NCAA Football troy Trojans

Tuesday, we coined the term trophy coordinators, applied to college football's answers to trophy wives, hotshot coordinators hired to be paraded around on the arm of a head coach in need of a boost.

So what does a trophy coordinator think about the term? How hard is it to come into a new team with the expectation of turning around a program? We caught up with former Auburn coordinator and current Middle Tennessee State offensive coordinator Tony Franklin to find out.

Southern Miss' super freshman wide receiver DeAndre Brown had a very impressive debut season -- but it ended on Sunday night in about the worst way possible. While running a deep route to the end zone in the New Orleans Bowl, Brown stumbled and his left leg gave out on him, apparently snapping about halfway down the shin.

Brown immediately grabbed for his leg and began writhing on the ground. Southern Miss' trainers raced out to him and eventually put his leg into a giant air cast and carted him off the field.

As Brown sat up on the cart, the New Orleans Bowl crowd started chanting "DeAndre! DeAndre!" which Brown responded to by flapping his arms like a bird for the Eagles faithful.

The 6-foot-6 receiver was expected to be a top pro prospect down the road. Brown was a highly-touted recruit for Southern Miss, and proved why in 2008 -- he chalked up 66 catches for 1,108 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season, including a 221-yard, four-TD explosion versus Rice.

Video of the injury is after the jump, but be warned that it's very graphic.

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, Louisiana), which pits Troy against Southern Miss.

Overview / Matchup: Southern Mississippi, Brett Favre's alma mater, will have a short drive to the game; Troy, which won the Sun Belt with a win over Arkansas State in the league's championship game, won't have much further to go from in its campus in southern Alabama. The two teams meet down in the Byaou on Christmas Eve.

Hotels: The stadium is close enough to the center of New Orleans that you could stay anywhere in the French Quarter or central downtown and only be a short cab ride away. The Omni Royal Orleans Hotel features a rooftop pool that's open year round. Even if you're not much of a swimmer, the views are worth a trip topside. The Hilton New Orleans Riverside is located just across from the Harrah's and the Riverwalk Festival Marketplace. It offers the best all around value for bowl travelers. Budget-minded fans should consider the Chateau Dupre French Quarter. The Chateau has nice accommodations for the price and is adjacent to the House of Blues.

Restaurants: Our only advice about visiting New Orleans... eat, eat and eat some more. New Orleans is one of the only cities in America with a truly unique blend of cultures and cuisines you can't find anywhere else in the world. Bon Ton Café serves great Creole food, specifically crab, crawfish, redfish and bread pudding.

My colleague, Chris Burke, noted Penn State's struggles in the first half against Indiana coming off their loss to Iowa. If LSU was merely struggling with Troy after last week's gut-wrenching loss to Alabama it would be a similar hangover.

It is nothing like that. At halftime, Troy has a 24-3 lead over LSU in Tiger Stadium. This game was originally supposed to be played back in September but was postponed because of Hurricane Gustav. Apparently the Tigers weren't told of the new day because LSU has simply been a no-show for this game.

The Tiger offense has 63 yards and the defense has allowed Troy to throw for over 200 yards in the first half. The Trojans also intercepted a Jarrett Lee pass (who hasn't this season) and returned it for a touchdown.

LSU still has a whole 30 minutes to pull out a win. They have the far superior talent. The questions are: did they dig too big a hole and do they have those cliched intangibles to actually do it?

Unusual find in my Google Alerts inbox today -- Saturday's LSU game against Troy will be broadcast in Navajo. It will be the first SEC football game every broadcast in the Navajo language. (No word yet on whether if the remaining several hundred imperial Japanese listening will be as stumped translating as they were during World War II.)

Cuyler Frank of Albuquerque, N.M., will provide play-by-play description in the Navajo language of the LSU-Troy football game on the radio and on LSUsports.net Saturday night from Tiger Stadium.

Mr. Frank provides play-by-play in Navajo of New Mexico State University football games, and it was there that he met current LSU Chancellor Dr. Michael Martin. When Chancellor Martin came to LSU, Mr. Frank expressed interest in broadcasting an LSU game in Navajo.

Nice gesture by Dr. Martin. It's doubtful this is much of a moneymaking enterprise, especially in tough economic times, but LSU has found a way to utilize its connection to an unusual resource and expanded college football's influence on yet another segment of American culture.

One can't help but embrace hearing "Jarrett Lee throws another pick-six" in more than one language. Plus, there's a decent chance it'll be more understandable to non-native tongues than the assistant coach in The Waterboy.

Mark Hasty notes that Tony Franklin just got axed, and thus ends the most botched coordinator hire since people started paying attention to who the coordinators were.

Last year, Tony Franklin was riding high, master of a top 20 offense despite taking the Troy Trojans of Troy (We're From Troy!) into battle against foes far superior to his own. The Trojans put up 34 points on Georgia -- only Tennessee exceeded that -- and went 8-4, tying for the Sun Belt championship.

Then he got hired by Auburn and this happened:

Category	Ranking	Avg
Rushing Offense	60	148.50
Passing Offense	103	160.67
Total Offense	104	309.17
Scoring Offense	103	18.67

No doubt the Auburn fanbase celebrates at Franklin's demise, but the invaluable Smart Football points out that Tony Franklin never got the opportunity to run his Air Raid offense, which is closer to Texas Tech's spread than the awful melange of whatever Auburn threw out there. Instead, Franklin was forced to use Auburn's ponderous power back on zone stretch plays time and again, to sit Kodi Burns on the bench despite his suitability for the offense, and generally run nothing from his actual playbook.

What's the point of even having him around? You hire a guy, then refuse to let him run his offense, then fire him halfway through his first season. Yeah, Franklin didn't work out but if I was an Auburn fan I'd be pointing the finger at the head coach, not the scapegoat.

OH MY GOD HEAD FOR THE HILLS CHRIS "BEANIE WELLS" IS OUT AGAINST THE TROJANS.

... Wait just a darn minute. I remember this panic. It started last week, snowballed into a 35-3 loss, and ended with the destruction of Lehman Brothers and government takeover of AIG. Or something like that.

In one breath today, OSU coach Jim Tressel said that running back Beanie Wells is improving but he is also out for Saturday's game against Troy and there's no guarantee that he'll play against Minnesota the following week.

Ohhhhhhh. Oh. Those Trojans. The Troy Trojans of Troy (We're From Troy! (But Not That Troy)). Nevermind. Carry on with your lives.

When last we heard from rap impresario Josh Jarboe, he was being dismissed from the Oklahoma football team for having bad timing, questionable rapping skills, and a moron of a friend who posted the rap video on YouTube. Fine, Oklahoma felt they took a chance on the kid after an arrest for having a firearm. He showed more bad judgment in rapping about more firearms and using foul language, embarrassing the school and football program. Okay, time for everyone to move on.

Well, Jarboe did. He decided to go play for Troy in the Sun Belt Conference. Closer to home. Less attention. In a way, it makes sense as Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops in the announcement that Jarboe was dismissed from the football team said, "We hope he can move forward in a positive manner."

Probably not a bad idea. Of course, Oklahoma isn't making it that easy.

According to Troy coach Larry Blakeney, Trojans wide receiver Josh Jarboe currently is not eligible to play this season after transferring from Oklahoma earlier this week.

Because OU told Troy officials that they didn't refuse him admission for the fall, Blakeney said, Jarboe is now being treated as a transfer student by the NCAA, with this season being his sit-out year.

Nice. Technically the NCAA rules are the problem, and Troy is appealing to the NCAA. After all,the NCAA is so reasonable about these things.

Still Oklahoma doesn't seem too interested in making it easy for Jarboe to "move forward in a positive manner." They dismissed him from the team -- which means losing the scholarship -- but also says since he was admitted, he is a transfer.

Again, he was dismissed from the football team. He didn't quit the team. No scholarship. Left Oklahoma before the fall semester as expected. So, now he's a transfer. Kafka sends his regards.