Interim coaches lead Troy and Duke into Birmingham Bowl with new leaders waiting in wings

By JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Writer

Troy and Duke both enter the Birmingham Bowl in between coaching regimes. Both teams will be led by interim coaches in Saturday’s game after Troy’s Jon Sumrall left for Tulane and Duke lost Mike Elko to Texas A&M.

The schools have already hired their successors, with Duke bringing in Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and Troy hiring Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker.

The Trojans (11-2) have won 10 consecutive games and a second-straight Sun Belt Conference championship. They’re trying to become the first team in program history with back-to-back 12-win seasons.

“What you’ve got to do is just focus on finishing the season out the right way,” Troy interim coach Greg Gasparato said. “This is a reward for the season that they’ve had: another conference championship, 11 wins to this point, trying to get No. 12 back-to-back seasons.

“And also having the ability to be the only Sun Belt team to ever beat a Power Five team in a bowl game. So there’s a lot of little motivations for this team.”

Troy’s first-year defensive coordinator Gasparato leads a defense that ranks 10th nationally in scoring and rushing defense and 15th in total defense.

Led by Javon Solomon, Troy has already set the Sun Belt Conference record with 45 sacks, ranking sixth nationally.

Solomon’s 16 sacks lead the nation, and he has 10 over the last four games. Duke has only allowed 15 sacks this season, and tackle Graham Barton was Duke’s only first-team All-ACC pick.

The biggest challenge facing Duke’s defense will be containing Troy running back Kimani Vidal. Vidal, the Sun Belt offensive player of the year and a third-team AP All-American, has run for 1,582 yards and 14 touchdowns. The program’s career rushing leader ran for 233 yards and five TDs in the Sun Belt title game against Appalachian State.

Both teams are riding bowl winning streaks. Troy’s five straight bowl victories stands tied with Georgia for the second-longest active streak, one behind Minnesota. Duke is right behind with four consecutive bowl wins.

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