenty of attention, and that will continue on as fall camp gets underway.

“You saw Goose (Crowder) take a step in his leadership role,” Parker said of the quarterbacks’ work in day one. “He took care of the ball and made good decisions. Tucker (Kilcrease) and (Matt) Caldwell both took steps and looked better than they did through the summer already. (Caleb) McCreary is still young and learning and I think he’s already making progress, too.”

Parker already has a date in mind for when the staff hopes to name the starting quarterback officially.

“Our plan right now is to get through these first eight days (of practice),” he said. “We’ve had several discussions with the staff and, if it’s earned, we would like to announce (the starting quarterback) on the first day of school.”

Parker also discussed his plans for fall camp.

“We want to do four straight practices, always ending with a night practice under the lights,” he said. “What that does, is it gives us some much needed rest to sleep in and it gets us used to waiting a whole day to practice or play. We have seven night games on the schedule and we have to get used to that. Then, we’ll get an off day – day five – and do four more practices.”

The Trojans have set their goals for fall practice, as well.

“Our whole goal is that we make sure that we’ve performed up to our standards in these practices,” he said. “How we keep the ball and how we take, how we keep our blocks and how we shed them on defense and we have to be able to play hard and physical. We have to meet those standards of performance.”