Troy Holds 10-4 Edge Over South Alabama Heading Into 15th Battle for the Belt in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. — The 15th edition of the Battle for the Belt arrives Saturday night with bowl hopes on the line for both South Alabama and Troy. The Jaguars and Trojans meet at 6 p.m. at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, each carrying a 4-5 overall record and a 2-3 mark in Sun Belt Conference play. With three regular-season games left, both programs need two more wins to reach bowl eligibility.

History favors the visitors. Troy owns a 10-4 advantage across the 14 previous meetings and has taken seven of the last eight. Yet a recent pattern points the other way: each of the past three matchups went to the host school, and South Alabama’s most recent victory in the series came in Mobile, a 25-9 decision in 2024.

The Series at a Glance

• All-time record: Troy leads 10-4
• First meeting: 2012, a 31-10 Troy win in Mobile
• Last meeting: Troy won 31-24 in overtime in Troy in 2025
• South Alabama’s wins: 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2024
• Closest game: Troy 34, South Alabama 33 in 2013
• Lowest-scoring game: Troy 10, South Alabama 6 in 2022
• Only shutout: Troy 29, South Alabama 0 in 2020
• Only overtime game: 2025

How the Belt Became Part of the Rivalry

The two schools, separated by a few hours of highway in south Alabama, first met on the football field in 2012. That season marked South Alabama’s debut as a full member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, and Troy welcomed the newcomer with a 31-10 win at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

The rivalry picked up its now-familiar name three years later. Ahead of the 2015 game, student government leaders at both universities gave the matchup its Battle for the Belt name and arranged for a championship belt, modeled after the kind awarded in professional wrestling, to go to the winner each year.

South Alabama’s Four Victories

2014: South Alabama 27, Troy 13

South Alabama’s first victory over Troy came on the ground at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Kendall Houston rushed for 178 yards and Xavier Johnson added 107. South Alabama clung to a 10-6 lead in the middle of the third period until touchdown runs of 14 yards by Johnson and 41 yards by Houston opened the game up. Troy did not score a touchdown until about a minute remained, when Dontreal Pruitt connected with B.J. Chitty from 8 yards out. The Jaguars, then 5-2, later reached the Camellia Bowl, the program’s first bowl appearance, and lost to Bowling Green to finish 6-7.

2015: South Alabama 24, Troy 18

In the first game played under the Battle for the Belt banner, quarterback Cody Clements threw for 205 yards and found Gerald Everett for two touchdowns as South Alabama built a 21-8 first-half lead. Troy rallied, but the Jaguars’ Akeem Lewis stuffed Brandon Burke short of a first down on a fourth-down run from the Troy 43 to seal it. South Alabama later finished 5-7, while Troy went 4-8 in Neal Brown’s first year as head coach.

2017: South Alabama 19, Troy 8

The Jaguars’ third win in four seasons came at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, only 10 days after the Trojans had upset LSU in Baton Rouge. South Alabama’s defense forced four turnovers, two of them on punts, and added a safety. The Jaguars went ahead 19-0 before Troy found the end zone midway through the fourth quarter and converted a two-point try.

2024: South Alabama 25, Troy 9

After six straight losses in the series, the Jaguars broke through in Mobile in a matchup of rookie head coaches, Major Applewhite for South Alabama and Gerad Parker for Troy. The defense limited the Trojans to 172 total yards and picked off three passes. Gio Lopez threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score, Laith Marjan made three field goals, and a safety on an errant Troy snap accounted for the remaining points. South Alabama led 19-0 and kept Troy out of the end zone until 2:35 remained. It was the Jaguars’ first win over Troy since 2017 and their first at home in the series since 2014.

Troy’s Narrowest Escapes

Several of Troy’s 10 wins were decided in the final moments, a reminder that the series has often been closer than the overall record suggests.

2013 (Troy 34, South Alabama 33): The series’ one-point thriller in Troy swung twice in the final minute. South Alabama surged ahead with 48 seconds remaining when Ross Metheny hit Jeremé Jones on a 65-yard touchdown and then completed a two-point pass to Tyrell Pearson. Troy needed only five plays to cover 66 yards, and Corey Robinson’s 20-yard scoring throw to Eric Thomas, followed by Will Scott’s extra point, put the Trojans in front with seven seconds left. A 50-yard completion from Brandon Bridge to Sharvarez Smith reached the Troy 18, but Keion Payne made the tackle as time ran out.

2016 (Troy 28, South Alabama 21): Troy erased a second-half deficit with 14 straight points in Mobile, taking its first lead on Jordan Chunn’s 1-yard run with 1:20 to play. Brandon Silvers, a native of the Mobile area, threw for 395 yards, while Chunn piled up 143 rushing yards and scored twice. The Jaguars drove to the Troy 27 on the last snap but could not get closer.

2022 (Troy 10, South Alabama 6): The lowest-scoring game in the rivalry featured one touchdown, a 5-yard run by DK Billingsley in the second quarter. Diego Guajardo kicked two field goals to bring South Alabama within a point, and Brooks Buce answered with a 51-yarder in the fourth. Troy went just 1-for-12 on third down but held the Jaguars to 31 rushing yards with running back La’Damian Webb limited by injury. Troy got 150 rushing yards on 36 carries from the tandem of Billingsley and Kimani Vidal.

2025 (Troy 31, South Alabama 24 in overtime): The only overtime game in the series came in Troy. The Jaguars tied the game with a score at the 1:54 mark of regulation, but Tae Meadows opened the extra period with a 3-yard touchdown run. South Alabama moved inside the 5 on its possession, only to see Bishop Davenport’s fourth-down throw fall incomplete. Backup quarterback Tucker Kilcrease, starting in place of the injured Goose Crowder, accounted for three Troy touchdowns, two through the air and one on the ground.

When the Trojans Pulled Away

Troy’s other six victories were more comfortable, often decided by a strong running game, a big passing day or a swarming defense.

• 2012 (Troy 31, South Alabama 10): Troy limited the Jaguars to 59 rushing yards in Mobile despite committing three turnovers. Troy quarterback Corey Robinson threw for 223 yards and also scored on the ground. Trey Fetner’s 7-yard run cut the gap to 10-7 after one quarter before Troy scored twice in the second.
• 2018 (Troy 38, South Alabama 17): Sawyer Smith threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth score at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. B.J. Smith rushed for 170 yards and Damion Willis caught five balls for 132 yards and two touchdowns. South Alabama’s Evan Orth passed for 275 yards and two scores but was intercepted three times.
• 2019 (Troy 37, South Alabama 13): Troy rushed for 220 yards in Troy, and Kaylon Geiger caught both of Kaleb Barker’s touchdown passes. Will Sunderland returned an interception 29 yards for a score early in the fourth quarter. The Jaguars averaged 2.8 yards per carry and lost three turnovers.
• 2020 (Troy 29, South Alabama 0): Delayed from October to December because of a COVID-19 outbreak within the South Alabama team, the game at Hancock Whitney Stadium produced the series’ lone shutout. Gunnar Watson threw all three of his touchdown passes in the second quarter and finished with 297 yards as Troy led 27-0 at halftime. South Alabama totaled 239 yards, only 57 of them rushing, while the Troy defense registered five sacks among its eight tackles for loss.
• 2021 (Troy 31, South Alabama 24): South Alabama lost quarterback Jake Bentley to two torn knee ligaments during its opening drive. Troy built a 31-10 halftime lead with three rushing touchdowns and an interception return for a score by KJ Robertson. Terrion Avery caught a pair of scoring throws from backup Desmond Trotter, and Diego Guajardo added a fourth-quarter field goal, but South Alabama came up empty on fourth down during its last possession.
• 2023 (Troy 28, South Alabama 10): With Carter Bradley out with a knee injury, freshman Gio Lopez made his first career start. La’Damian Webb’s 6-yard run gave South Alabama an early 7-0 lead, but Gunnar Watson connected with Chris Lewis on touchdowns of 47, 26 and 29 yards. After a Jaguars field goal made it 14-10 with 11:47 remaining, Troy answered with a 16-play drive capped by Kimani Vidal’s 1-yard fourth-and-goal touchdown with 3:12 left. Vidal finished with 125 rushing yards, and Troy held South Alabama to 254 total yards.

A Rivalry Shaped by Coaching Turnover

On the Troy side, Larry Blakeney coached the Trojans in the first three meetings, with 2014 serving as the last season of his hall-of-fame career. Neal Brown took over in 2015 and coached through 2018 before departing for West Virginia. Chip Lindsey followed in 2019 and beat South Alabama three straight times, but he was fired after a 5-7 finish in 2021. Jon Sumrall led Troy in 2022 and 2023, winning back-to-back Sun Belt titles before leaving for Tulane. Gerad Parker’s first year came in 2024.

South Alabama’s sideline has turned over just as often. Joey Jones guided the Jaguars through their first six seasons in the series and was not retained after 2017. Steve Campbell arrived in 2018 and was dismissed the day after the 2020 shutout loss. Kane Wommack coached from 2021 through 2023 before becoming defensive coordinator at Alabama, and Major Applewhite’s first season in 2024 produced a win over Troy.

Postseason Stakes Then and Now

The results of this game have frequently echoed through the rest of each team’s season. Troy put together several standout seasons during this stretch, including an 11-2 Sun Belt championship campaign in 2017 that continued unbeaten after its loss to the Jaguars and ended with a 50-30 New Orleans Bowl win over North Texas, two Dollar General Bowl victories in 2016 and 2018 with 10-3 records, a 12-2 season in 2022 that included a conference title win over Coastal Carolina and a victory against UTSA in the Cure Bowl, and an 11-3 run in 2023 that featured a Sun Belt title-game rout of Appalachian State before a Birmingham Bowl loss to Duke. In 2016, Troy’s bowl win over Ohio, 28-23, even came at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.

South Alabama’s postseason history is shorter but has grown in recent years. After the 2014 Camellia Bowl, the Jaguars fell to Air Force by a 45-21 score at the 2016 Arizona Bowl, went a program-best 10-3 in 2022 with a New Orleans Bowl loss to Western Kentucky, won their first bowl game in 2023, beating Eastern Michigan at the 68 Ventures Bowl for a 7-6 finish, and closed 2024 at 7-6 with a 30-23 win in the Salute to Veterans Bowl.

Last season showed how quickly fortunes can split. Troy went on to capture the Sun Belt West Division and finished 8-6 after defeats against James Madison for the league crown and against Jacksonville State in a bowl game. South Alabama slid to 4-8, the program’s first sub-.500 record since 2021.

What Saturday Means

This year’s meeting carries a rare symmetry: identical overall records, identical conference records and identical paths to bowl eligibility. The winner will be one victory from reaching six wins with two games to play, while the loser will have to win out to extend its season. South Alabama hopes to extend the home-field trend, while Troy aims to widen its series lead.

The teams will kick off at 6 p.m. on the University of South Alabama campus.