Sherrod Harris
MOBILE — An emotional DuJuan Harris fought back tears after Troy’s hard-fought, 44-41 double-overtime loss to Central Michigan in the GMAC Bowl Wednesday.
Turns out, he was hoping that his first child, a son, would be born on game night.
“I was hoping he would be here tonight. It’s any day now,” Harris said. The son, who will bear Harris’ name, will be born in Tampa any day now.
“If I have a way to get back, I will,” Harris said. “If it’s the Lord’s will to get back, I will. If I can’t, then I can’t.”
But the 2008 all-conference performer who lost his starting job midseason to freshman Shawn Southward responded with the best game of the year Wednesday, running for 112 yards on 14 carries and two scores. He also caught four passes for 49 yards and a score.
He hadn’t topped 100 yards this year.
“It’s been a rough season for me this year,” Harris said. “I just had to get things back in my mind. I had to go home for a little bit and see some family. Now I’m back and the whole bowl week, I just worked real hard. I put faith in God, and God handled things for me.”
Harris had several big plays that kept drives going in the game and looked every bit like the 1,000-yard rusher of a season ago.
“I told him after the game that I was proud of him,” Troy quarterback Levi Brown said. “He’s had a tough year and gone through ups and downs, but I’m really, really proud of him. I can’t say that enough.”
Ticket sales in good shape
Troy athletics director Steve Dennis said he didn’t have a total number of GMAC Bowl tickets sold through the university — where the school makes money from the game — but had some good news.
He said the Trojans had sold more tickets through the school for this bowl than the previous three bowls combined — the 2004 Silicon Valley Classic and the 2006 and 2008 New Orleans Bowls.
“It’s evident that Troy travels, sells tickets and has support,” Dennis said before the game. “No matter what happens during the game, we get a chance to showcase our program and our university. Our staff has pushed hard and worked hard. It’s been a long five or six weeks (of selling tickets).”
Dennis said he hoped to have a final number Friday.
NFL Trojans in attendance
Former Trojans Sherrod Martin and Elbert Mack were at the game. Martin just finished his rookie season with the Carolina Panthers and Mack his second year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Secondary shakeup
The Trojans had to move things around after senior Courtland Fuller suffered a season-ending knee injury in the regular-season finale.
The two starters at safety were Willard Ross (second career start) and Bryant McKissic (first career start). Chris Bowens shifted from free safety to corner. The only regular starter was freshman Bryan Willis at corner.
Barry Valcin, an 11-game starter at corner this year, played as a reserve at safety. McKissic ended up getting his first career interception.
Levi can catch, too
Troy really opened the bag of tricks up in the second quarter.
Quarterback Levi Brown, known way more for his arm than his legs, threw a backward pass to Cornelius Williams, who fired it back to Brown for a 17-yard gain to the CMU 7.
A flag came out, and the play was first ruled an illegal forward pass as referees thought Brown’s first pass to Williams was forward instead of backward, but Troy called timeout to challenge the play, and it was overturned by the review booth, giving Brown his first career catch.
Troy couldn’t cash in, though, as the Trojans settled for a 22-yard field goal from Michael Taylor.
By the numbers
4 – Years on the contract, beginning next year, that the Sun Belt and MAC will send teams to the GMAC Bowl.
4 – Number of bowl games in which Troy has scored first.
14 – Number of consecutive bowl games MAC teams had lost before CMU’s win Wednesday night.
46 – Length of Michael Taylor’s field goal that tied it in regulation, a GMAC Bowl record.
320 — All-purpose yards by Troy’s Jerrel Jernigan.
